My name is Brian Larkin and I graduated in May 2011 with a degree in mechanical engineering. I am originally from Garden City, KS but now live and work in Stamford, CT, about 45 minutes outside of New York City. I was born and raised a huge KU football and basketball fan (since 2008 was my freshman year, the picture needs no explanation) and still watch the Kansas City Royals religiously, so that consumes a lot of my free time. I really enjoy traveling as well, and have been lucky enough to visit many places these past few years, including the 2011 Self Fellows capstone project in Shanghai and Beijing. I currently work for GE Energy Financial Services, the energy investing arm of GE Capital. I will talk more in my next “Connections”piece about my job and how I found myself in finance with an engineering degree.
I had the chance to get involved in a variety of projects and opportunities while I was at KU: I was a member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity, co-founded the KU Energy club, volunteered in the Feedstock to Tailpipe Research Initiative, and was a team member on the Third World Wind Senior Design project. I took an economics and environmental sustainability class in Germany one summer, took two Finance classes through the School of Business, three semesters of German, and a class on Globalization. My interactions with other students and my involvement in clubs and other social functions were often outside of the School of Engineering entirely. Engineering was obviously a big part of my college career, and the Self Program was a truly fantastic experience as well, but these other experiences and classes had an equally important impact on both my personality and my career goals. I am fairly confident that most 2011, 2012, and 2013 Self Alumni would share that sentiment.
With that said, the one piece of advice I would provide, particularly for a freshman or sophomore in the School of Engineering, is really just to echo what many of the previous “Connections” pieces recommended– get involved, both inside and outside of the School of Engineering, and make sure that involvement spans the University community and often falls outside of your comfort zone. At this point it sounds repetitive and monotonous, but the more often you take advantage of opportunities to see new things, meet new people, or gain new experiences, the more fondly you will look back on your college experience. There is no template either, as studying abroad, taking new classes, hearing a new speaker, or joining certain clubs is not for everyone in every case. Just make sure that you find one or two new opportunities each semester and dive in.
A further piece of advice to the above (one that many engineers may well disagree with): The more time you are able to spend away from the classroom, laboratory, and your engineering textbooks, the better engineer you will be one day. That sounds like some rash advice, coming from someone not in the engineering field, but I truly believe that is the case. Whether you stay in the engineering field for your entire career or not is irrelevant. The ultimate differentiators in your career will be the intangible skills and the personality that you build in college and early on in that career. The Self Program does a great job of fostering that growth, but the program by itself cannot actually build interpersonal skills and self-confidence; it can only put you in a position to develop them. Experiences outside of the classroom and away from your textbooks, especially while surrounded by the rich culture and intellectual community at KU, will ultimately help you not only decide where you want to go in your career, but will help shape you as a person. For that reason, do not get so bogged down with the demands of an engineering curriculum to lose sight of that point.
That may not be the advice you were expecting, and I am not belittling the importance of good grades and the fundamental engineering education – that’s still what gets your foot in the door for that first job. The more important skill set though is the one you deploy once you arrive at that job.
OK, I am going to throw you a curveball recommendation on the restaurant front: Thai Siam - outstanding Thai food out on the corner of Kasold and 6th Street. Give it a try and tell them Brian sent you. Just kidding, they will only look at you funny if you say that. But do try it.
Hope everyone’s summer is off to a good start and see you next week.
-Brian