Jacob Raham

Background

About Jacob Raham

Originally, I was hoping to go straight into school for Engineering, but I instead decided to work towards getting experience in the field so that I could see the engineering world first hand in a real world application. I experienced a great view of that in Seattle working downtown on over 100 different job sites, including many large-name projects like the first Amazon-Go location and its corresponding Biosphere. My time in Seattle, although relatively short, produced an excellent understanding of the contribution and importance of concrete and its strength in those 40+ story buildings, roads, runways, and special projects with all kinds of new concrete techniques and unique applications. I then moved on to a company that produces Polymer Modified Asphalt Binder in Anchorage, Alaska, because this seemed like a good opportunity to expand my skills and knowledge, and also gave me the opportunity to have 5 months off each winter (which seemed like a great situation for pursuing schooling and furthering my education.) I am currently in Anchorage still with this same company, and have learned a lot and grown a lot, due to the responsibility of being the one person that is solely responsible for our product’s performance. I have really loved and enjoyed this responsibility and the new challenges that present themselves every single day, requiring new solutions and experiments and tests, and a large amount of math (which, not sarcastically, is one of my favorite parts.) This job position has required a huge amount of flexibility, a need to be available 24/7 and show up at any time of the day or night regardless of how many hours I have worked, and an ability to learn a huge variety of things very quickly. Some days I am the resident mathematician, and some days I’m scrambling to verse myself in chemistry to solve a new problem, and some days I have to try and be a physicist/amateur engineer. Although I have no legitimate education in these areas (beyond high school), I spend a huge amount of my free time learning about them out of pure curiosity and love for the subjects and for learning in general. I truly enjoy the learning, and am hoping to start my journey towards an education that would equip me to step into the world of engineering. My biggest desire right now is to learn, but I’d really love to find a job that provides me a stable income that can contribute towards my future and my education, and that allows me to use my brain to solve important problems and make a tangible difference in the lives of other people.