From “Can I Do This?” to Becoming Part of the Team: Lessons From My Apprenticeship at ISRO
My first real experience working in a professional engineering environment began during my apprenticeship at ISRO On my first day, I was introduced to the project. They explained what the project was, its purpose, its scale, what my role would be, and the prerequisites I needed to understand before getting started. At that point, everything sounded exciting. I was about to work in a real…
My apprenticeship at ISRO marked my first professional experience in an engineering environment. On my first day, I was introduced to the project and given my first task. However, I struggled to understand the codebase and the system as a whole. This was a stark contrast to my college projects where I was familiar with the entire application.
My mentor recognized my doubts and took the time to explain the reasoning behind the code's implementation. He also showcased his thought process while integrating a new feature, which helped me approach the codebase differently. Over the next three days, I spent time working alongside my mentor, observing how he thought about the system rather than just the code.
This shift in perspective taught me the importance of understanding how data flows, the responsibility of different components, and the right questions to ask. After three months of working independently, I no longer started tasks with uncertainty but instead asked how to approach them. This change in mindset marked a significant transition for me, moving beyond simply writing working code to understanding the consequences of my solutions and making safe changes.
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