Twenty-five years ago, I made the decision to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Since then, I have often grappled with one question:
Did those four years count for anything?
As a high school student, I was pretty clueless about what I wanted to do in the future.
I generally received good grades, so a STEM-related field seemed like a natural choice in those days.
And then, after high school, engineering school also seemed like the only alternative if one did not want to pursue a career in medicine.
When it came to choosing a branch, the idea of understanding how everyday things like refrigerators and cars worked seemed interesting. So I chose Mechanical Engineering.
However, this was followed by four long years of misery.
I didn’t enjoy — and was terrible at — most of the core subjects of Mechanical Engineering. Subjects such as Machine Design were my nightmare - I nearly flunked once, and for someone used to getting good grades, that was a shock.
On the other hand, I was drawn to the non-core courses such as statistical process control and industrial economics.
When it came to extracurricular activities, while most of my peers were interested in robotics contests, I enjoyed writing the college newsletter, leading marketing efforts for college events, and other similar pursuits.
In hindsight, there were clear signs of where my real interests lay.
Thus, after four painful years of undergraduation, I concluded that I was not cut out to be a mechanical engineer.
So, I decided to pivot - I chose to pursue higher studies and opted for a Master's in Decision Sciences. Back then, it was an emerging field that combined data and psychology to analyze how humans make decisions. In hindsight, that is the perfect foundation for a marketing career.
After completing my master's degree, I began working in the field of market research and gradually transitioned into marketing.
But even though I never worked a day as a mechanical engineer, I do believe it equipped me with a few foundational skills that helped me be a better growth marketer:
1. Funnels are systems
As an engineer, I was trained to see any machine as a series of interconnected parts.
If one gear slipped, the whole system failed.
In marketing, funnels function similarly. For example, if app installs are high but conversions are low, we examine each stage of the customer experience to identify what is adding friction.
2. Don’t guess, experiment
As an engineer, I learnt how to conduct controlled experiments—varying one input and observing the resulting output—to understand how they interact with each other.
The same approach is helpful for A/B testing campaigns. For example, when testing ad creatives, we isolate a single variable (such as headline, image, or CTA) instead of changing everything at once. This way, we can pinpoint what’s driving performance, rather than just guessing.
3. Do more with less
Engineering forces you to design within limits—material strength, cost, efficiency.
Growth marketing is no different. Typically, startups have limited budgets but ambitious goals. Therefore, we are always trying to maximize the return on our limited investments.
Here are some more examples of the principles I studied during engineering that often resurface in marketing.
Readers, when I set out on this path 25 years ago, I never imagined it would lead me here. The journey has been full of trials, errors, and unexpected turns. And I am grateful for every part of it.
I will leave you with these words of Forest Gump:
“I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floatin’ around accidental-like on a breeze, maybe it’s both happening at the same time.”