Engineering an unexpected career path
From a young age, Dhushiyandan was inspired by the bright minds and problem-solving abilities of her engineer grandfathers. Her parents, who emigrated from Sri Lanka in the early 2000s, told her stories of how their fathers came up with ways to generate power and light during the country’s civil war.
But pursuing a degree in engineering wasn’t something that Dhushiyandan really considered during high school. She excelled in history and English, but was also drawn to chemistry and maths even though they didn’t come as naturally to her.
“At the end of year 12 I did a Myers Briggs tests and funnily enough, it said the worst occupation for me would be a computer engineer or something in that field. It said I didn’t have the right character for it. It made me wonder why,” Dhushiyandan says.
While her interests sat more in the humanities sector, she questioned why this meant that her career couldn’t sit in a more technical field.
“I thought about those certain characteristics that made me apparently not suited. Could I bring that different perspective to a technical field? Studies have shown that diverse perspectives bring the most innovative solutions. I want to be challenged and help people, so I thought this was a way to do that.”
Her brother, who was already studying computer science assured Dhushiyandan that there was a place for her in a STEM degree.