Meet Abdul Mughees Khan

        A person is what he makes himself. We find numerous examples in history of people who with their hard work achieved a lot in their lives. Abdul Mughees Khan is one such person who through his hard work made his dreams come true. Let’s go through his version of success!

Mughees graduated from NICE in 2014 and got a job at NESPAK instantly. A civil engineer by fate, he has done some remarkable work along with his group fellows on BIM which paved the way to NESPAK. For him, the professional life isn’t much different from university life as he still works and lives with his friends. This gave him a friendly atmosphere to work in opposed to the usual harsh environment one faces when stepping into professional life.

NICE was a home to him, with the graduation week the most memorable time. Sure that was one hell of a week which we all will never forget and hope to build a NICE legacy! NICE taught him all the necessary things from technical to interpersonal skills, stress and time management, coexistence.

According to him success of a person depends on the hard work and persistence one shows. In his view the curriculum of NICE is good and sufficient to make good engineers. Rest depends on an individual if he wants to learn and succeed!

When asked a few questions, he had some interesting things to say, let’s find out!

      1.      One thing that distinguishes NICE from other departments

They take word "School" in SCEE too literally.

      2.    GPA doesn’t matter. Myth or Fact?

It defines something but not everything. A good GPA will definitely help you land at a decent university for masters or increase your chances in getting a scholarship. It also helps you in making a good first impression at interviews or jobs. But it is not everything i have seen many people with low GPA landing at good places and the high GPA one not getting their due share and vice versa. 

      3.      NICE makes you a civil engineer, how would you become a human simultaneously?

Join a society with a purpose of learning you will learn ALOT from there. Consider hostel life as a blessing, you will make lifelong friends there as well as you will also learn to coexist with people. Moreover there is a place in NIT with a board "Library" written on it. Go there the legend says there is a treasure hidden at its top floor. I can give you a hint most people call it "Literature section". 

      4.       Any funny incidents in NICE?

There is a long list i cannot narrate them all. Proxies, collective class bunks, class trips, 2k11 welcome party preparation and the popular Grad Week.

      5.       What changes do you want NUST administration to do to make it a better institution? In particular NICE?

Introduce a strict plagiarism policy at every level. This thing is seriously affecting the quality of engineers produced by every institute. I am not saying this because i am very pious or i follow rules but i really feel that because of this thing the required purpose of engineering programs in not being filled. After 4 years if you talk about me, though i have passed all the exams and even got some good grades in some subjects but i only remember and comfortable at professional level with those things which i have done solely myself.

      6.       How important are internships and what did they teach you?

You must have heard people complaining that at every job they require experience and how come we have experience while studying at university?

The answer is internship. My advice for all juniors is, do as many internships in your 4 years as you can. When you go to a construction site or to a consultant office and observe their work, workflow, roles, responsibilities etc. a lot of things you have studied in your curriculum will start making sense. Your lectures will no long seem boring as well as you may make better decision yourself while choosing elective instead of jumping on the bandwagon. Moreover at the time of job hunt there is lot of chance that you get job at the company where you did internship.

      7.       Does your job require you to be innovative?

Yes. I and all of my final year project group members are working at NESPAK on a totally new thing that is Building Information Modeling (BIM). Currently there is no established work process or guidelines or experienced person in that specific area available at our workplace. We are totally on our own so particularly our job requires us to be extremely innovative since BIM claims to be an innovative technology and process in our field so everyone here expects it to be really different than their current work.

      8.       Do you think you can get away in your job just by knowing problem solving procedures and only a few concepts?

Unfortunately yes and i would call it a dilemma. Majority of the people in industry have established this fact in their minds that fresh people know nothing practically useful, they are totally useless so they will learn here and eventually become useful and reliable at work. Our pay packages compared to other disciplines define this thing as well. 

      9.       Advices for your juniors?

Utilize this time wisely, you will never get this much free time in professional life. Fate may have brought you to civil engineering and you do not like it but it is a very vast field, you will definitely find something of your interest in it if you explore.
It is understandable that you are struggling with Mechanics of Solids (MOS) or Theory of structures. Don’t worry, there are still many subjects waiting for you ahead in which you want to pursue your career without even touching structure. Choose elective and final year project wisely. Only go for that elective or project in which you feel you are best and want to pursue your career. Never follow the hype like all intelligent and cool people are opting for C elective so i will also do C, or this project is offered by a very famous senior teacher so i must go for this project. Lastly, you are living in a struggling country. You are among those privileged 5 % people of your age group who have access to higher education facility. This country is relying on you, you have much to prove. So act like it!

      10.   What is your source of motivation behind all this hard work?

Benjamin Franklin says "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing". Luckily or unluckily i suck at writing so why not try for the second part?

Those are some really encouraging and moving words! We all have a lot to understand and gain from all this. Let’s start working the way we should and act like responsible people! Thanks to our senior for giving so much time and enlightening us with some beautiful words!