How to shift from Entry-Level to Entre-Employee

How I automated my job to the point of a real product

Halfway through college, I decided to leave because I wanted to gain perspective about how I was spending my time and what I wanted to do for a career. I had no industry experience and yet I was determined to innovate no matter what I did.

Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life. — Joni Eareckson Tada

From intern to innovation

I had a rough idea about how paper was made, but most of my knowledge is from my wikipedia binge before the interview. Due to my experience, I was tasked with jobs geared towards technicians and would work with a full-time engineer for more technical jobs. Some jobs required me to build datasets and analyze individual processes within the mill.

Here is an overview of what I’ve learned:

Kraft Pulping ~ Chip to Dirty Pulp

Washing ~ Dirty Pulp to High Density Storage

Washing to High Density Storage

Paper Stock to the Machine

Pulp to the Head Box

Wet-end to Dry-end of the Paper Machine

While I was given this work and accomplished it; it was the minimum expectation. My goal is to always add as much value to what I’m passionate about. As I learned more about paper properties and how the paper process achieves those properties, I came up with ideas to automate and predict how paper would turn out before the paper was formed. I began to collect all the information I thought mattered when determining paper properties. I taught myself how to build correlations with linearly inseparable datasets using Deep Learning and demoed a computer program for my manager that predicts paper properties before the paper is formed. Now I have a future client for my software.

Using Deep Learning to Correlate Ring Crush with other Paper Tests

How to get started at your job

Don’t depend on others to build your knowledge. We live in an era where there is enough free information to build a real product. Always widen the scope of your work to the point where it becomes part of your life story. While I was doing lab work, I took a few steps backwards, and made an innovative product that had the potential for millions of dollars in cost-savings. While you may work for a company, become an entre-employee and add value the company by innovating at your level.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by + 372,747 people.

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