My first month working as an engineer!

Andrea Díaz Navarro
3 min readMar 16, 2021

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Last December I graduated as an Innovation Engineer, and sincerely I was a bit scared about not finding a job in COVID times. I fully trusted my major’s potential and my skills, though I was aware that some companies have reduced their number of employees or slowed down the hiring processes. I previously gained professional experience with my internship and working in my Lean Six Sigma certification project with a company. After graduating, I was looking for a full-time job where I could exploit everything I’ve learned so far. Yet, there were many crazy job descriptions that requested 5 years of experience, masters and a bunch of certifications for an entry level.

I started to apply to different companies the first days of this year. I received some answers from a few of them, had interviews, and completed long psychometric exams. There was a moment in which I needed to identify if I was being so picky or needed to stay focused seeking for my dreamed job. All of a sudden, a company contacted me for a quick interview with HR. Everything continued to run smoothly and a week later, I received a brief business case to analyze and present my solution the day after.

After taking my last year of college in “zoom university”, in the middle of a pandemic and as an engineering graduate, today I can proudly say that I’m working as a New Business Development Analyst for a global company. I love my job and even though it’s hard to get up from bed in the mornings, there is a spark inside myself which triggers me to go and enjoy my day.

I love my job, but why?

Each member contributes as an essential pillar for the team!
Diversity is needed to incite creative friction. The fact that each member from the team has a different profile, allows empowering the variety of ideas we have to develop. Having a leader with a high drive, an intelligent devil’s advocate with great arguments, a really open minded member, and a fresh perspective for the project, puts together what we call “the dream team”. Part of our goal is to respectfully share our opinion to sculpt an idea and find the way to make it happen. Regardless, at the end of the day I feel valued, supported, listened, and welcomed to share my ideas.

Not a routine, but daily challenges!
Everyday we start with a quick session as a touch point where the team can express how do we feel, our priorities for the day, highlights from the day before, and ask for help or support in case it’s needed. This is a great practice! Additionally, I can say that everyday there is a new challenge waiting for us. My role has made me experience a breadth of activities that cover from identifying the DMU’s, to understanding microbiology. This is way too fun since my work will never be a routine and I will learn from many different areas.

Our job is to make dreams (well... ideas) come true!
Having to identify necessities is a must. It becomes even harder when having to spot them before the users even realize it’s an actual issue. Lots of assumptions have to be established in order to create a project that meets their requirements. What I love about my role is the constant creative exercise needed to be done in order to discover a way to successfully satisfy the pains from the market. Also, I see it as a positive vibe that drives the team to be optimistic and let our creativity fly.

I’m so blessed to be part of a great company, and really honored to be chosen among lots of other candidates with strong skills. Today, my job is to learn, discover, develop, and endeavor to make big projects that add value to the market. I couldn’t have a better start at my first official job. I’m so happy!

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