Engineering Career – A Journey I'M About To Embark On
As a young boy, I have often been told that curiosity killed the cat, but although curiosity never got me killed, it sure did get me into quite a lot of trouble. I used to always fiddle with things, rare artifacts that my father used to bring home, and as one would expect, such fiddling usually ended with something broken; my usual excuse was I just wanted to see how it works.
This curiosity has developed and now manifests itself in my desire to read engineering. I had always considered engineering to be a science that studies the functioning of systems and to improve them by coming up with clever ideas, but it was not until I picked up Henry Petroski's books "Remaking the world" and "To engineer is human" that I realized that engineering covers a much wider range of abilities, that there is much more to engineering than just sitting in a dark room trying to come up with ingenious and clever ideas. I'd never thought about the human side to engineering; how correcting human failures is the most important lesson to be learnt; how too much confidence causes accidents but worry prevents them; how engineering doesn't exist "for its own sake but for society's sake". These findings did not scare me away from engineering; in fact, I was even more attracted to it.
Whilst reading through the books I also came across a very interesting phrase: "standing on the shoulders of giants". At first I didn't quite capture its full meaning, however when I read how our modern day internal combustion engine evolved from the primitive Greek steam engine, it finally clicked. The reason we are able to see this far today is due to all those achievements in the past and my aim in engineering is to see farther thus allowing tomorrow's engineers to see farthest.
Last summer I spent three weeks doing voluntary work on board a tanker that sailed along the west coast of Africa. It was an enlightening experience that had significant impact in my respect for all professions, as well as giving me an opportunity to observe the functioning and the maintenance duties involved with the ship's engine. This summer however, I topped up my organizational and leadership skills and headed a backpacking expedition of 16 people around Europe. Much teamwork was involved in finding accommodation and train tickets for such a large group on such short notice, but nevertheless the trip went as scheduled.
At first, I wished to take a gap year to gain some industrial experience in the field of study, nonetheless my nationality doesn't allow for me to work freely in many countries (e.g. the YINI scheme), thus I have decided to dedicate this year to academics. I shall be working as a support teacher at my school, helping a wide age range of pupils with their difficulties in Maths, Chemistry or Physics. The level will probably range from pre-IGCSE to AS, and the number of pupils will depend on the needs. It is also my intention, during the gap year, to do voluntary work on wildlife conservation schemes.
Regarding academics, I have completed all of my A levels and have enjoyed them greatly. Much of the work I did was outside the school's academic requirements. Such is the case of Further Mathematics, where many unlucky incidents occurred throughout its course, or my AEA Chemistry, where my school unfortunately lost my exam paper before it was sent.
Outside classroom I enjoy a variety of sports such as football, tennis, basketball, bowling, swimming, martial arts most of which I have carried up to a competing level (tennis, basketball, swimming) but never reached a professional level, although I still actively enjoy them as hobbies. Only last year, I also started playing the guitar with the help of a friend and have performed twice already in school concerts.
My readings around the history of engineering through Petroski's books have taught me much about the journey I'm about to embark on. Science has taught what is; now I'd like to use this knowledge to create what never was.
