Spark spreads.  Cogeneration.  Solar Taurus jet engines.  These are just three of many new terms I've been getting to grips with in my first month at Veolia Energy North America.  With a background in marketing communications it's fair to say that this blitz of engineering jargon has presented me with nothing short of a steep learning curve.

Clearly, this is exactly the intention of the Saltire Fellowship Programme.

Where else could you find your career meandering from the creative dynamism of a late night creative review to the rigorous discipline of calculating the levelized cost of generation for cogeneration plants?  (OK, that's the last of the jargon!)

But besides the uniqueness of the Saltire programme there is another insight to be shared from my experience.  How do you think you would react in such an alien setting?  Embrace the challenge with optimism?  Or shrink back and wish to return to your comfort zone?  I'm learning that entrepreneurs do not have the luxury of that choice.  Being out of one's depth is a necessary condition for someone pursuing new opportunities or taking new ground.  They say it takes ten times more firepower for an army to take ground than to hold it.  

So on reflection, I'm delighted that the Saltire programme has pushed me out of my depth for Externship A.  It's a positive, necessary and exhilarating experience.