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CAREER SHIFT By Abdelrahman Wahba

Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

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This is a presentation I've held in Faculty of Engineering Ain Shams University under the organization of the Annual Conference for Engineering Students and their activities. The idea is to expose my experience with career shift and a summary of how to go about it.

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Page 1: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

CAREER SHIFT By

Abdelrahman Wahba

Page 2: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

Outline

• Why shift?

• Identifying the need to shift

• How shift?

• Clichés Stereotypes

• What if I can’t find an opportunity?

• Questions

Page 3: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

WHY SHIFT? It is absolutely personal and subjective

Page 4: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

Shift to do what you really like!

• Life is too short to spend it working on something you

don’t like!

• You don’t need to be happy all the time, but you must

not be dissatisfied all the time!

• It is never too early, or too late!

• Always revisit your reasons for your current state, if

you are not happy change it!

Page 5: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

IDENTIFYING THE

NEED TO SHIFT You ONLY find what you are looking for

Page 6: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

Identifying the need to shift

• Keyword: Explore! yourself and the world

• Nothing is straight forward like solving “the sheet”

• Possible exploration paths • Activities, Clubs, hobbies, communities

• Training/internship

• Talk to people who do different things

• Events, tradeshows, exhibitions, conferences, business NGO’s, Chambers of commerce

• Read the news in its variety

• Imaginatively Fast forward your life to the future

• Try new things, screw-up early, fast and often

Page 7: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

HOW TO SHIFT?

Page 8: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

How to shift?

• Establish a baseline to shift from & use

on your shift

• Drastic Shift

– Cold water jump

• Seize opportunity

– Start a company,

trading, investing

• Gradual Shift

– Part time job/internship

– Part time studies

– Freelance jobs

– Volunteering

– Shifting on steps

Page 9: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

How to shift?

• The main tools to shift

• Very strong reasons

• Very fast learning capability

• Very High Flexibility and tolerance to ambiguity

• Dynamic Mindset

• Readiness to fight

• Forward orientation

• Extreme time management

• High tolerance to falling on your face!

• High ability to quickly recover from screwing up

Page 10: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

How to shift?

• Your advantages

• You are still studying

• You study engineering

• Science forces certain thinking patterns on you

• Studying forces you to obtain certain survival skills

• You spend most of your time problem solving

• You have your whole life ahead of you

• You have the energy to fill it up with new experiences

Page 11: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

SHIFT AND DO WHAT? What?

Page 12: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

Shift and do what?

• Shift and do what you like!

• Shift within Engineering

• Shift within industry

• Shift jobs and industry

• The world is changing too fast to stick to a state too

hard

Page 13: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

CLICHÉS AND

STEREOTYPES “The Engineering Food Chain” & co.

Page 14: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

Clichés and Stereotypes

• Myth: The Engineering Food chain

• R&D

• Design

• Production, Fabrication, Manufacturing, Construction

• Project/Product Management

• Deployment

• Support/Maintenance

• Pre-sales

• Sales

Page 15: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

Clichés and Stereotypes

• “I’ve spent my life doing this, this is all I know”

• “I don’t want to waste my studies”

• “I don’t have options”

• “The world will resist me”

• “I’m waiting for X to happen”

Page 16: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

WHAT IF I CAN’T FIND

AN OPPORTUNITY? Be realistic, move in steps

Page 17: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

What if I can’t find an opportunity?

• Work to discover what you like – it is a process

• Move in the gaps that open

• Establish the baseline

• Keep your eyes on your objective

Page 18: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

DO WHAT YOU LIKE! And make the best use of your experience!

If you need to shift, then shift!

Page 19: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

DON’T LISTEN TO ME! Do it yourself!

Page 20: Career shift for Engineering Students - Why, How, What, When?

THANK YOU Questions?