Name: Shageldi Gaylyyev
Submission Date: Oct 11, 2018
Glowing Moon for Darkness Future:
An Interview with Mechanical Engineer Who Has 10-Year Experience.
“The criteria to succeed in any job are to love the job and do it with passion,” said Murat Bayraktar who is a project coordinator in Mercedes Benz Company located in Istanbul, Turkey. He also said, in the online interview, that if one does not enjoy doing his /her job, will not be successful which does not necessarily mean he/she cannot do it. For Mr. Murat enjoying is more important than being able to do it.
That was one of the reasons why he chose Mechanical engineering. Although finding a job in this field is easy in Turkey, the main reason choosing this major was that machines took his attention. He studied in Istanbul Technical University which is world’s third-oldest technical university dedicated to engineering sciences located in Istanbul, Turkey. Besides concentrating his academic carrier, he played an active role in internships and clubs which he said it was helpful to increase his communication skills which he emphasized that it is very important.
Moreover, the networking that he built in clubs and internships did help him to find his first job. It was his last year when he started working in Bus Development department for Mercedes Benz Company as an intern. Since then, it’s been 10 years and he had experienced working in different positions. For instance, he worked on a project called Adblue which is a system, Ero 6, to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide released form exhaust. Right now, he is a project coordinator.
He loves his current position because it requires him to learn new information and keep updated. Since graduation from university, many things in his field have been updated and he had to do many researches to catch up. He added that it is not the most challenging part of his position. When a colleague does not do his/her part in the project, it is the most challenging part since Mr. Murat will be held responsible. However, it does not discourage him from growing in this field. He said that if he would quit his job the only reason would be repetition of same things every day. “It will start getting boring and if one get bored he /she would not want to come to the job,” he added. In his day-to-day job his time passes replying emails, focusing on customer feedbacks, and in the meetings. In international meetings, every person has different way to approach to the problem and Mr. Murat enjoys it since it improves his way of thinking.
In those meetings, having good communication skills is a must. He emphasized that sometimes his whole day passes in those meetings. Since they are coming from different cultural backgrounds, it is important to talk clearly and avoid some words or phrases that they might misunderstand. If he could go back in time, he said that he would learn and improve his language skills like German and English which would improve his communication skills. The most used communication methods are telephone, Skype, and email. In regular work hours, it is important to communicate with your colleagues clearly and in timely manner.
Emails are also main part of the communication. Every day, Mr. Murat spends minimum 3 hours writing emails. “Surely, it is important to have writing skills,” he said. When communicating with collogues by email it is important that it is brief and clear. Unnecessary information would only cause for confusion and waste of time.
Towards the end of the interview, Mr. Murat gave advices for college students who are pursuing a degree in Mechanical engineering. He said that GPA does not help you to find a job. Your GPA might be 2.8, but you have basic idea about each class and someone might have 4.00 and they got it by memorizing everything. He added that some classes that he took in college, for instance, Thermodynamics was not useful in his job, but it is important for an engineer to have basic knowledge about it in case of emergency. The first advice he gave to Mechanical engineers is to have a basic understanding in all engineering classes and avoid memorization. Secondly, playing active role in clubs is very important to improve one’s communication skills. Also, it is a good place to exchange knowledge since there will be students from other fields. Moreover, it helps to build a network that might help one in any difficulty or to find a job. Third, it is very important to take classes other than Mechanical Engineering field such as Economics, Public Speaking, Psychology or Philosophy to improve one’s point of view when dealing with a problem. He emphasized that most common expectation from an engineer is ability to solve problems and taking different classes will help to have different way of approaching to a problem. Forth, try to master in a different language that will help you in your future carrier. For instance, if one wants to work for a Mercedes Benz Company, learning German might help you in the future.
Starting from university life till retirement, do everything with love and passion. As Mr. Murat said “The criteria to succeed in any job are to love the job and do it with passion.” That way the real success, happiness, will be achieved. My darkness future is enlightened by interviewing Mr. Murat Bayraktar. I learned that the road to success is rough and challenging which requires work hard. More importantly, I need to love my major and everything that comes with it.
