Circuits over Scrubs: Engineering Graduate Strays from Family Profession
For Tristan Obordo, pursuing his passion meant charting a course that deviated from the one his family envisioned.
Raised by Filipino immigrant parents in a family filled with nurses, Obordo was nudged in the direction of the respected, stable medical field. He always saw his future in engineering.
Choosing to follow his fascination with STEM led him from his hometown of West Covina down the 10 Freeway to Cal Poly Pomona, where he quickly learned that an engineering degree would require more than academic talent. As the first aspiring engineer in his family, Obordo often questioned whether he belonged as he navigated the academic and social realities of college life.
“I came from a family where nobody is an engineer, so I had to make new friends, find my own way and do my own research,” Obordo said. “I think a lot of students think they’re failing when they’re experiencing the self-doubt that comes along with that. But you just have to put yourself out there and take it on the chin sometimes. Keep going and you’re going to succeed.”
On May 16, Obordo crossed the commencement stage with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Even more rewarding, he did so with a full-time job already secured at Mortenson, one of Engineering News-Record’s top 10 contractors in the nation. He begins his career there on June 29.
Landing his position as an electrical engineer in Mortenson’s solar division marked the culmination of years spent navigating one of the country's top 10 engineering programs while building the experience needed to stand out in a competitive job market.
Building an Engineer
Obordo believes Cal Poly Pomona’s learn-by-doing philosophy gave him a competitive edge long before graduation. From the outset, he was gaining practical experience through labs, projects and student organizations that challenged him to apply classroom concepts to real-world problems.
“I remember that first lab, first semester of my freshman year when I was putting my first circuit together, making observations, taking it all in,” Obordo said. “I was immediately like ‘This is what I want to do.’”
Obordo built his library of experience through on-campus engineering clubs and two notable summer internships, one for energy and utility consulting firm West Monroe and another for the LA Sanitation District.
Among his most memorable experiences on campus was designing and building a solar-powered boat for a national competition. Obordo was part of the solar boat club’s team that integrated the solar panels into the rest of the electrical system. In other words, problem solving was a constant. It was also integral that he practice how to simplify and explain the problems and solutions to his team.
Bringing a complex engineering system to life is exactly the kind of experience that will translate well to his job.
"This kind of work will help Tristan in his electrical engineering job, because he has ample experience debugging issues and also managing data and simplifying it to be understandable," said Elijah Tolosa, president of CPP’s solar boat club.
Obordo performed electrical engineering duties during his internship with the LA Sanitation District, but his role with West Monroe was focused on consulting. The lack of hands-on work in his consulting internship was a turning point, helping Obordo realize the tangible work he grew accustomed to through CPP classes and projects was the professional path he wanted to pursue.
“Industry knows that if you come from Cal Poly Pomona you will have a certain type of experience because you do hands-on work the entire time you’re here,” he said. “I’ve worked with people who come from UCs and even some Ivy leagues, who don’t know what they’re doing for the first few months of the job because so much of what they’ve done has been highly theoretical.”
Building a Community
Outside the classroom, Obordo found a home in CPP’s Maximizing Engineering Potential (MEP) program, which provides academic support, mentorship and leadership development all within a tight-knit community. He discovered the program as a freshman and leaned on it for myriad resources throughout his four years.
“It’s where I made friends, built the network that helped me academically and eventually led to me getting a job,” Obordo said. “MEP carried me through college in so many ways. I would not be where I am without the people I met and worked with at MEP.”
After joining his freshmen year as a participant, Obordo applied for a job as an MEP tutor, helping other students navigate many of the same challenges he had faced.
MEP Academic Retention Coordinator Phuong Pham is delighted with Obordo’s success and his desire to help other students.
“Tristan wanted to give back to MEP because it was the community that helped build him,” Pham said. “It has been incredibly rewarding to watch Tristan grow throughout his college journey. I was especially proud when he shared that he had secured a full-time job offer before graduating.”