The International Young Engineer

Having met many young professional engineering groups around the world, it strikes me just how often and how far young engineers travel – not just for pleasure, but for work.

I recently spoke with a young engineer who was describing their 6 months work program in Dubai as both exciting and extremely lonely. Since it generally involves working long hours at unusual times of the day, it is difficult to make friends outside the working team.

YEA has been working collaboratively towards the set up of Young Engineers International, which would serve as a communication point for linking young engineers around the world. Having this network, would allow the door to be opened to young engineering professional group activities in participating countries.

Do you think Young Engineers need this type of network? And should there be a young engineers group in the area – would you want to meet them and join in their activities?

Are there any experiences you could share about extended working experiences? Does it get lonely and if so what do you do…. And if it is the opposite, what makes the experience rewarding?

Comments

[Sam]

Hi, I work overseas on 3 month stints, however I chose to do that because I wanted the experience.

In my employment, they make an effort to consider the social aspects of staff and go to some degree to make life as normal as possible.

There are some people who don't have an outgoing personaility that struggle and get home-sick alot. They definitely do not last long in remote areas.

The idea of meeting other young engineers does sound cool, so would recommend a listing of other young engineer groups.

[Jessica Staple]

Hi,
I hadn't really thought of this before. I've always wanted to travel overseas and work, but I guess there are several types of travel:

1. You move permanently to another country. In which case you will have to adjust socially regardless.

2. You are seconded for a period of several months. This I could see would be difficult, especially if it is a massive project already behind schedule.

3. Short excursions for work of a couple days/weeks.

In all situations though, having a network of young engineers would be useful, or at least an ice breaker!

Can you let us know more?

[Anny Joseph]

Thank you for the supportive comments, it will help us justify the time and finances spent in developing and maintaining international young engineering relationships.

Young Engineers Australia has strong links with YEAFEO which is the young members section of the ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organizations. YEA has been present at the last two YEAFEO conferences and forged strong links with the following countries:

Malaysia
Japan
Hong Kong
Philippines
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
Laos
Brunei Darusalam
Singapore
Indonesia
Myanmar

We are currently building relationships with:
European Young Engineers
Brazil's Young Engineers

and have loose contacts with young engineers in northern Africa, South Africa and the Middle East.

Our intention is to build a communication network online to facilitate relationships beyond borders.

We will keep you all aware of our progress!

[Jessica Staple]

Wow! Thank you for such a quick response. I had not realised about all the potential groups out there!

Do we have strong links in England? I think many engineers (like myself) want to travel there for work!

[Katherine]

I have been living and working in Houston, TX, USA for almost 3 years and am loving it. We have a strong network of Aussie engineers over here due to the oil industry boom. We have alot of informal networking over here both through american engineering societies and though friends from back home. Of course being somewhere so similar to home we have alot of sports and social things that we are familiar with from home.

[Katherine]

I have been living and working in Houston, TX, USA for almost 3 years and am loving it. We have a strong network of Aussie engineers over here due to the oil industry boom. We have alot of informal networking over here both through american engineering societies and though friends from back home. Of course being somewhere so similar to home we have alot of sports and social things that we are familiar with from home.

[Anny Joseph]

Three years and loving it - does this mean that you would consider staying in the US indefinitely?

Having been to the US on many occassions (never Houston, but I am determined to get to the NASA centre there), I have found some of the social customs still a little different:
1. Sport - never understood the excitement with grid-iron and baseball. Nothing like cricket and rugby, AFL! Perhaps you can enlighten me?

2. Lobbying, whilst in Australia there is lobbying, it is not to the same extent as the US. Sometime I have found this overwhelming

3. Business heirarchy - I find is more dominant in the US, ie unheard of for CEO to engage with staff at lower levels.

Do you ever miss home Katherine - or do you frequently come back?

P.S. We are facing a skills shortage in Australia - so you are always welcome back!

[Anny Joseph]

Re: England

I haven't personally been involved with the UK Young Members Section. I understand that they are quite active and have links through the European Young Engineers.

Considering how many young engineers from Australia spend time in the UK, it would be sensible for us to strengthen our relationships there.

I know that Engineers Australia has strong ties there, so I am confident that at a senior engineering level, there are links.

If you know of any contacts, I would be grateful!

[Salma]

There are many opportunities available to young engineers these days and you tend to find that some younger engineers find overseas opportunities with volunteer work through groups such as Engineers Without Borders. The desire to work overseas as an engineer can be fulfilled in so many different ways.

Earlier this year Young Engineers Sydney had a working overseas seminar and we learnt about Workgateways, a website that provides all sorts of information about working in the UK as an engineer. The link is http://www.workgateways.com/job-engineering.html.

[Jessica Staple]

I'm actually considering working overseas.... so thanks Salma for the useful tip!

[Heitor Tosetto]

Hi Anny,

Is Heitor Tosetto from Brazil, we talked about YEI in WEC, the e-mail that I sent for Tim Mönkedieck proceeds below:

Hi Tim,

At first, thanks for the opportunity.
I worked in my ideia after the Young Eng. Forun on WEC, and based me in this words:
YEI is one way to a student, who's working at any project, find another student with the same ideas or interests. This way they can work together and share expirences.
Am I getting the principal idea of YEI?
On this week I will meet the creators of FINANCIAR System and I will talk about the conception of their project, and maybe propose a partnership with them. I believe we can count with the support of the Federal University of Viçosa.
So, if you have some material about YEI, like a logo, slogan, documents, all this stuff, please send me. Probably, at the end of this week I'll send you a Power Point presentation or a video describing my idea about the web site project. After that, you can redirect it to all people involved on the YEI projetc and ask for their suggestions.


Once again, thanks. We will make this happen.


p.s.: Someone got my koala, so talk to Anny, I want another. Pass me her e-mail! LOL

If you want more details, send me a e-mail.

[Heitor Tosetto]

sorry,

my e-mail:
heitor.tosetto@ufv.br

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