Growth Stories – Matthieu Rossignon

Name:
Matthieu Rossignon

Job Title:
Fullstack Engineering Intern

Short Bio: 
Hi, I’m Matthieu, a French engineering student currently taking a gap year to improve my tech skills. I love imagining solutions to real-life problems and therefore was logically drawn to engineering and more specifically tech, which was the perfect tool to put my ideas to life in a fun and challenging environment.

Hobby/Fun Fact about yourself:
I’m a hardcore judo fan, I fell in love with this sport when I was 10 and hardly stopped practicing ever since. I even got pretty competitive in high school when I joined a sport-study program where I trained about 5 times a week with competitions about every 3 weeks.

Personal Growth Story:
In France we have a unique system to get into the best engineering and business schools of the country: we have to face the dreaded “prépa” – two intense years of studying day and night to prepare yourself for your favourite school’s entrance exams. After two years of non-stop maths and physics, I finally got accepted into a great school called CentraleSupelec. However, after reaching this goal that directed my life for over 2 years, I had trouble knowing what to do next. It felt like my next goal would decide the next 10 years of my life. This sentiment was pretty overwhelming. Today, I’m still exploring plenty of different possibilities and little by little getting a clearer vision of my ideal life. 

Your Next Growth Target:
Finish my studies then continue exploring all the possibilities until I find a project that I find interesting then go for it!

Your Role Model:
Teddy Riner has always been an inspiration to me with my judo background. He is a perfect example of hard, smart work that remained unbeaten for around 10 years when everybody was trying to take him down. He also knows how to totally let go when he is on vacation which makes his comebacks even more impressive.

What would you say to yourself 5 or 10 years ago?:
Trust yourself and experiment more!

The book you plan to read or are currently reading:
I just started The Confidence Game, by Maria Konnikova. I’ve always been fascinated by the psychology behind cons and con men ever since I watched Lost. This book has been sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now and I finally started it.

1-3 books, podcasts, or pieces of content that you’d recommend to anyone:

• Memories Of My Future by Ammar Habib and Anil Sinha. I don’t remember how I found this book but it’s great fiction, mixing history and a man’s search for purpose.
• Stuff made here is a must-watch Youtube channel. If you like crazy engineering ideas being put to life like an automatic hair-cutting robot or an automatic pool stick.

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