Wayne Schaefer
Fun Facts (and other thoughts)
I was lucky to pretty much know the direction I was headed at a very early age.
The Next Generation
The term “Engineering” refers to a very large number of disciplines ranging anywhere from Computers to Chemical, from Automation Systems to Skyscrapers and Subatomic Structures to Spaceships. So, when someone asks me, “so how does a person go about getting a job in Engineering?”, I constantly struggle to come up with a reasonable answer. Asking what kind of Engineering he or she is interested in is generally not helpful since they typically have not been exposed to experiences to really comprehend how wide the field actually is. Of course, maybe the individual does not know what kind of Engineer they want to be, just that they find Technology, Design or Research to be cool and want to head down that road. Fair Enough. My dilemma has always been how to better answer this question. Recently I asked myself, “what common traits or skills makes a good Engineer, Technologist or Scientist?”
Maybe I should talk from some personal experiences to lend some credibility to my thoughts:
So, there I am back in Grade 6, (the year was 1976 by the way) and I found a book in our town Library on how to build a simple electric motor. I was 11 years old at the time. The motor was constructed from a wooden spool, 4 screws and a simple electro-magnet fashioned from a large nail and some wire. Very similar to the one I found pictured here from a Youtube Video. I spent hours and hours trying to keep the gadget running. This silly thing was my first Science Fair Project and it won me 1st prize at the time.
Ya, I know what you are thinking … 6th grade Science Fair Prize … so what? Ah, but that is when it all started … my fascination with … ah … how “stuff” works.
Consequently, I ran back later that year and found another book on how to build a transistor radio … I was now 12 years old. Took me months to find all the parts (no on-line ordering in those days) but, with a bit of help from my father (an Electrician by Trade), I was able to get it working. That would be my 7th Grade Science Fair win and my first trip to the Regional Fair in London, Ontario.
I went on to tinker with more ideas from more books … a 1 meter round solar hot dog cooker gave me more of a sun burn than heat my hot dogs. I spent nights looking at the stars through
my dad’s binoculars and my days making gun power with my chemistry set (which you could do that in those days). I’d spends hours listening to cosmic radio waves on our old short wave (tube) radio set and imagined that we were being contacted by aliens (nice ones, of course).
All in all, I was lucky. Not just to have parents who allowed me to explore and tinker and generally make a mess of the garage, but I also had accidentally discovered the traits that I needed to succeed later in life.
This brings me back an answer to the question “so how does a person go about getting a job in Engineering?”
Ask yourself this. Do you have Insatiable Curiosity, Perseverance, Dedication linked to Dreams, Imagination and the desire to Embrace the Unknown? To be clear, not everyone understands this about themselves … but I firmly believe that everyone has those traits inside him or her just waiting for the right moment to surface. These traits put men on the moon, found cures to some of the deadliest of diseases and allows us now to communicate almost instantly with anyone we want from any corner of the world and beyond.