What I like about Thanksgiving is there are no presents. No pressure to buy anyone anything, just a sumptuous meal with your family and friends. Lots of laughter, old stories and a moment to reflect on who and what we are thankful for. Now my immediate reaction is GRAVY! I am thankful for the person who decided pan drippings should be thickened and poured over everything on your plate.Oh yeah, I mean everything. -- Okay, I am a bit deeper than that.
Each year I give thanks for the health and well-being of my loving and sometimes crazy, family and friends. Yet there are people outside of our close knit networks that touch our lives and teach us lessons that stay with us forever. I asked a few of the writers of The Engineering Mind to share who they are thankful for.
Zach Klimczak:
Being an older, non-traditional student, made life… “interesting” in college; but if I look back on the way my career has transpired, I can definitely pin-point some notable people who have helped to shape the path I’m on, for which I’m ever grateful. First, a little history…
I graduated High School with a high GPA, but a total bent toward music. So I spent a year and a half in California, realized music wasn’t for me, and came back to Colorado, where I plugged myself into a tech job. As a (dare I say it?) joke I told one of my friends “I want to go work with the Engineering group for [name of company I worked for].” His response: “Well, you need a degree in Electrical Engineering.” My response: “Fine, well I’ll go get a degree in Electrical Engineering.” (I wasn’t serious at the time, but it just happened to pan out that way).
Two years later I’m knee deep in Calculus and Physics, my son is born, and I’d left my job months before to pursue Engineering. I’m gifted with a decent internship after my freshman-ish/sophomore-ish year at a company in Denver that will remain anonymous (Let’s just say it rhymed with “Going”). However, at the absolute last minute; I found an internship that was closer to home, would pay me well, and keep me on during the school year. Enter Civionics, where Andy Zimmerman helped me get my first internship in Embedded Systems. He already had one intern (his max at the time) but he was willing to take a chance on me anyway, and for that, I was extremely grateful.
Fast forward a year and I spot another internship I was NOT qualified for. Enter Maxim Integrated, where I would meet two of my favorite mentors of all-time: Marty Stoehr and John Kerley. The fact that I beat out at least 100 other candidates for that position without having ever taken a circuits class spoke volumes about the faith Marty had in my abilities to learn and grow. Likewise, John was a “no notebooks!” kind of guy who believed in learning things from a gut-intuition perspective – something I still strive for today (and so should you).
Fast forward to my Senior Year where I’m looking for the next “thing” I should be doing. Enter Cypress Semiconductor where Jesse Siman took a chance on a ‘late-to-enter’ senior (that’s me) who needed to find another challenge with his skills.
Last, but not least, fast forward to today where I work for Analog Devices. My boss Roger Huntley took a massive chance on bringing me to the East Coast knowing full well I was rooted in Colorado, but saw something in me (potential?) that I still have yet to identify to this day.
These individuals helped to shape the landscape of my career path, and all of them did it knowing I was NOT a traditional College student, knowing I was already at a disadvantage (in ways) compared to 22-year-old graduates, and knowing I had a family to care for and take care of… and not one of them ever made me feel bad for it.
So today, I say thank you – to the individuals in life who helped me gain the skills and knowledge I needed to bring me to this specific point. Today, I am grateful for you.
Lisa Allison:
I went to a high school that was trying to hold on to the past. Our gym had a wooden plank floor, you know like the ones you see in movies from the 50’s. This floor had a tendency to warp and because of this every other year the floor needed to be repaired and refinished. It was winter and gym class was being held in the auditorium which meant it was now a study period or in my case, a social hour. Our gym teacher Mrs. McGrath was holding court at the front of the auditorium regaling us with tales of her travels. She was one of my coolest teachers, Mrs. McGrath had a way of talking to you on her level and never condescended. She and her husband were avid travelers and she always encouraged us to see the world.
On this particular day Mrs. McGrath was telling us about the time she traveled to California for a physical education conference. On the return trip she and the health teacher (Ms. Poore) spied Billie Jean King at the airport, sitting a few rows over at another gate. The health teacher was a huge tennis fan and was star struck. Mrs. McGrath prompted her to go over and speak with Ms. King but Poore was terrified. She went on and on about how she could never approach King because she was a celebrity. McGrath was having none of that “I told her, she is just a regular person.” And with that Mrs. McGrath was walking toward Ms. King to chat. Mrs. McGrath said King was very pleasant and approachable and that Poore regretted not going over to say hello. She told us to never let someone’s position, wealth or standing intimidate us – they are just like you and me.
This story left a significant impression on me. This bit of advice is not just about celebrities it translates to the business world as well. We are often hung up on titles and hesitate to approach senior level management with a proposal. Some people sit quietly in meetings when you know, inside, they are bursting with ideas.
Thank you Mrs. McGrath for teaching me: If you never speak, you will never be heard. After all, they are just regular people.
Kristen Villemez:
Out of the blue one of my professors solicited for people to become a TA for some of his intro to engineering classes. I figured why not, my course load wasn’t terrible that semester.The intro class’s big semester project was very generic, almost like a senior design project: make a thing that takes input from its surroundings, and then based on that, affects those surroundings. Take an input, produce an output. It could be anything from a maze navigating robot to a class sign-in system.
Out of the class I mentored, I saw several students that were just like me. These were the students that breezed through high school without studying and still got straight A’s. They weren’t used to being confronted with something that they didn’t immediately understand. As the semester progressed, I could tell several students were struggling and procrastinating, but not a single soul asked for help no matter how many times I urged them to feel free to email me with a question even if it was to say “how do I measure voltage with a multimeter” during the fall break.
Then, a student from outside of my class approached me directly for help. She asked all the right questions. It was tough to help without just giving them the answer, but I could tell she was eager to learn. I’m not sure if she realizes it, but she showed me just how important it was to ask questions when you’re stumped. It’s a lesson I’m still struggling with. Sometimes I’m so stubborn and want to find the answer myself so badly that I’ll ram my head against a wall until some semblance of a solution comes to me. Many times the head rattled solution turns out to be about as far from the best solution as possible.
I am thankful for the student that taught me: The best thinkers and inventors aren’t the ones that know everything, it’s the ones that seek to learn as much as they can by asking questions of as many people as possible.
Is there someone that mentored or inspired you? Please tell us who you are thankful for and why, in the comments.
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