Jeff went to college knowing he was following his passion of studying Electrical Engineering like his dad. However, in this four year quest, Jeff took courses in completely unrelated fields and completed a minor in mathematics. Jeff also talks about choosing the right job after college.
In this interview Dima Tokar talks about his experience at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dima is currently pursuing a double major in microbiology and finance, all that while working full time as a resident assistant and running his own business. Listen to his advice about school, career, entrepreneurship, and more.
This is the second time I attempt to write a post about this topic. Initially, I was focusing too much on how different cultures see failure. But realizing my lack of knowledge on the topic, I decided to abstain—I would not like to fall into false stereotypes or offend anybody. However, I am really interested in how different cultures perceive failure—particularly how this perception differs between western and eastern cultures. So if anybody would like to share some personal stories related to the topic, I would be very happy.
Now to the point.
Most engineering schools require students to design and construct some sort of prototype before graduating. At my school, this prototyping requirement is called “Senior Design Project“. Although most students have the ability to create a great project, when the Demo comes they end up selling themselves too short.
What do I want to be when I grow up? For most of us, this is an existential question that will follow us wherever we go. We are dropped in this world by a mysterious stork, which does not leave with us any hints of why are we here, what are we supposed to do, and how are we going to do it. So we begin our quest for the discovery of this existential conundrum.
We first want to be a doctor, then a veterinarian, and maybe later an engineer. But at some point along the way we lose the childish concept of a profession and we suddenly plummet into the so called “real world”. We have seen so much TV, read so much sensationalist media, and heard so many stories posed by a “friend of a friend”, that we are unable to pursue our true passions anymore. Not only have we divorced that idealistic representation of our future self, we have made a conscious effort to convince ourselves otherwise.
