Aureen Currin
Staff Engineer, Combustion CoE
GE Aircraft Engines

Q: When you first started your career - what was the biggest lesson learned on the job?

A: Work isn't school. Nobody checks to see if your work is correct--it's up to you. If you don't check it, you will put your company at risk for lawsuits and producing faulty products could hurt people. Everything has to be "A" quality.

Q: What is the underlying foundation for career success today?

A: For me, understanding my capabilities, my desires, and myself. I know who I am, what I want, and what I need to get it. I look for job opportunities that align with what I can do with what I want to do and then I take the initiative to get those opportunities.

Q: How do you keep up-to-date within your industry?

A: I learn all the new tools that my company uses, including software tools. Sometimes I run into a problem that requires expertise that I don't have - I get a textbook for an overview. Then I go talk to the senior engineers and learn from them. This broadens my background and helps me solve problems in different ways, but also helps me get my problem solved in a timely manner. If I run into a problem that we have never seen before, I go to the library and start searching for papers.

Q: What advice would you give a recent engineering graduate looking for work?

A: The most pressing thing to tell recent graduates is: Figure out what you want to do. When I ask, I almost always hear "anything, I just want a job". That might be true, but companies want to hire somebody who enjoys and is good at what they are hiring for. Think about what subjects you enjoyed in school. Did you like Heat Transfer or Design for Manufacturing? Do you enjoy leading teams or performing involved calculations? Do you prefer working with people or computers?

Once you know what type of work you would like to do, research companies that fit the mold. For example, companies that make expensive things like jet engines are more likely to need someone to do heat transfer calculations all day. Companies that sell 1,000,000 pocket calculators a day are more likely to need someone to design things that are easy and cheap to manufacture. ASME can help you find companies that do what you are interested in--there is probably a member somewhere who works at a company like the one you want.

Q: Has your involvement in ASME changed or influenced your career path?

A: Volunteering through ASME has given me opportunities to grow my leadership, organizational, program management, and influential skills. Without those, I would just be another engineer toiling in obscurity. I have met incredible people who encouraged me, taught me, and inspired me to reach new heights.