Last week I finally finished my university degree in mechanical engineering at Oxford Brookes. It’s been five years in the making and think I’ve learnt a lot in the process. Without a doubt though the most useful aspect of the degree was doing a years placement with an engineering company. I learnt much more about practical engineering during this year than at any time during the rest of the four year masters course.
The masters part of the course covered aspects that were more likely to be used in a real world engineering project. In some ways we were just left to get on with the project which was whilst very rewarding was stressful at the same time. The increased stress levels were due to having to prioritise the tasks whilst ensuring that the overall project would be completed on time. As with most projects the last few weeks were fairly hectic, and required juggling of revision and completion of the projects.
How does it feel now it’s all finished?
To be honest I’m not sure it’s sunk in yet that I have finished. Last week I was working pretty hard to get a new project finished, I’ll being writing about it in the next few weeks once everything is finalised. So I haven’t had much time to contemplate things; I’m having the next few days completely off, so will hopefully be able to reflect a bit more then.
So here’s the million dollar question, was the last 5 years and in excess of £30,000 worthwhile?
In general I would say it was a worthwhile experience. A lot of the knowledge gained over the cause could be learnt ‘on the job’ but it is unlikely that I would have come out with as broad a knowledge of engineering as I have got from university. This lack of breadth could have limited chances for career development in the future. Securing a job before finishing the course I think justifies the degree, and the placement year especially as it equipped me with the skills and knowledge to portray myself above a very strong field at the assessment centre.
What does the future hold?
This summer will revolve around doing some web design work, holidays and relaxing. The job in starts in early september in Bristol, so I will also have to find a base there at some point over the summer. From then onwards I will begin a new phase of my life as a working man! God help us all!!