Skill Sets and Aspirations: Shalil Jain

As a mechanical engineer major here at CU, I posses many of the same skills that the University has taught me as well as other fellow students. I have a proficiency in SolidWorks and knowing how to look at a problem and attack it in a logic format. I like being creative when designing things and trying to think outside of the box. I differ however to many as I have a business background, as I am in the process of earning my Business Minor and Graduate Certificate in Project Management, and unlike many who are comfortable sitting in a cubicle punching away at code all day or working on their designs somewhat isolated, I am not. I am a people person and I have been compliments many times both in a social atmosphere and a professional one, on my interpersonal skills. I like getting out of the office and seeing that customer and getting to know them, while still retaining parts of the engineering work in my everyday work life. It is for this reason that my aspiration career wise is to work in a role such as a Sales Engineer, which is essentially the person who can work well between the customer and their needs, the CEO and board’s needs, and the engineer. There is often a disconnect with many engineers who get stuck in their own bubble and on their design. They may think that a certain quirk they add to their design is amazing and cool and necessary but as a Sales Engineer, it would be my job to see how the customer reacts and see is the add on necessary or not. This requires great interpersonal skills and is the reason why I think I would be good at this. I am still exploring other options in the career field as I do not want to limit myself but as of now, this is what I would like to do.

As far as skill sets towards my project and this class, I have some basic milling experience and experience using a saw. I want to have more woodwork and woodshop experience which is why I am also possibly going to choose a main project that is dedicated towards using and manipulating wood