What does being an engineer mean to you?

What characteristics do you feel determine you as an engineer?

The primary characteristic that I feel defines me as an engineer is a passion for solving problems. I get real satisfaction from building things, making things work and fixing things and I get an even bigger thrill out of designing things that actually work. For me the harder the problem is the more satisfaction there is in solving it. Achieving something really, really difficult can be absolutely euphoric. I can adjust how much pleasure I collect simply by choosing the difficulty of the problems I solve. I always have multiple projects in progress, mostly with 1 or 2 week schedules so I get lots of success during the course of longer and tougher projects. I augment paying job projects with home projects to ensure a steady flow of success.

How did you come to the realisation you wanted to be an engineer?

I grew up in a mining town in a jungle with no TV but always had a wide range of interests, including sports and building models, boats, planes, kites, meccano, tinkertoy etc.

When I was 12 years old my Dad gave me a choice, I could go to boarding school in Canada or stay and become a pro golfer (I was already a scratch player and had won a tournament by shooting 2 under par - because I could play for free after school as long as I got on the course before the men showed up after work) Of course he made it clear I probably would have more options if I had a good education, than I might have as a golfer. Needless to say, I chose boarding school and growing up in a mining town, it always seemed like engineers had the most interesting jobs. I wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but rapidly discovered that electronics was far cheaper as a hobby and the pace of new electronics technology development was amazing.

Are there any ‘rites of passage’ an engineer should go through?

The most important lesson I ever learned was "how to solve problems" - any problem. When I finally realized I could apply the same general method to solve any problem, it gave me confidence to tackle anything. I no longer needed to wait for inspiration, I no longer needed to know the answer in advance, I could just apply my method and grind through any problem.

What advice would you give to any budding engineers?

First of all, you need to understand the magic of how to solve any problem. Actually there is no magic to solving problems, the magic is when you finally "get it" that is just a straightforward process. Then you need to realize the main cause of failure is when people give up. If you simply assume the solution exists, you will become much more tenacious and successful. After a few successes due to pure tenaciousness, you will start to truly believe in your abilities.

Do you communicate and network with other engineers? How?

Good mentor relationships can be fantastic for your success and your career, but after you get good at your field, it becomes increasingly difficult to find technical mentorship since you will know more than anyone around you. The internet provides a fantastic opportunity to provide and receive mentoring with a much larger population that have similar technical interests, some of whom are absolute gurus. This is what I use element14 forums for.

Do you have any stories to show what being an engineer is all about?

Engineers are characterized by being proud of being engineers - they had to go through a gruelling course load to become engineers and their jobs by definition have to constantly deal with problems. Unfortunately, non-engineers will not generally understand what being an engineer is all about, so it is important to develop interests outside of engineering to have meaningful interaction with others and fully enjoy the rest of what the world has to offer.

  As an engineer I have had quite a few "eureka" moments that provided such powerful rushes, I still get highly pleasurable flashbacks. Some of my patents were a result of these flashes of inspiration, but some of the most satisfying moments have no permanent record, just great memories. Most would require a long story to explain, but one that occurred before I was an engineer happened when we moved to Canada for a couple of years when I was 6 years old. We had an Electrolux vacuum cleaner that you could connect the hose either to the air inlet or outlet. After discovering the air coming out was quite warm, it dawned on me that hooking the hose to the blower end would allow it to be used to melt the troublesome ice build-up inside our poorly insulated door. (I had never even seen snow before that winter). My mother caught me messing around with it and making a puddle on the floor, and I thought I was in big trouble, but she recognized the ingenuity and I got positive reinforcement instead of punishment. Great Mums help to make great engineers.

Hi Douglas, thank you so much for your comments, they are really interesting.  Your comment on having home projects as well as more serious, longer term work projects to make sure you keep learning and continued to have successes was interesting.  Success seems to be a clear factor driving engineers.  I also like your final comment 'great mums make great engineers!'  I am sure they do!  Would you be happy for me to use some of your comments in the press?

Jen

Hi Douglas, thank you so much for your comments, they are really interesting.  Your comment on having home projects as well as more serious, longer term work projects to make sure you keep learning and continued to have successes was interesting.  Success seems to be a clear factor driving engineers.  I also like your final comment 'great mums make great engineers!'  I am sure they do!  Would you be happy for me to use some of your comments in the press?

Jen