Motivation

Well, it is now almost the end of May. And I have yet to seriously continue my search for gainful employment. I've spend time doing "stuff": the OCE Discovery conference, cleaning/renovating almost the entire house, sorting out some personal affairs. But really, not a lick in terms of finding long term employment.
The problem I am having at the moment is one of conflicted priorities. And until those are sorted out (which always takes me oodles of time), I know that I won't be properly motivated to find that dream job that I've been looking for.
My brother (Jerome) and I have been tossing about this idea of our own startup company. Not too many details here, but the general gist of the company would be to create homes that are more environmentally friendly, with a reduced ecological impact. The real difference is that everything must be presented to potential home owners (and home renovators, to start) in phrases and figures that will actually draw them to the service, other than the "save the earth" let's be green tree hugger movement. People can be convinced by showing them the impact on the bottom line. A 3-5% increase in initial investment can result in 25-60% reduction in operation and maintenance costs. When taken to their actual dollar values, those are numbers that everyone can understand, appreciate, and want to act on. Anyway, I've divulged too much already! Unless you're an electrical engineer or mechanical engineer (particularly HVAC), that wants in...

My dilemma is the choice between three options: find a job in construction management, where I have my lionshare of experience; find a job with a consulting company where I can get experience for the eventual startup; or just run with the startup company right away. It's not as if I'm in dire need of a steady income at the moment, my mother is graciously supporting me for the summer. And there's also the "strike while the iron is hot" mentality going.

Either way... once convocation occurs next week, I'll have made up my mind. I've already started up the Monster/Workopolis searches. Yikes.

Early Lessons Learned

This is a very momentous day for me, both personally and professionally. Today marks the end of my undergraduate career. 5 long years. At times frustrating, revealing, arduous. But always rewarding. My final semester examinations could not have gone any better. I was very prepared for each and every one of them. I probably took my most despised (Wastewater and Engineering Economics) and most loved (Law) courses of my entire career here. And yet the result should be (nothing is guaranteed yet) positive all around.

The experiences I had in my Law class were phenomenal. It made me consider a career in Law. A JD is a very difficult process. I’ve seen the effort that Devin and Alphonso have put into their first year law programme. It’s not that I am incapable of it. I don’t think that I have the emotional fortitude at this point of my life to complete something like that. I do know that I would enjoy it, immensely.

What I am seriously considering is an MBA. It is often said that every graduating engineer considers it. But after having it lie latent in my conscious thought for several months, I am sincerely considering it. I feel that it is only a matter of funding at this point. If I can raise the funds, I will definitely apply. I sincerely wish that I had taken the opportunity to take more Business and Commerce courses throughout my time here at Queen’s. It took me 4 years to understand the value of these principals to my engineering background.

Today was an emotional day. Not only am I leaving behind a large portion of my somewhat “adult” life, (actually my transition into adult life) but today I learned the biggest lesson of my professional life to date. People and companies will say and do anything to keep you, at that particular point in time. I was promised the moon at the company that I previously worked for. It was always about what I would get in the future; once I graduated. And now that I am approaching that time, the promise remains unfulfilled. I would expect to receive, at a minimum, what I can get elsewhere. What other companies deem to be my worth, based on my knowledge base and experiences. However, this appears to mean nothing to my former employer. This has finally signaled to me that I need to seriously reconsider what I will be doing once I graduate at the end of May.

I sent what I would consider to be a well thought out and careful response to the offer that I finally received from them. A few of my major points:

I felt it to be both redundant and inappropriate for me to require a probationary period. After having worked for them for 12 full months, they are fully aware of my level of competence. I have also shown loyalty, in returning to them last summer, although I had a more attractive offer elsewhere.

Salary, obviously. I have another offer that stands at $5,000 more per year, from a larger construction company, but in a lower, entry level role. With better benefits. And more opportunity for growth. And more opportunities in terms of variety of projects.

I was told that there is "little to no room for negotiations." I simply cannot accept their offer as it stands, and it looks like I'll be moving on.

Regardless, the lesson I took from this: Don’t believe anything that someone promises you in the business world. Make them back it up. I should have made them extend me a written offer last summer, BEFORE I went back to work for them. Ah well, lesson learned.

The First Post

March 24, 11:13pm.
11 days until my final University class.
22 days until my final University exam.
66 days until I get a piece of paper telling me that 5 years of University (and 5 years of high school and 10 years of elementary school) was worth something.

The name of my blog has to do with this new realization of mine. It really started to hit me at the beginning of this past summer when I was starting work again. Once most students leave school, they usually say that their jobs has little to nothing to do with what they actually studied in school. Even if a Civil Engineering student (like moi) went off to work for a Structural engineering firm, they would still only know 5-10% of the knowledge required to do their job.

What I have come to realize (I am finally getting to my point...) is that education is not necessarily about the actual knowledge gained. The knowledge isn't the end to itself, as it were. Learning is a means to an end, the end being the development of capabilities. The development of new skills. And it's those skills that I will be using. Not the knowledge, but the experience.

Took me 4 years of University to finally figure that out, but hey, better late than never.