What Happens To Your Attitude Towards Gracious Professionalism When You Leave FIRST?

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

I think part of the disconnect can occur on days when the college student is having a particularly rough day/week (Midterms and Finals come to mind) Another portion could be a very pessimistic view of their future, in engineering many people who have a decade of experience cannot get a job right now, what chance do I have?

Personally I make a point not to let my personal pessimism and cynicism show to a student until I trust that they know me well enough to see I am having a bad day.

As for what can be done to correct a disconnect, should it be discovered in college age students? The simple approach would be to remind engineers that it isn't always just the high schoolers who occasionally need inspiration, college students and fellow mentors often need just as much inspiration from time to time.

I can vouch for Andrew when he says he doesn't let any cynicism and pessimism transfer over to a student. There are times when we talk as friends and joke around about things like this, but then the most important times are when he says "I'm telling you this as a mentor," no matter what it is, those moments mean a lot.