How I Made My End Goal, My Reality — Working As an Engineer for a Bay Area Tech Startup
Tags: Autonomous Vehicles, Career Advice, Engineering, Internships, Students

I became a great engineer before graduating.

I joined a local makerspace and got experience designing and machining personal projects!

I started with zero experience and became familiar with metal shop tools, wood shop tools, laser engraving, 3D printing, and design software all by working on personal projects!

I joined my university’s Formula SAE team, which exposed me to realistic engineering experiences; the nuances of working with a team of individuals that all have an opinion, problem solving with that team, coordinating several projects and responsibilities, following a budget and meeting deadlines. Attending Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) competitions allowed me to network with large tech companies, when they were actively recruiting!

I got a part time job as an assembly technician that gave me insight into what makes a good design for assembly.

I prioritized school but didn’t prioritize grades. I knew I needed at least a 3.0 GPA to make the cut to apply for competitive internships. As long as the GPA averaged out, grades were meaningless to me (I say this now, as if I haven’t had to hold back tears in class, on multiple occasions, after receiving a poor exam grade ).

I owned my weaknesses and went to my college’s tutoring center. I went as many times as was allowed; and when I hit my limit, I paid for additional tutoring outside of the tutoring my school offered.

Developing these skills opened the doors for me to complete my first internship, working as an Jr. Production Engineer for the same company I had started as an assembly technician for — a small hardware startup called ConnectDER. I ended up working with ConnectDER for four years, while I attended school part time, by the end of my time at ConnectDER I had been promoted to Production Manager! This gave me incredible experience working on a product I felt passionately about from the ground up, and managing a cross functional team of engineers.

My skills from Formula SAE and ConnectDER landed me an internship at Tesla! I worked my butt off and completed back to back internships at Tesla on their Model 3 Quality team! I made my time at Tesla count, and was able to help 4 other students from my University get internships on the same team, and helped 1 friend to land a full time job! The networking I was able to do during my internships enabled me to work in the Autonomous Vehicle industry.

Before I graduated from Temple, I had top managers at leading tech companies fighting over me, giving me competing offers and trying to outbid each other to get me to join their team! A few good internships, and proving that you’re a competent engineer doesn’t guarantee you a high paying role though — so what does?

Let’s discuss why some of the smartest engineers I know don’t get paid more than me.

Some of the smartest people I know never graduated college, and that severely limited their incoming-earning potential. You can be smart and not get paid well. I knew I would need to graduate with an engineering degree to be able to negotiate for a high salary.

An engineering degree, and being a competent engineer is not enough to guarantee a high salary though. It is my firm belief that a great engineer is more than just their technical skills. To complete difficult projects on your own is tough, so a good engineer develops social skills to have other people help them with their tasks AND to be the kind of engineer someone else would WANT to work with.

Everyone has heard of the engineer who’s so nerdy and anti-social that they can’t carry a conversation with a non-nerd. The stereotype exists for a reason. So, I need to be able to not only be a competent engineer, with an engineering degree, but I also need to be able to master communication.

Mastering communication is important for two reasons, first I need to be able to convey my engineering work clearly to non-engineers and engineers alike — this is important for getting a job but also necessary for keeping almost any job! Second, I need to not only be able to hold a conversation, but need to develop and use social skills to my advantage to open opportunities for myself and be able to skillfully negotiate when these opportunities appear.

People will remember the way you make them feel, you can and should use this to your benefit. I was influenced significantly by the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. This book changed the way I viewed social interactions and made me realize my power to influence an interaction that benefited me and left the other person feeling good.

It’s easier than it sounds, and more impactful than you’d think. This changed everything for me. I naturally have an outgoing personality, and in engineering disciplines especially, this can be a valuable social skill to have.

Let’s Summarize: How to get paid a lot of money

Become a great Engineer before you earn a degree Become a great Engineer with an engineering degree Master communication

I started with my end goal in mind and continued working backwards, creating goals and sub-goals. I broke every task into an accomplish-able item on my daily To Do List. I believe you become what you constantly think about. A daily To Do List helped me think about my goals no matter how long it took to achieve them. It helped me stay motivated and focused in the face of what felt like constant struggle. The journey wasn’t easy. Life can be chaotic, and unfair, but I put in enough time and work to turn the tides in my favor. I know anyone reading this can too, but hopefully I can save you some time.

What can YOU do right now?

Step 1: Make a plan. Start with your end goal.

Step 2: Break your goals into actionable tasks.

Step 3: Never give up!

I recommend writing SMART goals to help break large goals up into easier to complete tasks. You can read more about SMART goals here.

Here are some easy action items to get started!

If you’re in college, make a study group

Create a portfolio of your projects to use during interviews

Learn a new skill (try python!)

Join a school team or club that’s solving real engineering problems

Ask someone to review your resume (if you made it this far into the article you can ask me!)

Schedule a mock interview over Zoom with a peer

Make a daily TO DO list

Practice self love, by setting your future self up to succeed!

Check out my post here to see online resources that helped me in my career!

Be proactive. Be intentional. At least take a shot at your dream life!

Comment below with any thoughts or questions you have about making your dreams reality! We’re all taking different paths in life, there’s no right or wrong but you might as well aim high.

Catch you on the flip,

J.