What does an engineer do all day anyway? Where is the ideal workplace for an engineer? Under what conditions do engineers work? How do engineers carry out their daily activities? These and many more questions that people want answers to surround the interestingly complex personality of an engineer. Unlike other professions or professionals, these questions might be answered rather readily, but with engineering, it is a different ball game.

By definition, an engineer is a person that designs, creates and provides solutions to everyday human needs using a scientific knowledge base. In practice, engineers carry out tasks ranging from designing bridges, writing codes, erecting structures, mining resources to running fortune in thousand of companies.

There are four main branches of engineering in the engineering world: Mechanical, Electrical, Civil and Chemical engineering. One could argue that Electrical and Chemical engineers tend to work in office/labs/workshops, Civil engineers work on site (road/building construction), and Mechanical engineers work all over the place. Of course, that is a very broad statement and there are many, many exceptions.

So, you are encouraged to be open-minded about the type of environment you are willing to work in. You may be surprised that a plant environment ends up being more appealing to you than a desk job (or vice versa). You never know until you try, but engineers hardly work desk jobs.

Your job duties as an engineer are dependent on where you are placed in the engineering cycle. Some engineers will work exclusively in a certain part of the design process (specialists/professionals), some work on the project from start to finish (project engineers, design engineers, project managers) while others will only oversee and assess the project at each stage from design through to delivery (consultants, quality assurance engineers). Quite an array of possible positions in the engineering cycle, but one thing is nearly certain, you won’t be playing the same role in your entire career depending on the nature of the job.

Companies hire engineers because of their problem solving capability and flexibility. Though relatively expensive, engineers can be put into many different roles based on the companies needs at that moment. Throughout the course of a career, or funny enough within the course of a week, an engineer might be an Analyst, Designer, Draftsman, Contractor, Diplomat, Inventor, Technician, Program Manager, etc.
How can a single person handle all these complex tasks and roles that most engineering challenges and jobs would throw at them? Quite simple, team work! Engineers most likely always work in teams. The days of the solitary engineer working alone on a project or problem from start to finish are gone.

Today, most of all engineers work as a member of a team, whether made up solely of engineers or a cross-disciplinary team of engineers, specialists and business people. That is why excellent communication skill is one vital attribute desired of the ideal engineer today by any employer. So refine your skills at writing and get better at public speaking. These are skills you will need if you plan on moving forward in this industry.

Day to day, an engineer in an institution spends the vast majority of his time communicating. This can be as simple as a conversation with the field personnel talking through possible ways to perform the task to something as complicated as a formal meeting with minutes and presentations and the like. If there is an issue, the project engineer is the primary channel through which it gets communicated to the designer and how the solution gets back to the guys performing the work.

The engineer needs to have a solid grasp of the problem to properly communicate it up the chain and an understanding of the solution provided, both to determine if it solves the problem and to communicate it to the people doing the work.

Engineering is a bad profession if you want daily written instructions passed down to you. Engineers do not enjoy the luxury of being spoon-fed. Most engineering employers say: “An engineer gets paid to think, that’s why they get paid so much.” Answers to problems will rarely be given to you. Engineers on the job are challenged in many different directions at once and are required to proffer solutions to all challenges from whatever directions. The best engineers are self-starters and self-motivated multi-taskers who master the art of prioritising.

Engineering school prepares you for this kind of work environment and prepare the individual for future challenges. Some engineers in Nigeria still argue that fact, but what do you think the lectures, practicals, presentations, seminars, project work, Students’ Work Experience Project (SWEP), Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) were meant for? They were specially designed to make great engineers out of engineering students.

Engineers are expected to bring their knowledge and problem solving ability into play in whatever role they find themselves in the engineering cycle and on any engineering project. This is easily achieved by blending all what was learnt in engineering school with all that has been learnt on the job.

The engineer while at work is typically stretched beyond his limits to meet various end challenges towards achieving a common goal which is the completion of a project.

All of the above details the complex work life of the engineer and probably explains the interestingly complex personality of an engineer as he tries to build a better world for all.

http://go.engineer-ng.net/profiles/blogs/the-complex-work-life-of-an-engineer

nice one sir,this make me feel high as a mechanical engineering student...i love engineering,although universities in nigeria do teach only theory with little or no pratical work,which is highly discouraging...but i tried to balance up by learning welding and fabrication which involve usage of engineering tools,and makes me feel more comfortable working with machines,also am learning designing software mainly autocad and solid works...i will advice my fellow my fellow engineering student to learn more pratical work outside the school environment,may be from technicians or praticing engineer that can serve as a mentor,in other for us to be able to compete with our counterpart from other part of the world.