• Question: what do you say to young people who aspire to be like you someday ?

    Asked by ava to Tom, Sanjeev, Orla, Fiona, Cillian on 11 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Fiona Malone

      Fiona Malone answered on 11 Mar 2020:

      1. Do or study the things you like. If you like the subject and enjoy it, then you’ll succeed in college and work.

      2. Don’t waste time or energy comparing yourself to other people in STEM. Life is not a competition and everyone has a different timeline. Celebrate your successes and learn from your mistakes.

      3. Be patient. Failure is progress and part of the process, especially when being an engineer and solving problems or designing devices. It’s very rare you’ll get it right first time so just try, try and try again.

    • Photo: Cillian Thompson

      Cillian Thompson answered on 12 Mar 2020:

      Well there are a number of things I have learned throughout life so far:
      1. Don’t compare yourself to others, work at your own pace and keep motivated. If you want to do something don’t let others tell you that you wont be able or that its not possible because if you really want something and you are motivated by it nothing will stop ya.
      2. Everyone is different and I suppose this links into the first point where not everyone will be an engineer or a scientist which is perfectly ok its not for everyone and it is absolutely perfectly ok to not be interested in science or maths or engineering.
      3. Don’t be afraid to try something and fail, some of the best inventions in the world have come from people that tried something a thousand times and failed but the 1001st time they tried they succeeded so please do not be afraid of failure because that is a major part of learning, and that goes for anything in life not just STEM.

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