24 Tips I'd Give Myself Before Becoming an Engineer

To become a full-time engineer that also creates content and trains jiu-jitsu, I’ve developed a bunch of habits and skills. Every skill I acquired today came out of an L I’ve faced in the past. This leads me to develop these 24 tips.

But first…Thanks to Dice for sponsoring today’s video! If you’re looking for a tech career that matters, check out the links below to #LevelUpWithDice.

Anyways, timestamps are as follows:

00:00 Intro
00:22 Tip 1: Just do “well” relative to others
00:54 Tip 2: You don’t hate the subject…you hate the teacher
01:23 Tip 3: Finesse the System
03:04 Tip 4: Keep Track of Your Work
03:31 Tip 5: Don’t be Silent
04:04 Tip 6: Workload in High School vs University
04:30 Tip 7: Follow an Engineering Roadmap
05:01 Tip 8: Use a Credible Job Hunting Site
06:08 Tip 9: Engineering is About Building Cool Stuff
06:30 Tip 10: Mind Maps, Diagrams & Charts
06:50 Tip 11: Becoming an Engineer Shouldn’t Be Your Only Thing
07:13 Tip 12: Overtime Finesse
07:55 Tip 13: 3 Types of Fun
09:01 Tip 14: Always have a creative hobby
09:16 Tip 15: There’s beauty in everything
09:50 Tip 16: We Always Remember Novelty
10:05 Tip 17: Travel
10:32 Tip 18: Do what’s good for the plot
10:57 Tip 19: Terror Management Theory
11:30 Tip 20: Don’t assume the answer is “No”
11:45 Tip 21: Host a Party
12:03 Tip 22: 8 Billion People
12:22 Tip 23: Learn to Backflip
12:27 Tip 24: Do a Practical Martial Art

MY SOCIAL MEDIA:

ABOUT ME:
My name is Tamer Shaheen and I am a recent mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Waterloo, currently working as a Mechanical Design Engineer. I like to make videos about university/college, engineering, and personal development. Thank you so much for watching!!

[mr.loonatic]

I love this video man. I'm in my first semester of college, taking 5 classes and working part time to invest some money into stocks and because I live in a hispanic household. I love everything about engineering and lose track of time when I'm in the engineering club talking to other like minded people about things we could improve and projects to work on, but I feel I'm too focused and life is getting stale. I'm 17 years old and got no father, living with my mom and 2 sisters and I want to become somebody worth remembering one day. I want to become wealthy and break my family out of the system. Anyways, really great video and I'll definitely take some of this tips

Update: got A on engineering design. B on English composition, B on music appreciation and B on economics and didn't care about fye (first year experience) it's "required", but not even on the course curriculum lol and apparently they don't fail student. I got a 22% on that rn, we'll see if what they said it's true.

[alithedazzling]

Respect the level of effort you put into these videos -- keep working!

[ThiagoSilva-vpsu]

It's always good to see visions of engineers from another country in something you was unsure about

[lenaetam]

I’m not studying to be an engineer but I do find the advice still useful to my area of study thanks for posting 😊

[storyride]

Hi Tamer! You've done such an amazing job in this video, love these types of videos from you lately, keep going! 😀

[TheHatManCole]

One of the huge advantages I've had being homeschooled is that I am personally responsible for my time and schedule. Honestly, being homeschooled for me at least is much closer to College than standard American Highschool

[sidneyboakye]

Man, even though I just graduated from engineering school this was an incredibly helpful video. I saw tips that I actually used and still use to this day (Tips 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 19). Heck, tip 7 perfectly described all of my 3 internships in the exact order I got them in! And you gave wonderful tips that I was planning on using or will now be definitely using as I start my first job in January (Tips 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and maybe even 23 haha). Thank you for this amazing content!

[begadanan]

Niice shirt ya sahby, you’re dropping cool hints for anxious upcoming engineers like myself, keep up the good work man

[thatguy]

Great stuff, Tamer!

Wish I'd had somebody to teach me theses things way back when. (Although I have to say the school of hard knocks has been an excellent teacher.)

One thing to add, when you mention finessing systems made by others, it's useful to keep in mind that most systems you run into in the real world aren't really created by any one person or group. They're almost always grown organically, starting with someone's intentions but then taking on a life of their own and evolving into something the originators could never have imagined.

Once you accept that the intricacies of a complex system that has little apparent rhyme or reason are the result of countless decisions and changes by countless individuals, each with their own motivations, you free yourself to dig into the mechanics of it and work it in your favor.

[aminkhaled]

The effort you put to provide us with this qualitative content is amazing and unique. I suggest you use the same blue color background that you used in your previous videos!

[myairspace]

Recent mechanical engineering graduate that's looking for their first job! These videos are helpful, thank you!

[mostafamamed]

I'm in my first year as a mechanical engineering student, love your content from Egypt 🇪🇬

[mwisalamukwemba]

I'm an incoming 2nd year engineering student love this content!!!

[jackyluo]

Great timing in this video dude was praying for it

[murk]

Not sure if you have already made a video like this,
you should make a video about how to study, break down and understand content, study tips, things like mind maps and what not
Specifically for Engineering students!!

[lamar]

Great video. I also made my own version of a mind map for BJJ. It helps me keep direct track of the systems I want to work on, and the options that appear.

[emperoranywhere]

Your video is great thanks for the tips I am going to engineer mechanical next year at college and these tips helped me a lot

[eliaswischnivetzky]

bro... hearing 8:34 right after your last video, feels bad man, stay strong

[thejomarifernandez]

2:43 This is exactly what I wanted to tell my siblings, but couldn't share it clearly & shortly. I hate people who won't bother changing your sched based on your needs. That's why when they placed me in English learning development 2 and dropped me off AP History & AP Statistics during my sophomore year, I fought back & even involved the vice principal and the principal. After that, I still wasn't satisfied. I wanted to get out of now English learning development 3 since I don't need it so I passed the ELD exam, talked to a Pre-Calc teacher to let me take the final exam & passed first sem of pre-calc with 103% (I did the extra credit as well) by only taking the exam & not attending the entire semester. I proceeded to take AP Stats, AP History & Pre-Calc including honors Chem & AP Physics during sophomore year. Sometimes, u gotta do what u gotta do. Don't let someone's expectations limit what u can do.

[merzougabderrahmanebv]

I really liked ur view of life and the smart tips you gave it to the world in very young age and experience, this is a Proof that Age doesn't matter compared to what we see in life and how wise we may be in it, i hope that we meet and have a good talk in the meantime i wish the best for you brother. بارك الله فيك وفي علمك وعملك☕