Well-Prepared For a Career In ...

It seems like so many people choose an educational path today with a very specific goal in mind. I am thankful that I received a great education despite never having had that kind of focus. When I chose a college, I wasn't even sure I wanted to be an engineer. And when I chose an engineering major, I almost went with applied mathematics because I thought it would give me an opportunity to dabble in each of the engineering majors.

Well, I ended up a mechanical engineer, but that wasn't the end of my indecision. After being talked out of graduate school (by a very wise Dean), I spent most of the on-Grounds interview process my fourth year interviewing with financial, business, and management consulting firms. Somewhere around February, I woke up and realized that I didn't want to be a consultant at all and that I wanted to use the things I had learned in my machine design training. By stroke of luck, someone was still hiring, and I went to work designing one-of-a-kind robots for the nuclear industry. Ironically, several years later, I am now a consultant. The work that I do is still related to engineering and I really get to connect with my customers because of my machine design background.

I've only had a couple of jobs since graduation, but the value of the education I received is already clear. If I went to school for four years not realizing exactly "what I want to be when I grow up" and still managed to find a job that I enjoy going to every day, it must have been some education. It was.

Was it U.Va.? Was it the engineering field? Was it the special faculty that motivated me and challenged me? Was it the unique group of friends I developed? Was it the Rodman Program or Engineering Student Council? I don't know that I could deconstruct my experience if I tried - but I'm not sure that I need to. What I took away from my four years in Charlottesville was greater than the sum of its parts. Without the unique combination of actors, stage, and story, the entire scene would have impacted me differently.

Reflecting on all of this, one thing is evident to me. My Virginia Engineering education has prepared me for everything I've wanted to do so far, and I expect that it will continue to serve me well for years to come. Despite never figuring out exactly what I wanted to prepare for, four years in the Engineering School prepared me for it anyway.

- JONATHAN SCOTT, ME '97