Engineering Portrait of Portfolio – Statement of Purpose, Intent and Strategy

This document outlines the target audience, objective, and motivation of this engineering portrait

Audience

The target audience for this portrait are potential mentors, teammates, collaborators, faculty
researchers, current and future employers, and any other individuals or entities in consideration of
working with me.

Objectives

This document is intended to accomplish the following objectives.

1) To provide a considerably more complete and meaningful set of information regarding the
engineer that is myself. When compared to traditional resume/CV/cover letter approach, this
portrait shall allow its audiences to
a. (Complete) – gain the full picture, rather than snapshot, of my technical skill portfolio,
personal technical development plan, leadership philosophy, long term goals, long term
strategy, ideal environment, strength, weakness and lastly a complete assessment of my
past and current career trajectory
b. (Meaningful) – provide the necessary information the audiences need to make
meaningful and sound decisions, rather than one based on loss aversion or risk
assessment.

This document is NOT intended to convince or persuade my audiences to rule in my favor. Rather, it
should provide the information needed by the audiences to make the right decision for the organization
or institution of which I am considering to be a part.

Motivation

The traditional “bid” system in which individuals apply to an organization for funding, employment,
education, research, etc, are based upon, in general, history of the individual (such as test scores,
resume, GPA, etc) and an exceedingly brief interview process. These limitations, often as the result of
the time constraints, either neglects, belies or exaggerates the true capability, personality, goals,
leadership traits and other essential elements of what constitutes a strong contributor or leader. To be
successful, an organization, wants and needs to find the best people and put these people in the right
place. Therefore, it is the motivation of this portrait to provide all the necessary information to the
organization or institution so they can make the best possible decision given the limited time of the
interview process.

In addition, I want to present a complete portfolio of my past, present and future self. I want you to
know as much about me as I can convey in these pages. This level of candor is needed not only
because it’s required for an honest professional relationship, it is also necessary for good decision
making.

Lastly, I also want to differentiate myself. I want to present myself in a way that is an in depth and
genuinely meaningful characterization of a human being. After all, people hire people, they don’t hire
robots who can do or have done a certain number of things.