Ideal Job

The pic today is from last weekend's rugby game, the New South Wales Waratahs v. the (New Zealand) Wellington Hurricanes. It was certainly a great game. Got off to an immediate score by the Tahs (who coincidentally sported the same light blue I had on!). But the tables soon turned, and the Canes followed with two tries (5 points each, with a follow-up conversion worth 2 points). Each half is 45 minutes, which makes for the ultimate physical challenge - endurance and brute strength. At half time, the score was all but tied! Yet in the end, the Tahs put up a formidable lead (39-30) over the Canes! As they say, football (i.e. soccer) is a gentlemen's sport played by barbarians, but rugby is a barbarians' sport played by gentlemen. Indeed, the gents kindly shook hands and seemed the best of friends, even from opposing sides, as soon as the final whistle blew.

Today marks a day of relaxation! Yesterday was a Theory of Statistics mid-semester exam, and Monday was a Fluid and Particle Mechanics mid-semester exam. But I think both turned out quite well (I'll report back with results). I've since heard about my Circuit Analysis mid-semester exam (which I took before the mid-semester break); I earned a 37.5/40! I'm still waiting on my essay in philosophy, we're scheduled to receive our marks back next week.

I really like the way exams work in Australia. The grading system isn't based on a curve, as I understand it. That has a lot of intrinsic benefits, but I'd like to point out to of the most important, in my opinion:

1.) The first is the effect of the grade on the student. Often in the U.S., the highest grade on an exam is in the 60s (the exam is designed this way), but since the average is in the 30s or 40s, the score in the 60s becomes the A+, and everything else is adjusted accordingly (this is in engineering classes). So, even though you've earned an A+ in a class, you still know you've earned a sixty-something percent average, which makes you feel less than competent in that particular subject. However, in Australia, the exams are designed such that the student who really knows their stuff will earn 100% on the exam, difficult though it may be. So if you've finished the semester with an A+, that corresponds to a high 90s percentage, which seems consistent with your knowing the material.

2.) Additionally, in a system with curved grading, there is dis-incentive to help colleagues succeed - this clashes with the natural inclination to help others who don't understand, which leaves students confused. Imagine one student who has a strong understanding of the subject, but he/she is the only one in their class of 20 to have said understanding. They're certainly guaranteed the A+! But for each student in their class that they help, they're now bringing the curve up, which equally brings their grade down by nature of the curving system. Magnified by hundreds of students (as engineering classes are rarely small), I see this effect all too often unfortunately.

So, I appreciate the raw scores style of grading that occurs in most, if not all, classes here at UNSW.

Yesterday, I had a really nice chat with a few mates from the U.S. (Nick, a fellow from the University of Texas at Austin, and Joseph, a chap from Georgia State University). We visited the White House, a bar on campus, where I had an excellent mocha (for the first time!). Amidst conversation, we discussed where we'd like to be / what our dream job would be. Of course, my dream job would be something like professional musician, movie score writer, professional athlete (surfer, what?!), etc, but then it came down to ideal job (as a sort of definition of "practical" dream job). And I realized that there's quite a lot of possibility out there for a mechanical engineer who puts the work in during his college years. For example, Ethicon is designing laparoscopic tools for minimally invasive surgery. NASA continues to design the next generation of rockets to expand upon our knowledge base. Apple and other computer companies are so advanced that fluid mechanics around air flow is a critical issue in their latest models. Cars are on the verge of an electric vehicle revolution and a transition into automobility at the same time. And of course, the main cause of death worldwide is still heart disease, which could be solved by better artificial heart technology. All of this, and much more, is what's available to the mechanical engineer who's determined, who lacks entitlement, who's passionate about making a difference, and who doesn't mind challenging a few things along the way.

So my dream job? Be in the Blue Man Group, maybe. My ideal job? Not quite there yet, but I wouldn't say there's one job where I'd need to be in order to feel like it's ideal, and more that there's a whole range of "ideal" where I'd be happy.

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