Question: Hi Anna I was wondering, what courses did you have to do for your job and how long did it take to complete? Was it worth it?

Anna Zakrzewska answered on 2 Mar 2020:

Hello!
I did a Master in Engineering focusing on computer science and telecommunications (that’s a lot of basic courses like math and physics, as well as more engineering oriented, like programming, databases, signal processing, communications networks, project management…). This took 5 years, many of my colleagues found good jobs even before graduating but I decided to take a different path.

I left for Japan to work in a communications science laboratory, and this helped me shape my decision to go into research. I did another internship in an institute in Italy, and finally started a PhD in telecommunications (3.5 years of more specific courses). All in all, quite a long journey of 10 years till my last diploma but it was a great one! I don’t regret any piece of it 🙂 It brought me around the world and allowed to me to work on the latest technologies which is exciting!

There are many ways to get into engineering, and every person takes a different path depending in their interests- and this is the most important aspect to find one that would bring you joy and fulfilment. And by the way: learning does not finish when one graduates, that’s a constant process and we learn all the time, as there are new discoveries, trends, and technologies. The Internet of 2000 or even 2010 is quite different from 2020, isn’t it? 🙂