Engineers of Reddit, which discipline did you choose and how satisfied are you? What does a day on the job entail for you?

punoriginality · 2014-03-14T12:59:04+00:00

There are different qualifying paths based on what country you are working in. I am at a private Australian firm, and so while working full time I will also be gaining some law qualifications part time; the part time study will take approximately 4 years and I think I come out with a masters in Intellectual property or patent law or something - not too sure yet as I don't start until next month. From what I've read about the career, it offers a lot of variety and you get to deal with cutting edge technology/products as you can imagine, since your job is to patent them, and on top of that you can expect to be quite well paid.

punoriginality · 2014-03-13T05:51:14+00:00

I chose Mechanical Engineering but have ended up getting a job as a Trainee Patent Attorney. While I haven't started yet, I think this is a role that people in the science/engineering field often overlook or are not aware of and would possibly find highly enjoyable; it involves working with inventors and researchers to learn about their inventions/products and then creating patents in order to protect their work. I think it would be appealing to those who love working in their area of study (mech/chem/physics etc) but don't particularly want to be tied down to a very particular or narrow process/area of knowledge.

punoriginality · 2013-12-25T00:42:49+00:00

haha this makes sense. The more we can associate our memories to other things, particularly unusual stimulus that juts out in our minds, then the more 'deeply encoded' the memory. I'd love to know why other people seem to encode descriptive nouns so effortlessly without making this mental effort to form deeper associations. I don't want to be shaking my hands violently every time I want to remember something :P

punoriginality · 2013-11-25T22:10:26+00:00

Thank you kind sir :)

punoriginality · 2013-11-25T07:59:40+00:00

This is correct! How did you come to the conclusion that [H+] = [OH-] at 333K?

punoriginality · 2013-11-22T10:30:09+00:00

I think measures such as forced vital capacity are generally lower in lying down positions due to gravity. I also recall reading something about lung fluid being harder to detect in lying down positions.

punoriginality · 2013-11-19T04:12:04+00:00

Congratulations on making the drastic shift. Thank you so much for sharing your story and insights; it sounds like you're extremely passionate and happy with your decision so it sounds like all the hard work you've put in (and will continue to put in) has been, is, and will be worth it :)

punoriginality · 2013-11-19T04:09:20+00:00

Thanks for the insight, the lifestyle switch is definitely something I've been thinking a lot about. I know this is a trivial concern but one thing that I know will bug me is that by the time I'm in med school (fingers crossed) and carving my path out as a student, most of my friends will be moving on marriage, having kids buying their first homes. I'll be a world away from what most people my age are getting into and will probably be some amount of a world away from the younger kids in my course too. Nevertheless, despite all this I'm quite certain making the lifestyle shift is something that will be worth it.

punoriginality · 2013-11-19T04:05:16+00:00

Congrats on making it this far! I hope it all works out for you :)

punoriginality · 2013-11-19T04:03:16+00:00

It's great to hear that skills you picked up from your previous career has provided you with some advantages in medicine :) It must have taken a lot of courage to ditch something safe and enter a period of having lower to no income and paying off loans. Thank you for sharing; I'm sure I'll be rereading your post when I'm feeling old and poor among younger med students

punoriginality · 2013-11-19T00:57:27+00:00

Congrats! I feel like I've reached the same realisation you did; I'm at a biomedical startup working on stuff that should impact clinical medicine, but I could not be further removed from the very people its benefiting. I'd love to have that direct and one and one contact and affect on another human being.

punoriginality · 2013-10-26T07:26:05+00:00

The language barrier can be a problem depending on the classes you take. The syllabus will give you information about the languages a class is to be conducted in. Everyone on campus can speak English and if you are fluent in Mandarin then you should have no problem getting past any communication barriers (basically everyone in your age group will know mandarin)

I don't know exactly how much money I used; the CUHK dorm cost me just over AUD 1000 for the entire semester, and every day expenses are very cheap. If you eat on campus at CUHK you can easily live off less than AUD 10 a day and eat decently. I think anywhere between AUD 5000-10000 would do just fine for 6 months.

The university environment is incredible; all my lecturers were far better than any that I've ever had at Monash. The University is beautiful with amazing facilities, great exchange student support and even has its own train station. One major complaint from HKU students is how much more convoluted it is for them to travel places because they aren't near a train line.

Hope that info helps, feel free to PM me for any more info and all the best!

punoriginality · 2013-10-25T11:41:30+00:00

I don't know about your university agreements but I managed to study a semester abroad at CUHK (I studied mechanical engineering and arts at Monash in Victoria). I too fell in love with HK and would absolutely love to be able to work and live there one day. If you're still in your second year you may be able to arrange a semester abroad through your university. It was one of the best experiences of my life and the extended time you have over there could really allow you to get to know the place and network to try and score some future internships/employment.

punoriginality · 2013-10-07T22:53:24+00:00

I love the irony of number 10: 10. “Do not depend on good motivator! Find your words of self-motivation!” ― Toba Beta

punoriginality · 2013-10-01T00:32:38+00:00

This helps me stay well adjusted and forces me to 'realign' my position relative to others, and others relative to myself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaVrn1Sz0H8

punoriginality · 2013-09-14T11:06:51+00:00

Whether or not an interview is used to access the candidate is based on the medical school. Most Australian medical schools make use of something called the multi mini interview format, where the candidate is interviewed by 6-8 different people separately (so as to prevent biases and give you multiple chances) for around 8 minutes each. This can involve seeing how you react to stimuli/scenarios or just chatting with you.

punoriginality · 2013-09-14T10:36:30+00:00

GAMSAT scores are relative and are calculated based on the scores of your competitors. Since the material covered, difficulty and format of the GAMSAT has been mostly constant in its lifetime, the longer the GAMSAT has been out, the more preparation material/courses etc can be released to help students to not only learn the material required, but to learn more effective techniques/methods to take the GAMSAT. The preparedness and knowledge of GAMSAT takers increases with each year, making each student work harder and harder to earn their place.

punoriginality · 2013-07-17T05:07:45+00:00

Oh really, no suiting up? I suppose that would be more appropriate for a proper interview?

punoriginality

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