What does being an engineer mean to you?

What characteristics do you feel determine you as an engineer?

There are several.  First, there is a comfort with things artificial - machines, devices, systems, infrastructure - that not all people seem to have.  This comfort seems to grow out of an innate ability to see how technology integrates with human enterprise and a proclivity for applying technical and scientific principles to the solution of certain human problems.  Deciding which human problems may benefit from a technical or scientific solution, and which may not, is a type of wisdom that all engineers, I believe, should work to develop.

As mentioned by DAB, mathematical skill is necessary, but I think not sufficient, to determine your engineering character.  Honestly, I'd classify my math skills as a little above average, but not stellar.  In my experience there are two types of math knowledge or skill required.  First, a solid understanding of key concepts - what is a derivative, what is an integral, what is standard deviation, what is a logarithm, how are systems of equations solved, et cetera.  Second, a working competency with numbers, over an enormous range from very large to very small.  Can you estimate the value of common physical quantities in specific situations?  Can you judge if a number presented by a calculator, computer, fellow engineer, sales rep, or test equipment is reasonable or not?

A mentioned by John Beetem, obsession with problem solving is necessary too.  I don't like to think of myself as obsessed, but when I step away from my bench and consider what I do dispassionately, yeah - it kind of looks like obsession.  What other descriptor should be used for someone that expends substantial resources, some non-renewable like time, as in swaths of your lifetime, toward achieving something as tenuous as merely solving a problem?  Often these problems are not big picture epic scale problems, like climbing a mountain, getting an astronaut to the moon or addressing climate change.  They are often nit-picky scale problems like making a button cell battery last longer, or keeping noise from clobbering a low level signal, or bullet proofing a user interface.  Solving these problems, however small and nit-picky, can help a team climb a mountain, or get an astronaut to the moon, or address climate change.  If the idea of attaching yourself to a problem, including non-glamorous problems, and being dragged through a labyrinth of mystery and adventure does not appeal, then you may not have an engineer inside you.

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

When, in the spring of 1968, my father bought a vacuum tube radio kit and let me assemble it.  I remember feeling an odd comfort and realization when assembling the resistors, capacitors, wires, tubes and sockets.  These things, these colourful, delicate and clever things, when assembled correctly, were the portal, the interface, the technology that bridged the realm of invisible radio waves to the realm of intelligible sound waves.  It was at this time I realized that if other humans could master these things and make them do wonderful things like convert invisible waves into music, that I could learn to do the same, and more. I find it a little odd that when introduced to the technology under the hood of the family car I did not sense the same wonder.  I thought "dirty", "smelly" and "dangerous", but electronics at that time was none of those, until I got my first 300 VDC shock off a plate supply, seared my flesh on a soldering iron and choked on the rancid smoke pouring out of a seriously overloaded resistor.

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

• You should take something apart, actually, many things, and read the insides like you are reading a good mystery novel.  Try to predict how the story will end.
• You should build things, many things, and make mistakes.  Some things should work when you are finished, and you will be proud, but you will learn more from those that do not work, and be prouder when you do not accept defeat and figure out what went wrong.
• You should experience failure and hit the limits of your ability.  Sometimes you will not have the ability to solve the problem.  Take risks and discover where your walls are then learn how to reach out to others for help.
• Spend time working with others.  Learn to say what you mean and mean what you say and realize that many people you will have to work with don't follow this maxim.  You will more than once be in a meeting where something like this will happen.  Be patient with others, learn to listen deeply, learn to scaffold upon the knowledge of others and fulfil your role as liaison between the unaware and the magisterium of technology.
• Estimate a project incorrectly and realize when the job is done at triple the time you promised that you worked for less than minimum wage.  You will be a better estimator afterward.

Mark

What characteristics do you feel determine you as an engineer?

There are several.  First, there is a comfort with things artificial - machines, devices, systems, infrastructure - that not all people seem to have.  This comfort seems to grow out of an innate ability to see how technology integrates with human enterprise and a proclivity for applying technical and scientific principles to the solution of certain human problems.  Deciding which human problems may benefit from a technical or scientific solution, and which may not, is a type of wisdom that all engineers, I believe, should work to develop.

As mentioned by DAB, mathematical skill is necessary, but I think not sufficient, to determine your engineering character.  Honestly, I'd classify my math skills as a little above average, but not stellar.  In my experience there are two types of math knowledge or skill required.  First, a solid understanding of key concepts - what is a derivative, what is an integral, what is standard deviation, what is a logarithm, how are systems of equations solved, et cetera.  Second, a working competency with numbers, over an enormous range from very large to very small.  Can you estimate the value of common physical quantities in specific situations?  Can you judge if a number presented by a calculator, computer, fellow engineer, sales rep, or test equipment is reasonable or not?

A mentioned by John Beetem, obsession with problem solving is necessary too.  I don't like to think of myself as obsessed, but when I step away from my bench and consider what I do dispassionately, yeah - it kind of looks like obsession.  What other descriptor should be used for someone that expends substantial resources, some non-renewable like time, as in swaths of your lifetime, toward achieving something as tenuous as merely solving a problem?  Often these problems are not big picture epic scale problems, like climbing a mountain, getting an astronaut to the moon or addressing climate change.  They are often nit-picky scale problems like making a button cell battery last longer, or keeping noise from clobbering a low level signal, or bullet proofing a user interface.  Solving these problems, however small and nit-picky, can help a team climb a mountain, or get an astronaut to the moon, or address climate change.  If the idea of attaching yourself to a problem, including non-glamorous problems, and being dragged through a labyrinth of mystery and adventure does not appeal, then you may not have an engineer inside you.

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

When, in the spring of 1968, my father bought a vacuum tube radio kit and let me assemble it.  I remember feeling an odd comfort and realization when assembling the resistors, capacitors, wires, tubes and sockets.  These things, these colourful, delicate and clever things, when assembled correctly, were the portal, the interface, the technology that bridged the realm of invisible radio waves to the realm of intelligible sound waves.  It was at this time I realized that if other humans could master these things and make them do wonderful things like convert invisible waves into music, that I could learn to do the same, and more. I find it a little odd that when introduced to the technology under the hood of the family car I did not sense the same wonder.  I thought "dirty", "smelly" and "dangerous", but electronics at that time was none of those, until I got my first 300 VDC shock off a plate supply, seared my flesh on a soldering iron and choked on the rancid smoke pouring out of a seriously overloaded resistor.

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

• You should take something apart, actually, many things, and read the insides like you are reading a good mystery novel.  Try to predict how the story will end.
• You should build things, many things, and make mistakes.  Some things should work when you are finished, and you will be proud, but you will learn more from those that do not work, and be prouder when you do not accept defeat and figure out what went wrong.
• You should experience failure and hit the limits of your ability.  Sometimes you will not have the ability to solve the problem.  Take risks and discover where your walls are then learn how to reach out to others for help.
• Spend time working with others.  Learn to say what you mean and mean what you say and realize that many people you will have to work with don't follow this maxim.  You will more than once be in a meeting where something like this will happen.  Be patient with others, learn to listen deeply, learn to scaffold upon the knowledge of others and fulfil your role as liaison between the unaware and the magisterium of technology.
• Estimate a project incorrectly and realize when the job is done at triple the time you promised that you worked for less than minimum wage.  You will be a better estimator afterward.

Mark

Thank you for your comments Mark.  It seems there is a common theme with finding comfort in understanding how how something works.  I think the advice to any potential engineer is to take something apart is great.  Would you be happy for me to use some of your comments in the press?

Jen,

Yes, indeed.  You have my permission to use my comments in the press.

Mark