A typical day for a third year Electronic Engineer at York!

In this post, I’m going to take you through what a typical day for an Electronic Engineering student might look like at York. Due to being in my third year I don’t have as many contract hours as I did in my first two years. But that doesn’t mean I have less work or fun things to do!

Wakey wakey

I typically wake up about 6:30-6:45am, depending on the time of the lecture or lab I have that day (don’t worry on the weekend I give myself a lie in until at least 7:30!). After my eyes adjust, I stumble out into my kitchen and make myself a cup of tea and some crumpets. I’ll eat my breakfast in bed, all cosy surrounded by my duvet and all the blankets!

By 8:00 I will have got dressed and make my packed lunch for the day and sort out any last-minute things I need to take onto campus.

On this day I have a 9:00am so I will leave at 8:30 as I hate rushing! As it’s raining I need my trusty umbrella but by listening to some music I get to campus ready for the day!

On to campus

I have a two-hour period between my lectures so I head to the Spring Lane Building to catch up on some work for a Software Engineering project. This is a 30-credit module (my largest one of the year). It has required my team and me to essentially start up a business and develop our own software application. I’ve taken on the role of the Financial Manager and so keeping track of income revenue, expenses and making sure that the team is getting paid for the hours worked (unfortunately not real money!).

Spring Lane is one of the newer buildings on Campus West and the top floor is open for students to do their own study. My housemates and I, even though we study different degrees, have got into the habit of studying together which is really nice as in the moments that you have a bit of self-doubt or a revelation about a topic it nice to have people there to share it with!

Lab work

So, after another lecture, I head up to the fourth-floor labs in the Physics and Electronic Engineering Building which is where we do practical hardware circuit building and labs. Today I spent the time testing a circuit which my team and I have built to see if over a range of input voltages the behaviour changes, the result was positive which means in the next lab we can move forward.

Engineering, as a degree course and as an industry, is male-dominated however on my course I’ve been lucky to not only have a group of friends who I can get on with socially but we are able to study together. This afternoon spontaneously my course mates Lauren and Amy and I had a coffee and have a bit of a ‘put the world to right’ moment which is nice to be able to have.

University Radio York

One of the societies that I am apart of is University Radio York (URY) and after my coffee with the girls, I spent a bit of time working on the content for the upcoming episode of my show ‘There’s Nothing like a Showtune!’. URY is one of the oldest societies at York and being able to not only be a part of something that has a legacy at the university but also allows me to have a control of something with my name on it.

A huge interest and love of mine is Musical Theatre and I channel this into my show – a whole hour dedicated to the songs of London’s West End, America’s Broadway and the world of Hollywood movies. I was first invited on a friend’s show in my first year and then co-hosted a show in my second and then this year took the plunge and thought ‘why not? If no one listens to it, it doesn’t matter because the only person I’m actually doing this for is me’.

Industry placement

I started my degree being on a three years bachelors course. However, due to enjoying the course so much, I realised that I wanted to gain some industrial experience over a longer period. So, after seeking advice from the Careers centre and my academic supervisor, I have now changed my course to a five-year master’s degree. Next year I will be working at JCB for the year before returning to York for my final year. I’m very excited for my placement and experiencing what my life could be life once I graduate.

Time to head home

I typically leave campus and start to head home about 6pm. I have found that I work best when I structure my day as if I was in a standard ‘9 to 5’ (or in my case 6pm) job which allows me to have some time to relax and spend time with my friends.

And that’s it! In the evenings typically, I’ll get straight into my pyjamas or comfy clothes and make some dinner. Then I might FaceTime a friend or my family and then potter around with whatever TV show I’m currently watching on in the background. I hope that you have found this interesting and I hope it has given you an insight into what life could be life for you at the University of York.