August Mentor Spotlight featuring Jingyan Wang
Background and Introduction
Can you tell us a little about yourself and your current role?
Hi, I’m Jingyan Wang. I graduated from Texas A&M University with a mechanical engineering master’s degree in 2022 and now work as a control system engineer at Linde. At Linde, we produce gas, help solve climate challenges with our technology, and make our world more productive. And, in this industry, I think control engineering is the most interesting part, we make all the equipment talk to each other and run as we want them to.
What inspired you to pursue this career?
During grade school, I had the incredible opportunity to intern as a mechatronic engineer at EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel Mill. I was thrilled to witness the intense, fiery spectacle of the electrolyzer at work in the furnace and the molten metal flowing through the process line. This experience also taught me the critical role of control systems in not only maintaining factory efficiency but also in ensuring the safety of operators. The excitement led me into industry and the understanding of control system led me to my current job.
Career Journey
What was your first job, and how did it lead to where you are today?
My first job was a CAD drafter at a startup semiconductor company in my gap year. That’s a repeatedly job, but also gave me a lot of chances to talk to operators and technicians. I learned their ways of understanding things: observe, take notes, raise questions, then find the right person to get the answer. It’s the opposite path from learning from a textbook, but it’s how people keep improving at work. Later on I come back to school, but I always remind myself to respect technicians, even though they laugh at us all the time, lol.
Daily Life and Skills
What does a typical day look like for you in your current role?
It’s hard to describe a typical day, because a control engineer works on all kinds of things. I have 7.30 to 4.00pm work time in the office regularly. The tasks during the day can be: program logic and design HMI for a project, design the communication networking through a factory, config hardware devices, review documents. There’s also 30% of the time we need to go to the vendors for inspection and go to the sites for loop testing or troubleshooting.
Advice and Inspiration
What qualities do you believe are most important for someone to be successful in your industry?
Patient and organized. You need to be patient while troubleshooting an issue on site. You also need to be organized to remember all the trouble you solved.
Life Outside of Work
What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of work that help you recharge?
I try to keep active which helps me reduce stress. For example, I go workout and practice kendo (the way of sword) every week and I started to run recently too.
Looking Ahead
What are your future career goals or aspirations?
I have a wild dream to be a commissioning engineer later in my career. I didnt think through a lot of questions, like how to get there, do I really want it, and how would I balance my life and work etc. But let me just dream about it first and I’ll keep you updated.
Personal Insights
If you could change one thing about your career journey, what would it be and why?
I wish I have been proud of myself since day one. As a person who has been taught to be humble my whole life, I rarely celebrate any of my achievements, but keep my eyes on what I did wrong. That’s not helping me with my mental health or career. I hope I have that confidence earlier and understand it’s ok to be ambitious.
Fun and Light-hearted
If you could have any superpower to help you in your career, what would it be and why?
I hope I have the power to remember everything I need to remember and forget what I wish to forget.
Closing
Where can our readers follow your work or connect with you?
www.linkedin.com/in/jingyan-wang-1a0494212