Dac Dang Khoa Nguyen
Email: dacdangkhoa.nguyen@student.uts.edu.au
Mobile: 0415392198
Re: Application for Graduate Engineer Required by Industrus
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Dear Sir or Madam,
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As a highly self-motivated and dedicated engineering student with strong fundamental skills in the field of Mechatronic Engineering, I would like to apply for the position of a Mechatronic Graduate Engineer.
The Graduate Program at Industrus comes to my attention by the offers provided by the company, to maximise the employee experiences while working at Industrus. They are the 12-months training programs for building necessary skills for future careers, and the hands-on learning by rotating the role and division of a project. The opportunities to be able to engage in different projects and the supports from the mentoring and buddy program are other reasons for my application for this program. I believe that my skills, experience, and technical background, I will be able to fulfil the selection criteria listed.
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A commitment to ethical conduct and the highest standards of professional accountability (3.1)
During my internships at the Robot People, I tried my best to maintain my work ethics and the highest standards of professional accountability throughout my whole internship. Working in a professional environment with a high expectation from the engineer manager, I was able to demonstrate both my skills, ethical conduct and professionality as an engineer. The experience came for a task that I was assigned during the a project that was developed as part of an order from a very important customer of the company. I was trying to produce the product that not only can meet the requirement from the customer and the head engineer, but also exceeding those requirements as well. My plan for achieving this was to develop essential features for monitoring software, and then link the software thought internet so that the monitoring can be conducted online. It was not an easy task to do, but it would be rewarding if it is achieved. Therefore, not only that I kept on fixing and developing the current features to make the product better day by day, but I also reported back to my supervisor about the current progress and always asked for his opinion before making any important decision or changes to the software. In the end, the product was happily accepted by both my supervisor and the manager to be delivered to the customer. It was a good learning experience for me.
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Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate both with other engineers and with stakeholders from different fields. (3.2)
I also had a chance to develop my communication skills during my internship, not only with other engineers but also with the customer as well. During the progress of the assigned task mentioned in the above paragraph, I had a chance to have a brief talk with the customer in a meeting with the company. The mission was to discuss with the customer about the software that they ordered from my company. My supervisor and the head engineer were there as well. The customer outlined the necessary criteria and the functionalities that he would like to see in the software to help to monitor a robot operation. I was also able to communicate effectively with the customer regarding the functionality of tracking the product cycle, and the total number of product as the description given was not clear enough. From the given specifications and the information collected from my questions, I was able to discuss with my supervisor and head engineer about the approach to designing and implementing this product. We had a meeting once every two weeks for reports on current progress and deciding what should be done in the next couples of weeks. As for me, I was able to communicate effectively with my supervisor, once every two days, about my progress and also the design decisions for the software product. In the end, both the head engineer and my supervisor were pleased and happy with the final product that we got after weeks of non-stop working.
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The ability to engage with a creative, innovative, and proactive environment (3.3)
My task was to develop monitoring software, which involved heavily in software engineering and design. They were not a part of the Mechatronic Engineering Curriculum at university. Still, as I was trained with a good fundamental in programming in a different programming language, I was able to approach the job quite quickly, with not much difficulty. However, there were still some areas that needed serious attention. There was a requirement of the software that the old data recorded can be retrieved to be reused for future purposes. In the beginning, I was thinking about writing the data to files and then stored them accordingly in different folders. However, I suddenly realized keeping track of those folders was not easy if there are thousands of them. It is true as the software is expected to run for a very long time. Therefore, I had to figure out a way to manage such a large amount of data. The answer was obviously a database. Using the database MySql actually helped me a lot in designing a way to monitor and retrieve old data according to the requirement of the customer.
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Demonstrated ability to use and manage information (3.4)
As an engineer, it is essential to be able to manage information effectively, primarily code documentation and reports about design decisions being made during the process of software development. Another ability that I learnt during my internship was the ability to use GIT and documentation effectively to keep track of my code and flows of the idea during the design of the software. As software design contains a lot of different areas, from user interface design and programming, to back end programming and data management, it is crucial to be able to use GIT for code management. Another essential aspect when handling a big project is the ability to document work for reviewing in the future. Combining with GIT, it becomes straightforward to debug or fix code if errors happen as the documentation keeps track of what being added or removed from the software structure, and git keeps the history version of the code of comparison. Learning GIT and adequate documentation is probably one of the best learning outcomes that I was able to achieve after the internship.
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The ability to manage your own performance in a professional environment (3.5)
In a professional environment, it is essential to be able to keep track of personal performance. My plan was to report and discuss the progress regularly with my supervisor, to able to get useful feedback for the design decision I made. After receiving the task from the head engineer and listening carefully to the requirement of the customer, I had a long discussion with my supervisor, basically to make sure that I understood what is required and expected from me to be able to complete the product, and discussed with my supervisor regarding the work needed to be done and the deadline for them. The whole task was broken down into three smaller subtasks. They were UI design, back-end design and database establishment. For each of them, my supervisor would help me with the difficulties that I had and also reminded me of the deadline. I also divided the subtasks into even smaller and achievable into short-time tasks, and then make sure that I finished the smaller subtasks as quick as possible while maintaining the quality of work. I then discussed with my supervisor once every two days regarding the current process and sought his feedback for further improvements in the current task. For me, to manage one performance effectively in a professional environment, it is important not only to be able to communicate well with both the other colleagues and the customers but also be able to manage time and workload effectively, by dividing the given tasks to smaller and easier to achieve subtasks.
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Demonstrated ability to work as part of a team and to show leadership when required (3.6)
Finally, teamworking is a crucial part of any project. Therefore, that was the first thing my supervisor mentioned me on the first day of my internship. He introduced me to every single member of the company and briefly described their roles in the company. It is essential to understand the position and role of each member in an organization, as every single employee is essential for keeping a whole prominent structure like a company to function effectively. Every day, I tried to communicate with members of the company as much as possible, to discuss work or maybe having a brief chat with them about some random topics. I tried my best to understand the team so that I can work well with them when required. During the process of designing the software for the customer, as it was only a section of a whole big product, I had to discuss carefully with another engineer at the company, who was in charge of the other part of the entire product. We usually had a small meeting every four days or maybe every Friday, including me supervisor as well, to check on the current process and integrating parts together where possible. It was enjoyable working with him, and I learnt a lot from him as well. He taught me many things regarding the world of Mechatronics that I didn’t know or notice. From working with him, I learnt the core fundamental requirement for working effectively in a team. It is communication. Effective communications lead to good mutual understanding and consequently leads to overall better working quality.
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I believe that I have a lot to offer and contribute to your organization. I am keen to develop my own skills more, both technical and interpersonal skills, and I am looking forward to contributing my skills and experience more in your organisation. In case you have any further question, please do not hesitate to contact me through my email dacdangkhoa.nguyen@student.uts.edu.au.
Thank you in advance for your time reading my application.
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Kind Regards,
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Dac Dang Khoa Nguyen