Life After School

When first looking at going to engineering school, four years seems like a long time. But before you know it you're a couple months away from graduation and you look back and wonder where the time went. Many of us are feeling the anticipation of getting done with school and "out into the real world", if we are not there already. I have spent my last 3 months as a full time employee at Cliffs Hibbing Taconite Company, while still in process of finishing my degree. I have two messages to share from my experience- one being how easy the transition was from school to work and two a little reflection of my work life in relation to my school experience.

When coming into my role as a reliability engineer I was scared that I was not going to know anything (even though I had been here the 6 months prior), and I would just look like the typical fresh graduate. I want to tell not only my fellow student colleagues, but also all of the external sight visitors that I am amazed, now being out of the everyday school life, to see that the program sets each of us up very well to be able to perform the problem solving and communication tasks of a real engineering job.

My other message is to take what you learn seriously, I know I didn't do the greatest job of it while I was there, but every experience is an opportunity to learn. And in the first few years on your new job you will be doing a lot of it. I remember saying rather frequently "when am I ever going to use this, and why do I need to know this" and I now realize that although the material may not have always been the most important, the process of learning was. As much as it is not enjoyable to reflect on what you learned and how you learned it, it is something that will be very beneficial down the road.

Another life at work lesson is value every encounter. Every person has the ability to teach you something, and you never know when you may need them someday. So learn to communicate with the technicians, the different types of engineers, the operators, etc... they are the ones that will determine your success as well as the hard work you put in everyday.

So in conclusion, keep at it and value every experience. Whether you are still in school or in industry there is always something to be learned.