Skill Sets and Aspirations: Ben Fried

My schooling (undergraduate and graduate) has been in mechanical engineering, but I am more interested in management, system engineering, and finance, which is where I can see myself in the long run.  I enjoy doing technical analysis, thinking critically, and solving advanced problems, but I do not want to do that for the rest of my life.  After working in industry for a few years, I have learned that certain companies will have specialized engineers who are experts in that one topic, and are willing to devote the rest of their career to analyses like that one.  I am not one of those people and would rather have breadth instead of depth.  I appreciate the engineering and enjoy it, but do not want to be the one doing it.

Since I was very young, I have always enjoyed working with my hands and taking things apart.  I have translated these skills into practical woodworking, CNC, and other machining processes.  I do not have any experience with welding or lathes, but have worked on projects where this has been done and could probably figure it out.  A lot of my time has been spent in the MakerSpace on campus, working on various wood projects.  I feel comfortable using all tools available in that space, and enjoy helping others on projects.  I also am familiar with skis, bikes, and cars, and am available to fix, repair, and tune all of these at a rate of $15 per hour…

Just kidding.

But if your project involves any of these, I am familiar with those domains and have all the tools to fix, repair, and take apart these things.  I have built 2 bikes from the ground up and have a good mechanical sense of moving parts.

I will usually try to give any task a try once, as long as I have the proper tools and reasonable plan to tackle it.  This may involve a lot of research and preparation, but is rewarding.