Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Apply your knowledge and gain practical experience


I met a young man "George" who had graduated many years ago from our polytechnic with a diploma in mechanical engineering. He had continued part time study and obtained a degree in the same field.

He has been working  in a Swiss company for many years. The company sells fasteners to manufacturing firms to be used in their products.

His job was to understand the requirements of the manufacturers and offer suitable products from his company to meet their needs. He was able to apply what he had learned in his diploma and degree course into his job, such as the physical characteristics of different types of materials and how they are affected by temperature and physical forces. He quoted a few examples of how his solutions were bought by the customers and gained their loyalty and support.

I remarked that he would be very valuable to the company. His job will be secure as the company would find it difficult to get another person to replace him. He agreed with my observation.

He is a rare example of a person who has developed strong technical skills by staying in the job that he had been trained for, and by gaining practical experience from the job. This is a sharp contrast from most other people who moved to a career that is entirely unrelated to their training and who moved from one job to another, without gaining the solid experience.

He told me that many diploma holders, with similar training, had joined his company but left after a year to become property and insurance agents, as they did not like the technical job. I recommend our school leavers to follow the footsteps of "George".







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