Introduction: Welcome to The Nomadic Engineer Blog!

Hi Everyone! I'll keep this short. I'm Dr Zee, a recent Chemical Engineering PhD graduate from Texas A&M. Prior to completing my PhD, I completed two degrees (a Bachelors and Masters) also from Texas A&M.

I've always had a passion for teaching and outreach, which led to the creation of "thegradstudent" account on Instagram. Although, the channel was initially created to document my PhD journey, I am thankful for the online community that I got to know and interact with over the years. This led to me eventually creating "The Grad Student Blog" that I updated with useful blog posts for current graduate and undergraduate students.

Life Update

2020 has been an expected year for all of us. I started off the year by packing up my life and moving 8000+ miles across continents in order to excitedly complete my PhD. When I returned to the US, the economy was one of the best it had been in years! Unfortunately, this took a nosedive over the first few months of the year, and led to an extremely difficult job market (for everyone graduating this year).

Despite the pandemic I was able to land a number of interviews, and also network successfully. I ended my job hunt by receiving an offer on the morning I actually graduated, which I eventually accepted a week later. It's an exciting opportunity that I'm looking forward to, but I'll keep the details for later. For now, I'm enjoying a few weeks off, trying to reflect and re-organize my thoughts on everything, as I prepare for a life post-graduation.

Purpose of The Nomadic Engineer Blog

I've had the fortune of calling multiple countries my home, i.e., from the Middle East to Asia to North America, and my life has been nomadic so far. I don't see myself settling down permanently any time soon, and the purpose of this blog is to capture what it's like to be an engineer in the current landscape who is almost always on the move. I plan to talk about my experiences (including travel), STEM education, life tips, hacks and recommendations, and hopefully meet and learn from like-minded individuals over the next few years.

That's it for now - Dr Z