Advice for Future Thought-Wired Interns
By: James Pau
Tags: Internships, Hiring, Brain Computer Interface, Advice, Engineering

Recently, Thought-Wired has been making ripples at events like UX Homegrown, Hardware Meetup AKL and Hello Tomorrow. As a result, it’s becoming quite common for people to approach me for student internship roles. These are more often Mechatronics students, similar to myself, but there is also a smattering of software, electrical & electronics, and mechanical engineering students, and computer science students who all register their interest.

I am always thrilled when a request for an internship lands in my inbox, especially when it’s accompanied by an enthusiastic and thoughtful introduction to the applicant, a description of themself as an individual and an explanation of why they want to contribute to our cause. I am much less enthused when I get something along the lines of “I’m looking for an internship, here’s my CV. Please hire me”. At least make it look like you put some effort into it.

The master of unimpressed facial expressions

For a student, I think that CVs are less important anyway, because you’re likely to have little to no experience in a relevant field and have only learned basic engineering skills. Many of the courses you’ve completed won’t be related to the industry, the tools that you’ve used are out-dated, and you’d probably be quite good at sitting exams — useful because industry is known for the many exams that are thrown at you.

When reading someone’s job application I really want to know more about what makes this person unique. What are their passions? Why did they choose their field of study, and in the case of engineering, what are their aspirations for after they’ve acquired a skillset that predominantly allows them to solve problems? What do they do outside of their studies? Why are they interested in Thought-Wired, and what do they look for in a company? Providing insight, sincerity and personality in answering these questions not only provides me with a glimpse of the person as a whole, but also allows me to gauge whether they’d be a good fit at our company. We’re a small team, so we are after people who will nicely click with our clique and have the drive and passion to keep moving in the same direction. We want eager, empathetic and motivated people — the problems we’re trying to solve are many and difficult, so we prefer people who can think, and not just get good grades.

A bad example of good thinking

I think some of the systems in place to train engineers have flaws, and it has taken a lot of self-control to not turn this post into a rant. I can’t speak for all industries and roles, but I’ve compiled a list of some skills/knowledge that students may want to pick up alongside their current courses, which might help them impress other companies and make themselves more employable. This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but things like:

An understanding of Agile methods. Businesses are increasingly implementing some variation of an Agile approach, and it’s not only limited to software development processes.

How to use source control (specific to software development). Knowing about centralised vs distributed source control approaches, how to use git, and strategies for branching to ensure sustainable code development is essential in any project where code is being worked on by multiple people.

Signal processing and machine learning (specific to engineers). This is the removal of noise from signals received from some type of sensor, whether it’s a load cell, pressure plate, gyro or microphone. Identifying noise profiles and figuring out ways of getting rid of the noise is a good skill to have, particularly as a mechatronics engineer as it is mostly likely you’ll be working with some sort of sensor in the future.

User experience and design thinking (as people building products). I find it really interesting that engineers contribute or are a part of many of the processes around building products, yet don’t get much training around how to design with other people in mind. These could be end users, manufacturers, technicians, support staff and other people involved with the product.

How to search for, read, understand and interpret academic journal articles and patents (as innovators). These are often written in a form of English that is difficult (and frustrating) to understand, but being able to interpret it is crucial to understand what’s out there.

There are enough online materials to start learning about all these things at little to no cost. You should be able to find information and learn from many different sources — and this will be part of your role with us. A lot of what we do either hasn’t been done before or has been done by a limited number of people. Most of our work involves elements of discovery, experimentation, and failure. Students who can do and handle these things will fit in nicely with us. The kind of person that will do well at Thought-Wired:

Good at designing experiments and testing things (quickly)

Fast learner

Good at research

Can reason and deduce

Independent

Persistent, driven, and motivated

Enjoys communal lunches

Have interests outside of work/study so we can talk about other things besides work!

If you think you fit the bill, you’re most welcome to apply for a role with us by emailing work@thought-wired.com.