For engineering students, the journey from classroom to career begins with exposure. The IEM Young Engineer Section (YES) is creating opportunities for students to connect with industry professionals, explore career paths and experience engineering beyond textbooks.
At the IEM YES Career Matching Day, Ir. Dr Cheong Thiam Fook shared his career journey and encouraged students to consider engineering opportunities in growing sectors such as cooling, refrigeration and data centres.
“The main objective is to motivate and encourage younger generations to pick up engineering in view of the growth of engineering professional technologies in our country.”
The Career Matching Coffee Chat also gave students a casual setting to meet companies such as ABB and Tokai. Loh Yue Hung, Committee Member of IEM YES, highlighted the value of exploring different industries through direct conversations.
“Because you have so many companies in the convention, as students we can go around, talk to different people, and from there, network and get to know different industries,” Loke explained.
He added that exposure to a variety of companies and people from different fields, presented clarity on potential choices for future career.
Meanwhile, the Ideas Competition: Pitch for Tomorrow challenged students to turn knowledge into solutions while building confidence and pitching skills.
For winners Jordan Tan Y-Chong and Lim Jia Le, the experience showed how engineering concepts can tackle real-world challenges.
“From an engineering student’s perspective, this is a really important platform, as it helps bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience. We are usually just facing textbooks and knowledge but don’t have much practical exposure. This convention gives us a great opportunity to approach real problems and try to solve them using our own innovative ideas,” said Tan.
ENGINEER & MARVEX ultimately offers students more than industry exposure, it gives young engineers a place to connect, explore and turn ideas into possibilities.