One of the big things you learn in engineering, after four years of cramming for exams and having all these labs to do, is that you learn how to learn new things. That’s the biggest skill that transfers over. Every day I’m asked to look into things that are new to me—but I’ve been in that place before.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. And, when you don’t know the answer, don’t give a BS answer, to avoid looking bad in front of others—that snowballs into people not wanting to ask questions when they don’t know something. So, one of my biggest tips to succeed is just to be honest about what you know and what you don’t know.
The Dutch are super nice people and super great, but it will always be better if you learn Dutch. There are lots of people that I would see here and there, and speak to in English, but in the past six months that I’ve been learning Dutch and speaking to those same people—they’re like whole new people. They have better conversations, they make jokes, and I don’t feel like there’s this timer that after 15 minutes they don’t want to keep talking.
That Monday after the interview, I sent him an email with three solved puzzles and said, “ It didn’t go as well as planned [during the interview] last Friday, I hope this makes up for it.” He really liked that I did that, and that’s how I got the job. A bit of perseverance.
Insights from Doug Lau