You're going to hate this but after GCSE I was pretty damn average. I wouldn't say I had a photo graphic memory but it would have been damn close. I was the student who could get through exams with minimal revision at A level so I wasted my potential there and came out with a pretty ok BBC in maths physics and economics. I never knew what I wanted to do until a year before uni, it was either maths or physics, but I chose engineering for the job potential.
I went through uni at an ex polytechnic that was top 20 in the UK for ME but is now top 10 and I think it may be top 5 for the course. It's a very job orientated university which was great. I wont say where exactly cause the internet but yeah.
I tended to be the guiding voice in teams and projects, because alot of the time I just wanted the damn thing done quickly. I also tended to help alot of people with their work, because i picked things up very quickly. Again, I'd say i wasted my full potential by enjoying university too much and maybe not trying as hard as i should have, but i was happy and met my fiance there so i dont regret anything. I pretty much scored high enough in second year to guarantee me a 2;1 overall as long as i passed third year.
I didnt do a masters but I was invited still, mainly chose not to due to wanting to just get on with life.
Graduated with a 2:1, then continued working in my bar job which also happened to be my first job which i started in 3rd year. Got promoted to a supervisor role and spent the last year and a half since graduation in 2018 working there, till I had to quit, which is a whole other story.
During all of this I was applying for grad jobs, but since I was unemployed for 3 months I went into overdrive and applied for literally everything. I called it the automatic shotgun method. Kind of have to do it these days I found. I would say my CV was as desirable as it could be with my experience, but despite this I had about 10 interviews or assessment days for medium to large companies over the space of 18 months.
I was starting to look at other jobs, when I applied for this job on a job board. I dont even remember doing it.
Got interviewed, they asked about my design work, asked a couple of questions about what I knew. Asked about my project which they were very interested in. Then if I didnt know or hadn't done something I just outright said that I was pretty sure I hadn't.
They hired me within a day.
Apparently for all my CV wasnt stellar or amazing and was pretty much average even if it was well written, they hired me for my personality and honesty. That and I'm heavily data driven and have a strong belief in using evidence.
People will call BS on this, I still think it's all BS and I'm living it. It's like a dream. When I finally figured out what I wanted to do this was it.
So like I said, you'll hate this. But I think I got to this stage by just living. I dont mean living like checking off your bucket list, but just the everyday. You cant get lucky unless you statistically lower the odds. I lowered mine through increasing the dataset over time. Others lower theirs by making themselves look more favorable.
I've just learned that life really is to be enjoyed, enjoyed by being content. Just enjoy yours. If you want to be an engineer I think it will pan out somehow