How has your involvement in FIRST affected your career choice?

[SuperJake]

Because of FIRST I am working at Foster-Miller building the next-generation TALON robots to save lives. Check out my signature for more info on TALON.

I went to college at Drexel University, and I did the co-ops and everything. When I interviewed at Foster-Miller, they were familiar with co-op experience, and I knew it would take something more to boost me into my dream job. I told them about FIRST and how I had been building robots for the past 7 years and it was quite literally the straw that tipped the scale in my favor.

[CRG0530]

University of Central Florida has the best Engineering Program...very well rated nationally.

[Viper37]

Originally Posted by Éowyn

Hi guys, I didn't see a thread like this anywhere and I was wondering exactly how being involved in FIRST robotics has affected your career choice. I myself had no idea what I wanted to do after college, but after my involvement in robotics and learning just how much I love machining and learning how to design machines, I am almost definitely going to be a mechanical engineer.

As fun as FIRST is, I have had the same career goal since middle school. I enjoy working with my hands, I enjoy design and fabrication as well. But I dont want to do that for a job. Besides, if I can have a job of my choice, as well as doing FIRST on the mentor level, I still will have all the benefits, minus the pay.


Just my 2 cents.

[JanineF]

Before FIRST I was all about engineering. FIRST told me that I am horrible at it and I discovered my love for leadership and team management. Today I am going to college while working at Hamilton Sundstrand as an administrative assistant (hey, it isn't glorious, but my foot is in the door!)

FIRST definitely gives you that real-life experience you need to see what you will truly want to do. I'm sure that I could have learned the engineering with FIRST, but the leadership/communications/PR roles came much more naturally and suited me better.

Through networking and learning other life-based needs (such as how much to pack for what amount of time, navigating airports, quasi-living with co-workers) FIRST raised me!

[Tottanka]

WOW
Well, i was very much into Programming and was absolutely sure that im gonna study programming in University..
Well, thanks to first i am now studying Aeronautics and Space Engineering, and with a scholarship =]
That kinda tells it all, but i also almost got chosen to a special millitary project in wich you get 2 deplomas in Mechanical Engineering in 4 years. I've been number 18 in their list, when only 16 get chosen...

[crafty]

I've always been interested in space, spacecraft, and engineering. When I joined a FIRST team last year, I decided that I wanted to be an engineer, so my goal is to become an aerospace engineer. The interests have always been there, but the decision to make it a career came from FIRST.

[BandChick]

This is a great thread. Someone should let the guys up at FIRST read this.
FIRST has absolutely impacted my career choice.

Before FIRST, I started out wanting to be a Pre-Med major, I wanted to be a pediatrician from the time I was 5 or 6. I was all set for that major when I was a junior in high school. Senior year started and HHS got a FIRST team. My mom had been pushing engineering and FIRST (which we had known about then for 5 years), and my response was always "Huh? What is engineering?"

By the time I graduated, I had completely changed courses. I was enrolled at the Rutgers University School of Engineering as a Mechanical Engineer. The freshman Dean of Engineering (read: a father of one of the kid's on Team 25) knew all about FIRST, and when I went for an interview, he simply said "With the experiences and determination you've learned from FIRST, you can succeed in anything you want."

Wow. What an impact.

I'll be honest, however, I've strayed from that path. I'm now on my third major, but FIRST has helped to open a lot of doors for me, and has also made me focus my talents and decide exactly what my best skills are. When I do go back to school (after my term as a FIRST Americorps VISTA member), I will be going for Education. I've been researching education in NJ, and TCNJ even offers a Technology Education degree.

After working with my FIRST team now for 5 years, I finally realized that this is what I enjoy. I love to see the students I work with grow, learn, and succeed. It seems silly; I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do after high school. And here I am, completely turned around, and happier than I can ever remember being. So for me, being in FIRST has helped me realize one thing, I want to be in FIRST forever. That is why I took the Americorps VISTA position. This is why I still mentor my old high school team. Not for everything that I get out of the program (which I'll be honest, is a LOT), but to help other kids get as much out of it as I have.

Long-winded as usual,
Sara Reffler

[Barry Bonzack]

My first two years of high school I lived in a town with no FIRST team; Science Fair was king of the land. I competed in science fair for two years, first in an area I had no interest in, and the next I did the category of mathematics. I planned at the time to go into investments and did an elaborate experiment involving analysis of the NASDAQ (stock market). I was also president of the Future Business Leaders of America at the school during this time. The experiment placed in state competition.

The next year (2003) I moved to Florida and joined a FIRST team its rookie year. Since then I have learned about design, electronics, pneumatics. I have developed skills in time management, teamwork, public relations, and leadership. I have had hands on experienced working with actual engineers and machinists to learn how to use a mill and lathe. Although the Science Fair was a wonderful experience, nothing has altered my life and thinking like FIRST. I have a completely new respect for engineering projects like NASA's probes and rovers. This sort of thing is my hobby that I enjoy doing, however, I can not see myself doing it as a career and continue to desire to go into finance. FIRST has inspired me and I have grown because of it, this is the point of FIRST. Not every FIRST student is expected to go into an engineering field.

Other ways FIRST has affected me:
*Not only did I receive a FIRST scholarship, but my essays and interviews for other scholarships were loaded with my FIRST experiences and this is the reason I received many of them as well.

*I have met many of the best friends a guy can have that have similar interests.

*It helped me get a job at the Kennedy Space Center (thanks again, Gabe!)

*It has given me a cause to donate my time to share the experience with others


The final thing I would like to mention is about that town I lived in that did not have a team. Bartlesville has started team 2165 to compete this season. (check my signature)

[George A.]

Like most people who've responded to this thread, my career goals have changed greatly upon being involved with FIRST. However, unlike most people I didn't want to be an engineer before being involved in FIRST, and likewise I still don't. Not that I have anything against engineers, I just lack the pertinent skills needed to be an engineer.

Before FIRST I wanted to be a foreign language teacher. However during the spring semester of my freshman year in college my life was changed. I volunteered for my first FIRST regional (the 2005 New Jersey Regional) and I signed up to be a play-by-play announcer. I didn't think I had a shot to announce since I was the third backup. However, as luck would have it the first two people weren't able to attend the regional. So there I was 18, just out of High School and needed to entertain the crowd at a FIRST regional. Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck, but apparently I did well. At the end of the regional Randy Schaeffer came up to me and asked if I wanted to help out with New York City. Since then I've been asked to announce at 3 different regionals and the World Championships. Some people from the crowd even asked where I got my training, and were shocked when they found out that I never announced before.

So anyway, thanks to FIRST I changed majors and am now a mere 2 years from getting my broadcasting license, and hopefully will be working for a radio station shortly after.

I owe a lot to FIRST, and like Sara I will be involved in FIRST for as long as I can, so I can give future kids the opportunities that I received.

[AdamHeard]

I not only want to be an engineer now, but I've been "in training" as a paid intern at Northrop Grumman:Space Technology since Sophomore year; All from my F.I.R.S.T. experience.

I'm also applying to many schools I never even heard of before; Cornell (School of Engineering), Rochester, Northeastern (I may meet some teammates there), W.P.I., C.M.U. (And make some fancy cameras for future F.I.R.S.T.'ers), UC San Diego (May meet some teammates there too), the California Polytechnics and few others.

[Mr.Fraggs]

FIRST paved the way to becoming more professional in 3D Moddeling and also Programming. Due to some of the knowledge learned with FIRST and programming, I now have an internship at Siemens VDO doing database scripting for almost a whole year. With this internship i will have a wider road paved and we will see whats next to come !

[hallk]

If it weren't for FIRST I wouldn't really know what engineering was. I learned so much in general from my participation and these skills gave me an edge over some of my other classmates. Because of FIRST I got a scholarship for school and an internship my freshman year. The internship has now lead to my current job, a design engineer at NORAM. If it weren't for FIRST I would probably in the army right now.

[KelliV]

Prior to going into FIRST I wanted to be an engineer, I got on the WildStang team and decided to go into the video area of the team, something I liked to do at the time and had no intention of persueing past that season. It turned out that I really did not like engineering at all. It was amazingly boring to me, but I loved to make movies. FIRST saved me from being in a career that just wasn't right for me. So now I am going to school for Television Production where my FIRST experience is actually making it easier for me to understand the technical aspects of television production.

[Twig]

All things considered, it hasn't, yet. I still plan to teach World History at a high school level. But maybe I'll take a liking to FIRST and choose a career that is relative in the future. Who really knows.

[TravisE]

Robotics has affected me greatly before robotics I had no idea of what I wanted to do. Now I know exactaly what I want to do and what that is is Aerospace Engineering. Because I find space travel amazing and flight to be amazing. Even though I have never flown in a plane and I'm afraid of heights. I would still love to fly planes and to go up into the space station and look upon the world that is my dream and I will try to do it if I can and lastly if NASA ever decides to go back to the moon I want to be on that flight to the moon.