Yang Zhou - Professional Statement - Purdue University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering - BSEE
As a graduating senior of the Electrical Engineering program here at Purdue University I am confident that I am prepared for a full time position as an entry-level engineer. I have already demonstrated my aptitude for learning with my performance in the mainstream electrical theory courses that are required by the BSEE plan of study; moreover, throughout my plan of study I have placed a heavy emphasis on hands-on learning by signing up for courses such as ECE557, which is a graduate level lab course that teaches the fundamentals of semiconductor device manufacturing in our cleanroom facilities here at Purdue. I’ve also enrolled in EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) so that I may gain more of an insight to real-world engineering practices and the overall engineering design process in an educational environment. This inclination for real-world learning carries on outside of school as well; I am well known among friends and colleagues for fabricating circuit boards in my basement using my own photolithography equipment. Learning about electronics is not only something I do academically but as a hobbyist as well and I will be sure to carry this capacity for learning into the workplace.
As I recognize the importance of teamwork and diversity in the workplace I have made an effort to integrate these into my plan of study as well. My Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation proves that I am able to work in a team environment with people of various backgrounds, as all of the core courses of this certificate program typically revolve around purely team based work and the certificate program is open to people of all majors. Diversity wise I myself am of Chinese descent, but have taken both three years of Spanish in high school and two semesters of Japanese here at Purdue. I am very open to people of different cultures and have worked on teams with people of various descents on projects in EPICS as well as in entrepreneurship and ECE classes.
All of this academic experience is great, but ultimately nothing beats real world, on-the-job experience to prepare you for a full time job. Knowing this I made a big push to cram in as much work experience as I could throughout my time in college, even sacrificing some semesters for internship experience. Since high school through my sophomore year at college I worked summers with the mechanical engineers under Professor Zheng Ouyang; here I learned the basics of mechanical CAD design under experienced engineers and had the chance to manage and design some of my own projects as well. I gained a lot of teamwork skills in the diverse environment there gained valuable experience in real-world design principles and project management as well.
After working at Professor Ouyang’s lab for quite some time I felt that I needed to gain some experience in a more industrial setting and managed to obtain an internship position with Intel Corporation at Fab 12 in Chandler, AZ. There I learned a lot about the overall semiconductor manufacturing process as well as equipment maintenance and troubleshooting. I was actually able to use my previous background in mechanical CAD design to come up with my own proposals for projects addressing safety or cost values and saw many of these projects through to their completion with my aptitude for project management. It is probably for this reason that I was extended an offer for full-time employment by my hiring manager at Intel, and I hope that you will do the same.
From the above examples I hope it is clear that I am prepared for a full-time entry-level engineering position. I believe that my aptitude for learning, team skills, diverse background, and project management experience will make me an excellent addition to your engineering staff and I hope that you will think the same.
Sincerely,
Yang Zhou
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