Just skip to the bottom, to the part in bold, if you do not feel like reading everything I have written.)Perhaps you can identify with the following statement: Throughout primary and high school, life revolved around the present moment - perhaps the greatest concern that lingered on your impressionable young mind was whether your mother or guardian had packed your favourite snack in your lunchbox or not. The distant future rarely came to mind; perhaps a fleeting glimpse of what it may be appeared when your grade-three teacher asked you what you "want to be when you grow up". A fireman? A doctor? A police officer? A soldier?
Whatever the case, looking back upon such juvenile fantasies, you may now appreciate that, in the reality of adulthood, life is less carefree and more transient. The future and the people around you matter, and the starry-eyed visions of being a fireman or doctor may have been replaced with more realistic goals. For example, I remember considering being a theoretical physicist in grade ten; that aspiration was dropped, after realizing that employment opportunity of that kind in South Africa, outside of a professorship perhaps, is borderline dismal.
I am currently a mechanical engineering student, first year, after switching from another degree. After much introspection, I decided this is what I want, and, after almost six months of it, I am satisfied. I wanted a degree that provided for me economically, but also allowed me to use my brain regularly.
However, I feel a mental pitfall many students fall into is focusing only on the short-term: how good your semester marks are, while the rest of the time is spent partying. As mentioned earlier, the future matters. Yes, one wants to be a mechanical engineer. That is great. Yet, has one given thought to what it will take, specifically, to become one? Where one wants to work? Under what conditions one wishes to work? One's ambitions - perhaps starting one's own engineering firm? Does one want to move to another country? Et cetera.
Good marks are vital, and a cum laude is an admirable and respectable achievement, yet marks alone do not lead to one easily and simply acquiring a job.
Hence, I wanted to ask some things.
Not all of you are mechanical engineers or engineering students. That is fine.
Rather, I want to ask you:
Do you have any advice for me, as a young engineering student who has ambitions? If you were a university student, what do you think you could have done differently that would have made you a better student or prospective employee? Or, what did you do correctly that helped you obtain the job you want, or accomplish the goals you wanted to accomplish?
I ask, because I understand there are risks. Especially in a politically and economically turbulent country as South Africa (which is why I am considering moving to New Zealand or England after graduation, if possible). Not everyone with a degree is going to make it. That is reality. So, I want to maximize my chances. I have dreamed, I have aspired, and now I want to accomplish. And, to do that, I would really appreciate any wisdom you ladies and gentleman have to share.
Thank you very much.
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I really appreciate it.
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