Landing a job in Denmark after MIT

After Dahlia Dry '23 graduated with a bachelor's in physics, she did a 6-month internship with TEGnology ApS in Copenhagen, Denmark, which then turned into a full-time job as an automation engineer. 

READ: Internship in Denmark turned into a permanent adventure

Amanda Soh: We'll start a little bit of an introduction. Tell me your name, what you majored in, and then how many MISTI programs you've done.

Dahlia L Dry: My name is Dahlia. I majored in courses 8 and 6-1. So, physics and electrical science and engineering. I did two MISTIs. One in the summer of 2022 in Santiago, Chile, and one that has sort of continued permanently in Copenhagen, Denmark, after I graduated in the summer of 2023.

Amanda Soh: What were some of your reasons that you chose to do MISTI in Chile and in Denmark?

Dahlia L Dry: Well, the first one that I did in Chile I was really interested in because I was doing my minor in Spanish. So I really wanted a chance to use the language more, and I had always found Chile to be a really beautiful country, with a very rich and interesting history. I was very excited to go sort of live there, and use the language, and really be immersed in that culture for a bit. And also I was very interested in astronomy and astrophysics before I came to MIT. And so Chile is one of the world's best destinations for that. That was actually why I went there, even though I'd already decided at that point that I wanted to do more of a climate-focused path in electrical engineering. I still really wanted to go and take that sort of once in a lifetime chance to go do that kind of research there. 

Amanda Soh: You mentioned that you were minoring in Spanish. Was that something you chose to do at the very start? 

Dahlia L Dry: I've always really enjoyed languages, and I've always found Spanish to be a really beautiful language. I studied in high school. I grew up in Florida, so it was very relevant to know. I still would like to travel more in South America, but I also really believe that anywhere that I live for some period of time, I feel passionately about wanting to be able to speak the language. So the same is applied now that I live in Denmark, and I'm learning Danish, and hoping to not lose my Spanish too much along the way, and then hopefully have chances to use it more again.

Amanda Soh: Can you share a little bit about what you're doing now, where you're located, and what does your job entail?

Dahlia L Dry: I live now in Copenhagen. I moved here for a MISTI internship in the summer of 2023, actually with a friend also at MIT, who decided to do MISTI. So we moved here together, lived in the same place. We both just had a blast here, ended up loving it, decided to stay permanently, and turned our internships into full time jobs at the same company. We both still live here to this day and are very happy here. I currently work full time as an automation engineer at a startup, TEGnology, which creates devices that convert heat into electricity. So like an alternative renewable energy source. I'm also about to start my master's degree at the Technical University of Denmark in February 2025 in Electrical Engineering.

Amanda Soh: Wow! Is that a part-time, or will you be transitioning to a master's full-time student?

Dahlia L Dry: I'm doing the master's full time but I'll be also working part time at my current job. 

Amanda Soh: That's amazing. There was an interview that came up that you wanted to be an astrophysicist. What made you pivot from being an astrophysicist to going into climate change as an electrical engineer? And did MISTI play a part in solidifying your career path?

Dahlia L Dry: I came to MIT very intent on wanting to be an astrophysicist. This was something that I wanted, since I was like 13, and immediately I started with my physics major, and was doing astrophysics research in the EAPS department and really, really enjoying it. I think, sort of as Covid happened, and I had more time to reflect. And then I got really involved in political organizing during the 2020 elections. I discovered that astronomy, astrophysics—I enjoyed it more as a hobby. In terms of something that I was doing full time for my job, it felt like something that needed to have a bit more of an urgency to it. Climate change had just gotten to the point where it felt like something that I couldn't really ignore in what I was doing in my everyday. So that was sort of where I decided to pivot. I added the electrical engineering major, and then came back to MIT after Covid, intent to sort of move in that direction. And so that actually, I'd wanted to do the MISTI in the summer of 2020, which, of course, did not happen.

So I was very, very pleased to be able to go and do that two years later [to Chile], even though at that point I'd already decided that I wanted to go on a different path. It was really incredible to have an opportunity to kind of bring that arc to what felt like a proper end, to be able to go somewhere and do really exciting astronomy research in one of the best places in the world to do it. I was very grateful for that opportunity.

Amanda Soh: And what were some of the reasons that you wanted to move for this job at TEGnology?

Dahlia L Dry: I think I had known for some time that I wanted to try living abroad at some point in my life for an extended period of time, and when I discovered that I would remain eligible for MISTI after graduation, that seemed like really one of the best possible ways I could sort of launch myself from school into a career. It sort of happened through a series of fortunate coincidences that I ended up on this path, but I could not be happier with how it turned out, and really cannot recommend MISTI—especially the post grad—highly enough. Because it's really just a fantastic way to do something that you otherwise would not have the chance to do in between when you finish school and start your career, or to really use it as a chance to get your feet down in a new country, and establish like connections from the get go, which is what I did. It really worked out quite well that way.

Amanda Soh: We love to hear that! What were some of your most memorable experiences? Professionally and personally during your both Chile and Denmark experiences with MISTI.

Dahlia L Dry: I got to do a pretty incredible 5-day hike in Peru. But it was while I was doing my MISTI Chile with some other MIT students on the Salkantay trek, and we ended up in Machu Picchu. That was a really incredible sort of once in a lifetime experience. I think the nature there is just so beautiful, and that was really special. Also, being able to speak Spanish at my job every day and I love my coworkers. They were fantastic to talk to, and that was also just a really fantastic experience to be able to use the language that much. 

In Denmark one of the highlights of my job so far has been being able to go to Finland for field testing at a remote forest station and being surrounded by the coolest scientists from all around the world—it was my job for a week. That was really incredible and I was really grateful for all the opportunities I've had there, and for how kind they've been in welcoming me to Denmark, and then welcoming me further from an internship into full time.

I've really learned and grown a lot there and that's been fantastic. Also, on the personal side, moving here with a friend from MIT was such a fun experience. I could not be happier that we're both deciding to stay and put down roots here. It's a really special bond that we have—having gone on that journey together.

Amanda Soh: You're gonna do a master's and what’s next after that? 

Dahlia L Dry: I’ve remain on the the same path that I was on when I graduated MIT, which is that I really am most passionate about sort of working at this interface between software and hardware, on sustainable technologies, and particularly on expanding the capabilities of water, monitoring tools, and closing these data gaps that we have in terms of the what we know about our water. I really aspire to use this degree that I'll get to better build autonomous sensors for applications in water monitoring, and whatever, wherever that goal leads me in my career—I'm excited to see. That's sort of the big picture idea.

Amanda Soh: Why should MIT students do MISTI instead of going for a six figure job especially post graduation?

Dahlia L Dry: I think MISTI is really unparalleled, as far as I understand it, in terms of other programs of its kind at other universities. There's a lot of schools that have amazing professors and labs. But MISTI is really only at MIT, and I think it's one of the things that first drew me to MIT was this idea that it's a place where anything is possible, and I think MISTI really embodies that to a really wonderful extent. In a sense that it makes it accessible for everyone—regardless of their financial resources—to be able to take their dreams anywhere around the world.

I think that's something special and is a fantastic opportunity to take advantage of while you're at MIT. Could not be happier that I went the times that I did, and also it sort of never gets more accessible, financially or logistically, than while you're young—having this chance to make connections to take advantage of the connections that MISTI has, and the resources that MISTI has.

Amanda Soh: Why should someone gift to MISTI?

Dahlia L Dry: I think exactly for very similar reasons that I just mentioned. I think it's really special that MISTI makes it so that it's accessible to everyone to be able to have these dreams and take them abroad, and to be able to have the truly transformative experiences that you can have sort of only through living abroad and going outside of your comfort zone. I think making that accessible to everyone is such a noble pursuit, and such a fantastic way to invest in the future. 

Support MISTI in our mission to create even more global opportunities for MIT students on 2025 MIT 24-Hour Challenge on March 13, 2025, at misti@mit.edu/mit24