As an eager 20 year old I began my 3rd year at the UW. I moved into a house filled with 7 of my closest friends, I fully began to tread down the chemical engineering path, I convinced myself that I needed to start my career as an engineer.
The last of these is an entirely innocent logical desire, right? In retrospect, as I am flying to California with the first day of my internship on Wednesday, I think I may have took myself too seriously. It wasn’t that way immediately however, some of my closest friends were more on top of it than I, as I truly didn’t start my search until the end of Autumn quarter. Upon starting my hunt for an internship, I religiously attended career fairs and devoted Saturday mornings to applying to positions online. Totally normal things to do – however I let the mindset and desire take over, to the point that it was difficult to relax while I was still “in limbo”, unsure of where I would be in the summer. All that I wanted was to validify my ability, the actual credibility of the degree I am working towards, my choice to become an engineer, and myself. With the more jobs I applied too and the null responses I received I found a pit forming that could only be filled with the self-verification that would come with accepting an offer.
This was extremely unhealthy, and I regret letting myself fall into the habit and mindset. I think it did hurt some friendships, which is where I could truly see it manifest. Something that I never, ever, intended or even saw as a possibility.
Looking back over every action took, every email sent, every LinkedIn invite – the best thing I did to actually reach my goal was focus on my work on campus and the face to face connections I built every day.
After working in the Collaboration Core Offices for around 11 months, I applied to a Research Assistant position at the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds and was hired in October of 2018.
It was through the testbeds that I was connected to Tandem PV (the company I will be working with over the next three months), my boss introducing me to the CEO. Working at the Testbeds has truly been a pleasure. The projects have been thought provoking, relevant, and useful to the testbeds while the people are incredibly supportive. By fully engaging in my work and the community at the Testbeds I was unknowingly doing more than any new LinkedIn connection could. I guess I’ve found that the people that know you, that know your work ethic, and know your ability that will help you get to the places you want to be.
Aside from the excess of mental energy expended in working towards the start of a career, the past year has been a period of immense personal growth, but I’m having trouble figuring out exactly how to illustrate how. What I detailed above was in large part the most trying and formative experience of my junior year, but in truth was mostly over by the start of spring quarter, when I had accepted my offer at Tandem PV. From Spring quarter on was the most enjoyable 3 months of my life to date. I fell into stride with interesting and challenging classes, competing with the climbing team was incredibly enjoyable, and my group of friends only grew closer.
At the end of spring quarter I began to rethink my initial conviction, that my career had to start that moment. Does it? There is still much I want to do and see before settling into a routine which may limit the freedom I have to travel or gain exposure to vastly different fields. While I don’t know if I have definitive answers for myself, there may be some compromise. Hopefully by this time next year, I’ll have a better sense of what I need to do to reach my goals without sacrificing short term peace of mind. We’ll see.
The last of these is an entirely innocent logical desire, right? In retrospect, as I am flying to California with the first day of my internship on Wednesday, I think I may have took myself too seriously. It wasn’t that way immediately however, some of my closest friends were more on top of it than I, as I truly didn’t start my search until the end of Autumn quarter. Upon starting my hunt for an internship, I religiously attended career fairs and devoted Saturday mornings to applying to positions online. Totally normal things to do – however I let the mindset and desire take over, to the point that it was difficult to relax while I was still “in limbo”, unsure of where I would be in the summer. All that I wanted was to validify my ability, the actual credibility of the degree I am working towards, my choice to become an engineer, and myself. With the more jobs I applied too and the null responses I received I found a pit forming that could only be filled with the self-verification that would come with accepting an offer.
This was extremely unhealthy, and I regret letting myself fall into the habit and mindset. I think it did hurt some friendships, which is where I could truly see it manifest. Something that I never, ever, intended or even saw as a possibility.
Looking back over every action took, every email sent, every LinkedIn invite – the best thing I did to actually reach my goal was focus on my work on campus and the face to face connections I built every day.
After working in the Collaboration Core Offices for around 11 months, I applied to a Research Assistant position at the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds and was hired in October of 2018.
It was through the testbeds that I was connected to Tandem PV (the company I will be working with over the next three months), my boss introducing me to the CEO. Working at the Testbeds has truly been a pleasure. The projects have been thought provoking, relevant, and useful to the testbeds while the people are incredibly supportive. By fully engaging in my work and the community at the Testbeds I was unknowingly doing more than any new LinkedIn connection could. I guess I’ve found that the people that know you, that know your work ethic, and know your ability that will help you get to the places you want to be.
Aside from the excess of mental energy expended in working towards the start of a career, the past year has been a period of immense personal growth, but I’m having trouble figuring out exactly how to illustrate how. What I detailed above was in large part the most trying and formative experience of my junior year, but in truth was mostly over by the start of spring quarter, when I had accepted my offer at Tandem PV. From Spring quarter on was the most enjoyable 3 months of my life to date. I fell into stride with interesting and challenging classes, competing with the climbing team was incredibly enjoyable, and my group of friends only grew closer.
At the end of spring quarter I began to rethink my initial conviction, that my career had to start that moment. Does it? There is still much I want to do and see before settling into a routine which may limit the freedom I have to travel or gain exposure to vastly different fields. While I don’t know if I have definitive answers for myself, there may be some compromise. Hopefully by this time next year, I’ll have a better sense of what I need to do to reach my goals without sacrificing short term peace of mind. We’ll see.