I became an engineer because I love building things, the process of birthing an idea from the abstract into the physical world.
Early on I played with all types of building block toys (K’NEX, Magnetix, LEGOs), had a fascination with motorcycles, and fixing things. By middle school I was building a home theater system in my bedroom from discarded parts and cords in the family junk drawer. I didn’t have a manual or how to guide for electronics to study. What I did have was curiosity and the boldness to try matching up color to color, push a button here or there and problem solve my way to an entertainment center of my own. That was occasionally commandeered by my father to watch his favorite shows. Then there was the time I sent off one of my first inventions, a toothbrush to go in between your braces. I really thought I was going to be rich. Staying up late night to catch one of those inventor tech commercials and then mailing my sketches and descriptions to cash in on the idea. That fat check for the “Brace Brush” never came. But I was hooked, and began charting a course to make a living as an inventor.
Selecting a course of study for college was a straightforward task. There was no such thing as a degree in inventing so I selected a course of study that would give me the best tools to build all the ideas I had bouncing around in my head. I enjoyed other things, writing and the arts, but I always leveraged them to bring about the things I wanted to build. All the course plans I studied for mechanical engineers had the skills I thought would serve me well in my desire to invent and build things.
Mechanical engineering was a great catch all for inventing. It touched on everything, and gave me a wide range of work opportunities to choose from in industry or academia. As I tested out internships, it was clear to me that working in industry as a mechanical engineer would allow me to generate the income to explore my first love, inventing and building ideas of my own.
Engineering school was difficult. As in any worthwhile venture, pushing through difficult points is the down payment to pursue a passion. Among my peers, you won’t find one spared the classic moment where they question whether its’ all worth it, if they are doing what they are supposed to be, If they made the right choice. Holding on to my passion for building is what got me through the college years. In each class I’d find a reason to sketch, I’d connect the new concept back to a product idea I had. My concept journal was never far from me and was growing year by year. Focusing on getting the skills to execute the build process for myself from beginning to end led me to the next phase after college. Practicing and honing those skills in an environment where I could gain practical experience.
Over the early years of my career, I got on job experience in each step of project delivery. Front end development, detailed engineering, construction, handover and project decommissioning. I picked up skills in contract management and negotiation with the support of talented colleagues and pulled every piece of information I could get from them on why they made the choices they did and understanding the trade-offs in each decision along the way. Opportunities to scratch my design and build itch were everywhere. Finally, I felt ready to take on my very own projects and launched Kalimono.
I became an engineer because no matter what I do I feel compelled by the creative process – Idea generation, sketching to communicate, selecting methods to calculate the how, and the pressure to deliver something that lives up to the vision . No matter how many times I do it, it never gets old, and somehow I love it more each time.