A useful site...

Here is a website that I found pretty useful from an older woman in engineering. A good read with some interesting tips:

If I were a boy: Being a woman in engineering

Nothing to do but wait...

So it's 4:48pm on a Sunday and I should be doing homework. The never-ending list is always growing and I'm nervous for the rest of the semester, but everything will work out. Good sign is that my boyfriend got a new truck. If something can work out for him, then everything else will fall into place. I think I'm finally over the "senioritis" and back into the daily grind of homework, and e-mails, and acting like I know what I'm doing. Life is good. Soon enough it will be September/October and I will be moving out and really starting off my career. I guess now I know why people write in journals. It helps you to understand your thoughts a bit more because you have to put them into words. Kinda neat how that happens actually.
Anyways, I'm not supposed to be talking about myself, but I figured a background thought process would be helpful. As I'm sitting here at the computer, I'm looking at one of my old chef uniforms remembering how much I liked working in the kitchen. Great job as in fast-paced and if you get into a good place you're not bored, but horrible hours. So, since family is important and I want my weekends, an office job sounds a bit more appropriate. I guess here are some tips on discovering what kind of engineering you want to do:

• Ask yourself, how do you feel about sitting at a desk all day typing on the computer or looking at papers?
• DEFINITELY try to get an internship in the engineering field. This will help you to determine what type of engineering you like (office work, test lab work, a good mix, etc.). Also, it will help you to decide if you want to even stay in engineering, so start early! 
• Ask people how they like their jobs. Not only what they do like about it, but what they don't like about it. 
• Take a personality test. Yes, sometimes this can be beside the point and not correct, but it will give you somewhat of a good idea the career paths you might find exciting. I would suggest the Myers-Briggs. 

Even though some of these points may seem like common sense, it is amazing how much you may not even think about it, and then end up doing something completely opposite of what you want to do. Just think about it. Maybe it might help if you are in your early stages. 

Thinking about the transition.

One thing you will never ever ever forget about in engineering school is the amount of homework that comes your way. However, this is a lot like just having projects at work only YOU DO THEM AT WORK! You check your e-mails at work, and talk to people at work, and create programs at work (Okay, some of us geeks might bring it home with us but that's beside the point). The point is, you do things at work, and then you come home, and do things at home. When your in school, there is no line between life and school. Your life IS school and there's nothing you can do about it. Here's a couple tips for making sure you have a life (and keep your good grades):

• If you commute, use your breaks at school for doing homework (commuting also saves money dorm-wise). You can complete all of your homework at school so that when you get home, you are free to run off wherever you want. 
• Have friends both at school and at home. And talk to them! 
• Be friends with all (or at least most) of your classmates. For the next four years they will be your family. You don't want to be stuck in a room of people you hate, which will eventually make you hate what you went to school for in the first place. 
• Again, if you commute, keep your books in your vehicle. This will allow you to do your homework wherever and whenever. So if you ever have a bored moment, do your homework. Then you'll have more free time. 
• Look over your class notes almost immediately after having the class. This reinforces the knowledge in your head so when you go to study for tests or people ask you questions, you'll have an easier time explaining what's going on. 

I think that's all I have for now, but as I'm thinking back on how I made it through college, I think it was pretty easy. Yes, I worked my butt off, but I wasn't stressed about it. I guess one more tip you could add to the list is to not get stressed. Being stressed just makes you irritable, which makes it harder for you to understand what's going on. In the famous words of Nike, "Just do it."

See you tomorrow. 

The starting story, finally.

Okay. So I've finally decided that I do have something to blog about. I decided that I am going to give a guide to the insides of being a woman engineer. However, since I have not graduated, I will start with how to deal with your senior year when... (at least in my case):

• You are the only girl,
• You have an INTP personality type, 
• You are the "Smart Ass"

Case and point. No guy wants to be shown up by a girl, let alone one that might be seen as smarter than them. But who's to say that I am smarter than anyone else? No one. Only me. So for now we'll start with the three bullets I've outlined above. May 15th is coming up quickly and there are just projects and more projects to be finished. This is just the beginning...