Have a twenty-minute conversation with someone who does technical work for a living, in industry or at a research institution. Not a student, not an instructor. Someone doing the job.
The point is to find out what the work is actually like from a person who does it, before you spend years getting there. This is not a job interview. You are gathering information. Finding the person is part of the assignment.
Who counts:
- Any working engineer, in any discipline, anywhere in the world. There is no reason this person has to be in Oregon, or in the United States
- Engineering-adjacent technical work counts too: a technician, machinist, surveyor, architect, software developer, construction manager, lab manager, industrial designer
Where to find one, roughly in order of how well it works:
- People already in your life. A parent, a neighbor, a former boss, a friend’s parent, someone from your old job. Ask around before you do anything else
- Professional and technical societies. Their outreach people are used to hearing from students. ASCE Portland Younger Member Forum runs student outreach year-round, including over Zoom. IEEE Oregon Section, ASME, AIChE, and the Society of Women Engineers all have Portland-area chapters with outreach or student contacts listed on their websites. Find the outreach chair, email them, say you’re an ENGR-111 student who needs twenty minutes
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Cold messages on LinkedIn. Strangers, not people you know. Search a company and a job title, then send something short and specific:
Hi ____, I’m a first-year engineering student at Clackamas Community College. I’m trying to work out whether civil engineering is the right path for me, and I’d rather ask someone doing the job than read another article about it. Could I ask you five questions, twenty minutes, whenever suits you? Happy to work around your schedule.
Send ten of these. You need one yes
What to submit
- Who you talked to, their job title, their employer, how you found them, and their contact information (an email, phone number, or LinkedIn profile is fine)
- At least five questions you asked, with their answers written underneath. Bullet points are fine
- Three or four sentences at the end: what did you learn? What surprised you? Did this make the field more or less appealing?
Use questions from the list below if you like, but write at least two of your own.
Send a thank-you note afterward. Email is fine. You may need this person again.
Start now. People take a week or two to reply, and the conversation has to happen before the due date.
Type it into the Moodle submission box.
Grading. No conversation, no credit. Otherwise, grading and the AI policy are in the syllabus.
Questions you could ask
About the work:
- Take me through an average day
- What is the most challenging part of the job? The most rewarding?
- How much of your day is technical work, and how much is meetings, writing, and talking to people?
- Do you take work home to keep up?
- What keeps this interesting after the first few years?
- Is the schedule fixed or flexible?
About getting in:
- What education and training does this work actually need?
- What kind of internship or work experience do employers look for?
- What would an entry-level position look like, and what are the minimum qualifications?
- Why do you think they hired you over the other candidates?
- What can I do while I’m in school to be the top candidate later?
- Is there anything you wish someone had told you when you started?
About the field:
- Is the field growing? Where are the jobs, geographically, and would I have to move?
- Do you have to keep taking courses or certifications to stay current?
- What personal characteristics matter most for success in this work?
- What is your exact title, and what other titles do people with your job have?
- Is there anyone else you’d suggest I talk to?