Job Skills - ERC Week 12

Think about all you have been learning on this job.  In preparation for our field trip to the Career Center, discuss what you have learned on the job and how you could sell your qualities and skills to a future employer.  What will you include on your resume about this position to sell yourself for a job after college.

Growing up with an engineer as a father, and an English professor for a mother, I received a very broad education. From an early age I always had a passion for math and science, doing math problems for fun, and researching different topics that interested me. It was obvious then that I wanted to be an engineer, to build something that changes the world. Although I was so mathematically inclined much of my struggle throughout my learning has been in English and the art of rhetoric and persuasion. Aristotle's formal argument model shows a triangle using ethos, pathos, and logos. Character, emotions, and logic. The idea of this whole rhetorical appeal to the senses really seemed to spark an interest in me. I started to think about how I communicate, the things that I say, and how they produced an effect in people.

While this all may seem irrelevant to the question at hand, it truly is relevant after all. It all ties into something that my dad told me fairly recently in regards to his job. My dad has been a Chemical Engineer for 35 years, working for the same company. Recently he said to me "You're developing the skills that set me apart from the crowd, the communication skills that most engineers seem to lack. Working in the business world as an engineer you could know everything, but none of it would hold value if you couldn't effectively communicate." This job is helping to provide those communication skills that I want and need in order to thrive in my future career. Effectively describing an invention in a way that allows others to correctly follow your logic and draw the same conclusions as you is essential.

Not only is it providing communication skills, but also time management, connections in the engineering world, and a broad perspective on what its like to be living in a world full of people who think differently than me. The skills that I am gaining from this job are more than I could have ever imagined before hand, and it truly excites me to know that they will help to assist me even more in my future career.