UBC Co-op Career Planning Assignment
an assignment submitted to the UBC Co-op program in Nov. 2019
Sichen Roger Luo | Nov. 3, 2019
1. What is your desired career path post-graduation? Are there particular industries you are interested in or do you have a specific type of role in mind? What about the size of company? Does it align with your core values? Does this career path align with where you want to be in your career in 5-10 years?
A: Learn from the best. This simple idea is the compass guiding me through my professional journey with three passions - nature, technology, and education.
My career path derives from my education background in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a focus on electronics, the software that interacts with them, as well as the integration of SW & HW into a complex system to achieve meaningful purposes for the general public. In particular, I am interested in the automotive industry, and the transportation/mobility domain overall. In the short term, I am more interested in Engineer/Developer roles that allow me to gain extensive exposure to the product R&D lifecycle and accumulate technical skills. In the long term, I plan to take some responsibilities in management. In my spare time, I will be committed to educational community services as a tutor or a mentor in the area of my expertise.
I am leaning towards large companies (in the case of the automotive industry: OEMs like General Motors, Volvo, Toyota, and suppliers like Bosch, Denso, and NVIDIA). These attributes align with what I meant by Learn from the best - apart from branding, large companies have relatively more mature organizational processes, stronger technology foundation, and resources, a larger pool of talented experts, and proven capacities to deliver products to a large scale of customers. What I wish to learn from work is not only the day-to-day tasks but also how the culture of these companies shapes who they are, which I believe is incredibly important when I start taking management roles within the company or for a startup company.
Authenticity, Responsibility, Fun, and Continous Improvement are the things I value the most in my professioanal career (as well as in my personal life). I keep asking myself whether my decisions are aligned with these values. At the same time, I am carefully watching how companies make their decisions in their product designs, how they make decisions when they are going through tough times, and how they treat their employees. For example, Tesla over-marketed their Level-2 Autopilot system and their electronic door handlesstopped working after a crash, preventing first responders from rescuing the driver. These are the signs that a company is making decisions that against my core values of taking necessary responsibilities to ensure the user's safety. No company is perfect, but from their decision-making I will learn whether they hold a bottom line of what they should definately not do.
I discovered my passions in technology, automotive & transportation, and education since I was little, and I believe they will not change 5, 10, or 50 years. There will be changes, unknowns, and roadblocks but they will not stop me from what I love.
2. Are you extroverted, introverted or ambiverted? How does this personal trait influence how you navigate your workplace? How will this inform the type of job you will seek in the future?
A: I am introverted. Although I find it a pleasure interacting with different people, I enjoy spending more time alone learning things and internalizing new ideas. In a word, being an introvert gives me the greatest gift: compassion. It allows me to observe what's going in the surroundings, understand people's emotions, and to find appropriate ways to respond. Having compassion becomes handy when dealing with conflicts at workplaces or when negotiating ideas to establish a win-win situation. The observant and introspective nature of an introvert also helps him/her come up with ideas that are not superficial. Jobs that require focus and attention to details (i.e., desk jobs like software development, hardware design) are fitting for an introvert.
On the other hand, I find myself uncomfortable giving small talks in a group setting (i.e., I prefer one-on-one in- depth conversation or a well-prepared public speech). I also find it challenging to maintain a large network of acquaintances - it still takes me some effort to prepare before reaching out to them for help. I believe, however, these weaknesses are not negative factors for my job performance. What matters is to find opportunities to make the most of the strengths.
3. Does the career path you are currently interested in offer a lot of room for personal challenge and skill development, as well as long-term career growth?
A: Yes. Moving around to travel, meet friends and family, and transport goods are essential needs of human beings - we should always strive to make the experience better. Automotive & transportation is a highly complex system that involves innovations across multiple disciplines such as mechanical designs, advanced materials, just-in-time manufacturing, policy-making, and logistics, etc. More recently, advanced sensing, computing, and communication technologies open up more opportunities to work in this domain. There have been countless challenges that need to be solved by close collaborations in a team setting to get things right. The process will take decades.
Being involved in this industry have the opportunity to learn things from different perspectives, and to make contributions that can impact a large group of people.
4. What is the job security in this career or industry like for the next 5-10 years? Are there any major economic factors that might adversely affect job prospects in this field?
A: As stated in the previous questions, the progress being made in this industry will last for decades - there will be times that the growth gets fast or slows down depending on various factors, but the need for a better transportation will never change.
However, it does not mean that getting into this industry will guarantee a stable job. The self-driving car has already become a dot-com bubble because of various of reasons. There have been lots of startups closing down, causing a large number of layoffs (that's why I tend to work for larger companies in this industry with reasons stated in question 1). Job security is highly depended on whether the person has an active curiosity, passion, and the willingness to continuous improve him/herself to embrace new technologies, learning and crafting his/her skills. It requires wisdom, taste, and luck when making important career decisions (on the company and position they choose to work for). I also believe that one should value their mental and physical wellbeings - it is important to learn a few techniques and take advantage of available resources so that one will have the capacity to deal with any changes (and anything they cannot control) with clarity.
5. How relevant are you to your desired career path/industry at this time? Are your skills and experience in line with what the market is seeking, or is there additional training, self-directed learning, professional development opportunities you can seek out that would give you a competitive edge?
A: I feel lucky that I have had one year of exposure at Autoliv, a tier-one automotive part supplier from which I gained exposure to the automotive R&D. I have also worked on several relevant projects in and out of classes to learn programming languages, algorithms, and tools that are necessary for this field. My most recent Co-op position also gives me the opportunity to practice software development in an Agile environment. Lots of skills I have learned here are transferable to other workplaces.
However, one thing I found hard is that a lot of skills and experience in this field cannot be self-taught as they require extensive hands-on with industrial-class tools and equipment. Also, most of the codebase and development process in this industry are confidential, making it difficult to learn in-depth. To stay at a competitive edge, one needs to gain exposure from student teams and take online courses that have industry professionals involved. Making connections to these professionals and ask for advice is also a good place to start.
6. What kind of autonomy and control do you want over your career and day-to-day work? Will this impact the type of company you explore working for?
A: It depends on the stage of my career. Self-regulation or self-discipline has always been important regardless of the amount of supervision and controls the management would have. In the early stage of my career, however, (assuming at a large company), I would not mind learning and practicing the process and perform tasks based on other people's instructions and requests. In the meantime, I would not stop questioning whether day-to-day work can be more productive and creative. When time moves on, and once I can demonstrate my problem- solving and creative capabilities, I will find appropriate ways to convince upper management to gain more autonomy and control over my day-to-day work.
It will impact the type of company I explore working for (e.g., the culture of a large company will be hard to change in a short period of time), but so far I don't see it stops me from being flexible to try out any company - it's ultimately up to me to obtain the autonomy and control.
7. Where are you willing to live? Think about the factors of an area that contribute to your personal long-term happiness such as access to outdoor areas, thriving nightlife, energetic culture, walkability or commute time, proximity to family, etc. Are the careers or industries you are interested in available in these type of areas?
A: Growing up, I have experienced relocation (cities and countries) several times, and I wish I will have more chances to live in different places as a global citizen. My bottom line is the job itself is meaningful, and the city can continuously satisfy my curiosity about discovering new things.
The lifestyle and climate in Vancouver are very similar to my hometown Kunming, China, and I found it enjoyable living in these cities. I enjoy living in cities with access to cultural, sports, and outdoor activities as these activities align with my hobbies such as photography, running, and hiking. Many factors will determine one's impression of a city: having lived in Yokohama, Japan, for one year for Co-op, I was amazed by the convenience of the country's public transportation system, tasty food, high-quality customer service, and the overall cleanliness of the streets. As a fan of cars and trains, it is one of my ideal places to develop my professional career there. On the other hand, Japan might not be the best place for some people to stay for a longer period of time due to various reasons such as relatively lower pay compared to North America, high living expenses, and culture differences.
It's important to have an open mind, and I always encourage myself (and my friends) to experience the diversity of culture and people through different schools, jobs, cities, counties, etc. Some might not have the chance or energy to do so physically, but nowadays, a lot of these things can also be learned by reading books and watching videos.
8. What aspects of a potential career will contribute to your long-term job satisfaction, or in other words, what would make you happy to go in to work every day?
A: I always remember the motto from my secondary shcool back in China: Read Good Books, Make Genuine Friends, Go Places, Do Great Things. I was surprised at the time that we are not taught to Be No.1 or Be the Strongest. Growing up, I come to realize that happiness does not come from proving to someone that I am better than someone else. Instead, it comes down to staying true to ourselves, learning from the best things that humans have made, and creating something as great to share with others.
For me, I wish I have the opportunity obtain high-quality learning and continuous improvement. I wish the work I do can create impacts on people on a large scale. I wish I could help create/maintain a healthy, harmonious, and compassionate community in which people are willing to help each other become a better person. These three wishes might sound hard to achive all at once. But when thinking about it, they are the most authentic, modest, and down-to-earth pursuit that will make me happy to go in to work every day.
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