That's me in the purple! ...Kidding, I'm in the middle!
I get quite a lot of strange looks and questions from colleagues when they find out my academic background - mechanical engineering. Heck, I got even stranger looks and questions from recruiters at NYU. But that has always intrigued me, and with my growing network of people in marketing, I thought I'd finally address it.
“What’s important to you when picking a college or university?”
On the whiteboard was a list containing: prestige, financial aid, diversity, location, etc.
That was all fine and dandy, but I was never asked what I wanted to do after college. Picking a major happens in college; your major usually defines the field of work that you tend to go into; and where you work usually coincides with where you live. So with all of those points connected in one way or another, how come no one asked:
“What’s important to you when thinking about your future?”
Yeah, I'd like to make a lot of money growing up, and that's probably what I said to my counselor. However, money became less of a concern as I went through university. Mechanical engineering rewrote the definition of misery for me - and I guess it rewrote my priorities too. I became less driven by money and more driven by whatever made me happy.
But I wasn't going to find what made me happy in engineering. There are a few things that wouldn't have sat well with me if I stayed in it:
- Most of the interesting job offers I received were located in the most uninteresting locations.
- It was difficult to even find a mechanical engineering position in a city, let alone an interesting one.
- I felt that the majority of the engineering job culture would have hindered my growth as a person in the non-professional aspects.
I wanted everything engineering never gave me, and everything that it did...minus the headaches and hypertension, of course (referring to the photo below). I wanted to wake up excited for the day; I wanted to be surrounded by people who knew how to have fun; I wanted to work in an thriving location. But I still wanted the challenges and brain churning thought process that I adored in my classes.
RIP Drone
One fateful summer day, I got an interview with a company that I - embarrassingly enough - didn't even know what I was interviewing for. This was my (accidental) introduction to the world of data analytics and the startup-like work culture that came with it. The wonderful mix between mathematics and programming was already very enticing, but it was really the environment in its entirety that sealed the deal for me: I never woke up upset about it being a weekday, and I was always so excited to see my coworkers. The stark contrast to my everyday engineering student life was something I welcomed with open arms and had difficulty letting go. By the end of that internship, I left with a bunch of cherished connections and renewed hope for my professional future.
In fact, one year later, I got this lovely email in my inbox from my then director:
Three interviews later and that's how I ended up in this industry.
Engineering wasn't my calling. Don't get me wrong though, the work itself is amazing, but the location and culture wasn't going to push me to grow as a person. Some people don't agree with my decisions and some people disrespect them, but this was the best decision I could have made for myself. I haven't looked back ever since - in fact, I even put my NYU Computer Science Master's program on hold, indefinitely, for this.
