***Editor’s Note: The “I Became An Engineer” blog runs every Friday. To share your story email jennifer.delaosa@advantagemedia.com***

This week’s story comes to us from ECN reader Odd Sandbekkhaug, Senior Director, UX Innovation, ADVA Optical Networking.

Growing up in the harsh weather conditions of Norway, I wanted to find an indoor job to escape the winter cold. Now I live in Dallas, Texas, and want my indoor job to escape the summer heat!

When I was in my early teens, I realized I probably needed to be building things for a living. I liked being creative but didn’t have enough artistic talent to pursue a career in that industry.

In my mind, there are two kinds of people who do creative things nobody else has done before: artists and engineers.

As a creative person with close to zero talent in the visual arts, engineering was a way for me to be creative and build things. Software programming offered me an unlimited canvas to work on; I could keep building and creating without ever having to refresh my supplies.

I’ve always had a fascination with mechanical devices. I loved how one piece of a mechanism made another piece move and seeing how many pieces could form intricate and unique machines. When home computers came along, I saw that programming was very similar to building mechanical machines, which I didn’t have the skills or resources to perform. Each line of code would connect with the next one, and form a bigger program to do something useful. I was hooked because I could create something out of nothing.

If I hadn’t become an engineer, I’d probably still be fulfilling my creative traits but as a woodworker. That’s what I do in my spare time and might be where I end up when I retire. I’ll keep working until I can afford to make a living building things out of wood instead of electrons.

I never really had a single overarching goal as an engineer and that’s still the case. Not knowing where I would end up, I just wanted to learn more and more. My job allows me to keep learning, building my skills and solving problems along the way. In my current role at ADVA Optical Networking, I’m responsible for building our user experience (UX) team. It’s a step that has brought me to the innovation-rich intersection of creativity and technology, where I feel right at home. UX bridges the gap between technology and people, and it’s my hope that ADVA will eventually lead our industry by making our products more accessible and usable.

Engineering and technology for its own sake isn’t enough, so instead I look at how they can augment our lives. This is how I’ve viewed the role of machines since I was young, they should do something useful and serve a useful purpose. For example, I feel we should be doing a lot more to make renewable energy more profitable, available, and affordable than fossil fuels. That would tip the scale in its favor.

I’ve had many personal and professional achievements over the years but perhaps my biggest accomplishment would be an amalgamation of the two. Moving my family to Europe for two years and then back again to Dallas was one of the most difficult and rewarding things I’ve done. Looking back, it was simultaneously a lot of work and surprisingly achievable. Unlike the traditional expat experience, we relied solely on ourselves so we ended up learning a lot about governments and bureaucracy on both sides of the Atlantic. The big stuff like getting a work permit, was surprisingly easy. The small stuff such as having cable TV connected or getting a haircut, was surprisingly difficult.

I think the future of engineering is very exciting; the traditional engineer stereotype doesn’t fit anymore. Companies such as IDEO are really helping to perpetuate this vision. There’s a role for all kinds of people in engineering now, and I think that no matter what your interests are, you will be connected with technology somehow.

Read other stories, here:

• A Note From The Editor: An Engineer’s Story
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Small FM Radio
• I Became An Engineer: Because I Loved LEGOs And Tinkertoys
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of The Cool Jackets
• I Became An Engineer: Because My Dad Said Not To
• I Became An Engineer: Despite Being Bad At Math 
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of Christmas Lights
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of Uncle Chet 
• I Became An Engineer: Because I Can’t Stop Asking ‘Why?’
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of Star Trek (Specifically Montgomery Scott)
• I Became An Engineer: Because I Was A Really Lucky Nerd
• I Became An Engineer: But ‘Nobody Knows’ Why
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of Nuclear Submarines
• I Became An Engineer: Because No One Was Hiring Shoe Salesmen
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of Mr. Kenny, The TV/Radio Repair Man
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Book (And My Mom)
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Cattle Ranch
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Wise Father And The Possibility Of Death
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of An Evil Mastermind
• I Became An Engineer: To Get Off The Tractor
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of My Rodeo Coach