Phillip recently moved from El Segundo, California, to Seattle, Washington, where he is currently helping open a second office as part of his role of site director at Second Order Effects, an electrical engineering consulting firm. Outside of work he enjoys hiking and backpacking, and is looking forward to exploring the PNW area this summer. He also took up beer brewing during the pandemic.
We asked him about the lessons learned for RoboJackets that continued to serve him after college. He responded that he had learned so much, “from how to manage budgets and basic accounting, to conflict resolution and leadership.” The skills that he felt had helped him the most were “effective communication and collaboration with a team… [which included] everything from how to delegate responsibility to presenting information to leaders in the institute. When I started working professionally, I felt I had a leg up in communication skills.”
Finally, we asked Phillip if he had any favorite memories from his time at RoboJackets. He highlighted RoboCup 2008 in Suzhou, China, saying: “It was our first international trip and while we didn’t do great in competition, it was a lot of fun to plan and participate in. We even got funding from a local company to pay for our tickets!”