Engineering to Sales?

I graduated from Engineering course but I’m now in the sales line.

When people hear this, about half would tilt their head and ask why sales? A minority would laugh and agree to say that, “Yeah, most people don’t really work in the area they study in.” The rest would probably widen their eyes and shocked to learn about this. Among this group of people, some will ask, “Don’t you find it a pity to waste your engineering degree, be it time or money spent?”

Well, I don’t disagree that indeed, I didn’t put my degree course fees to its best use. Was the 4 years spent a real waste of my youth? Not really.

In my final year as an undergraduate, it did cross my mind that if I didn’t pursue an engineering related job, I’m wasting my parents’ money and my 4 years in Uni. Then, a consultant at the university’s career centre taught me to see things from the other side of the coin. I started to see beyond the technical and academic knowledge that engineering course offers me. I was no longer calculating just the hours spent trying to get the formulas work for the problem sums.

These were what I learnt or gained from being an engineering student:
- As much as I hated having to bid for our modules at the beginning (probably the most hated activity being an undergraduate), through doing this, I had to learn to set my own schedule. I learnt to strategise ahead of time so that I can still graduate within 4 years even if I spent a semester overseas for exchange (which meant a lot more fun than studies). This skill of setting our own schedule is essential when we step into the workforce.
- Thanks to the smaller population of people in my course who applied for overseas exchange, I got the opportunity to travel to Europe for a semester. This trip has widened my perspectives so much more than I had imagined. It has also brought me unforgettable memories that I would reminisce till this day. It’s probably the best highlight in my life till date.
- I wasn’t a very proactive student and probably had too high a comfort zone to actually participate in more activities in uni. After stepping into the workforce, I realised maybe if I had done that, I could be more confident and outspoken. But we’ll never know what would really happen otherwise.
- When I thought I was one of the top students in my cohort for the past schools I attended, it’s always important to stay humble. Being put into a bigger fish tank where I became just an average student, I learnt how big the world really is.

That’s all I can think of for now. 😊

I learnt that oftentimes we tend to see things only on the surface and constantly compare with its face value or worse, monetary value. Sometimes we need to learn to look beyond all these and ask ourselves, “What can I learn from this experience?”

Just my 2 cents.
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