My Career Plans In Engineering Science

Sitting in the waiting room outside a career counsellor’s office, almost 5 years ago, I remember feeling over whelmed with the choices that I had in front of me. Until the end of secondary education, life was pretty simple. There were a specific set of subjects that I had to invest solely in and excel in the, but when I had to choose the undergrad program and university that I was pursuing I was in a way defining what my future would be like. When I walked in the counsellor’s office, he asked me to close my eyes and see what I imaging my life would be 5 years from now. I remember saying that I wanted to be a part of next leap of change in technology something like artificial intelligence or quantum computing. A few months later I embarked on a journey that was so amazing that four years flew by in a moment. I was lucky enough to get into one of the most elite universities of my country. It is a dream of every engineering enthusiast in Pakistan to be a part of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute and its competitive degree programs. I graduated with a CGPA of 3. 36 ranking me the second position in my class.

Engineering Science was a very comprehensive undergrad program which concentrates on interconnected streams of studies. While we studied courses in the computer science domain like computer simulation methods, programming, intensive programing, data structures and algorithms, logic design, computer architecture, operating systems, we also covered a lot of course in the mathematical domain such as modeling processes, calculus I and II, engineering statistics, linear algebra I and II, optimization modeling, heat transfer and modeling. Furthermore we also studied a large number of courses in the engineering management and electronics domain. After graduating I had a very wide open field in terms of career options because of the domain of courses that I had studied. But there was this 4 years younger version of me stuck in my head, with his goal of being a part of the upcoming technological revolution. With that aim in mind I applied for a job as an analyst software engineer at Afiniti. Afiniti is one of the biggest AI companies in Pakistan with clients all around the world, it is very different than the usual workplace because of its flat hierarchical structure. The entire company works like well-oiled machine with many different teams working in coordination to deploy and keep the AI structure running with its clients. Afiniti uses big data analytics to help its clients earn more revenue and increase their customer satisfaction. Such an organization requires a lot of processes which include data collection, data refinery, AI model deployment, telephony and routing integration and data analytics, my role as an incident manager kicks in post-production where I coordinate the teams and analyze data for the initial investigation of issue and solve it be it in any domain. I have always thought of this job as a my first step through a door into the domain of artificial intelligence. Being at this role for more than an year now and seeing everything happen before my eye I believe that now I am completely equipped to take the next step in that one goal that I set for my career half a decade ago. My next step is to apply for a post graduate program in the field of data science. This way I can have a complete grip and technical understanding of one of the most essential areas not only in the domain of artificial intelligence but also overall in the modern technological world.

After an year of experience I believe this is the perfect time to take the next step in my career. I have always been a person who has strived all his life with one aim in mind and that is continuous growth. Be it in the mainstream career of mine or the extracurricular activities of mine. I started roller skating as a hobby when I was seven, but it was this drive towards self-improvement that led me took me to glory making me a multi time national champion and also allowing me represent my country in a couple of world championship in this field. Even in the curricular activities, I was always looking to juice out more than a 100% of my undergraduate studies years. I always wanted to get a head start in everything that was coming my way, during my secondary education years I got the wonderful opportunity of being a teacher’s assistant, in the next summers I volunteered at STACK College as a support teacher, during my undergraduate studies I did a couple of internships at Merck Pharmaceuticals and Schlumberger respectively, each experience teaching me so much that it cannot be put into words.