I did my first engineering job at Hydro One. I've always dreamed of becoming an engineer and this was a step to achieve my dream. Not only that, this was the first time that I was moving away from my family and friends and going to a place that I had never been before. It was an exciting but also frightening experience at the same time.

The work was mainly on calculating and displaying the asset conditions of transformers and circuit breakers in substations. This gave me chance to, extract the data from different sources (SAP, Database, Excel, etc), write the algorithm in VBA, and plot output using ArcGIS.

On my next co-op, I got a chance to work at SNC Lavalin. Also, this was the time when I first met my wife 😛.

Luckily, I was able to work in different departments instead of stuck in engineering. I worked as a Cost Controller who oversaw budgets, a Project Controller that manages the entire project from start to end, and a SCADA engineer who design a communication system in a substation.

This was a great experience as I get to work outside of engineering.

Finally, I got my iron ring! I was so excited to get one (I still wear them).

However, this was also the time I've realized that I could not get a job that I studied for. You see, I specialized in power systems. I learn mostly about high voltage systems (power lines you see on the road) but there were not many jobs opportunity at the time.

So, I decided to search for jobs related to electrical engineering. Thankfully, the field is broad and I can still apply for a different position.

My first job after university was as a hardware and software engineer. I was building a prototype for IoT devices. I build a lot of cool stuff from designing PCB, soldering smd components, and creating servers. This is probably the time that I actually fell in love working with micro-controllers.

I joined Clir Renewable , and honestly, this was one of the most amazing experiences I had. Also, I was able to make a small impact on the world by making green energy more efficient.

I joined as one of the first engineers in the company. And, not only did I experience exponential growth in a start-up world, my professional career as a software developer grew exponentially. I learn how to build and scale software, teams, and culture.

Commit is the company I currently work at and it provides an opportunity for me to work at different start-ups.

If you are interested in start-up world, I highly recommend to join Commit!