Engineering and Skills: Insights for Aspiring Engineers

This article provides insights on the engineering profession, skills required, and misconceptions. It covers topics such as collaboration, perception skills, and becoming an expert in the field. The article is relevant for aspiring engineers and those interested in the field of engineering.

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THE ENGINEERING AND SKILLS
Student’s Name
Course
Professor’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
City (State)
Date

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Solution 1
The Engineering profession is one of the most lucrative careers that have played an important
role in developing the world and affecting the life we live today. Engineering is basically the use of
scientific and mathematical principles to generate economic solutions to the world’s technical problems.
It is concerned with the use of scientific innovations in generating local and commercial applications
that improve efficiency and quality of systems and processes and thereby, making work easier.
Engineers are valuable in developing production, system designs, establishing customer needs, and
carrying out feasibility studies. They build systems for quality control and assurance and therefore,
enable companies to run their systems with higher efficiency (Tribus 2016, p.65). Aspiring engineers
have a choice to specialize in civil , chemical , mechanical , software , electronics , and
telecommunication engineering. In university, engineering students take mathematics, science, drawing,
and soft skill courses. Exposure to practical experience however enables them to integrate theories learnt
in college with real life issues.
Solution 2
Initially, I thought engineers are only involved in technical work using manual and technical
software with non-technical areas being irrelevant in practice. I have came to learn that most engineers
do less technical work since they are mainly engaged in supervising technicians and thus leadership and
interpersonal skills are important also for engineers. In practice, most engineers work mostly on simple
Microsoft office tools such as excel and thus do not work only on complex programming software such
as Matlab which are mainly used by those working in technical capacities. As an engineer, I expect to
invent tools and technologies that would make people’s lives easier and make production systems
efficient. To my community, I expect to create impact by mentoring and motivating upcoming engineers
so as to ethically grow their career and contribute to society. Ethical practice in engineering ensures that

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system designs quality are not compromised (Reis 2012, p.43). I would add value to an engineering
organisation by stressing and championing for ethical practice among engineers. Soft skills such as
leadership, interpersonal skills, and negotiation skills are also worth developing.
Solution 3
Thomas Edison, an American investor and engineer invented the light bulb in 1879. The
engineer started serious research aimed at inventing a working incandescent lamb in early 1878 and by
late these same year he had registered a patent for his first discovery (Hill 2013, p.10). He contributed
to many other inventions such as the motion camera and phonograph which have influenced the systems
that exist today. His patent explained several methods of creating carbon filaments using cotton and
linen, coiled papers, and wooden splints. Later, he managed to create carbonized filament which
motivated him to register Edison Electric Light Company. From his works, one must conclude that
Edison was a creative, curious, confident, problem solver, entrepreneur, innovator, and leader (Wagner&
Compton 2015, p.23). His entrepreneurship and leadership skills are evident from when he went ahead
to start and manage his company. The must have possessed technical scientific skills in electrical
engineering such as power, energy, and systems design.
Solution 4
Good engineers are those that have mastered the art of giving instructions efficiently to fulfil the
desired goals. As an engineer, I am involved in instructing technical personnel to undertake the
procedures I develop while undertaking projects. To instruct well, mastering interpersonal skills and
negotiation skills is critical (DuBrin 2014, p.20). Understanding the personality and emotions of the
personal receiving the instructions helps in handling him accordingly. There was a time at the work
place when we were undertaking a project and I had to instruct a technician on the lighting design I

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thought appropriate for the project. The technician did not receive the instructions in good faith. He felt
intimidated because I am a young engineer and he had worked longer than myself. I appreciate that
instructing might be easy but without having the necessary skills to handle different people, it becomes
complex. The difficulty was with not understanding the technician’s personality and the perceptions he
had about me.
Solution 5
Collaboration can be defined as willingness of individuals to share their new skills and
knowledge towards achieving a common goal this is based on unwillingness of some skilled personnel
to share their knowledge. Collaboration at the work place is very much essential since it allows workers
to work together and more effectively with each other in order to achieve the goals of the organisation
(Arnold & Boggs 2015, p.23). Mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation are the key drivers of
collaboration at work. The key skills that boost collaboration are effective communication. Individuals
that possess good communication skills can make known their opinions to their team members properly.
They also possess good listening skills that enable them to attentively listen to the opinions and views of
team members and make appropriate actions that boost the work performance which resultantly lead to
the achievement of company goals. Other skills that promote collaboration compromise, tolerance,
reliability, and consistency. I have observed my work mate who listens carefully,
communicates clearly and maintains good rapport with almost every one. He successfully
brings his point of view clear to everyone and stresses on team work. The art of
collaboration can be learnt through practice, and observing people who are experienced in
it.

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Solution 6
I view collaboration as a skill that if harnessed, makes the work environment more
favourable, boosts employee productivity, and promotes the achievement of organizational
goals. Taking an example of the work place, when employees in a department efficiently work together
to achieve a common goal we say that they have collaborated (Allee, Schwabe &Babb 2015,
p.10).Overtime, I have managed to build my skills in communication, reliability and consistency that
promote collaboration. However, I am not yet there, I am still developing my ability to tolerate the
opinions and actions of others that are different from mine. Collaboration has played a critical role
towards the success of my team project as it has enabled us to discuss and share opinions and create
engineering designs that are more efficient. It was a nice experience meeting cooperative and goal
oriented people but in some situations it was frustrating working with mean individuals who could not
collaborate.
Solution 7
Through the reading I have gained great insights that would help me become become more
professional in practice. The roles of engineers in the society and the major misconceptions that students
and novice engineers have towards the career have broadened my thinking. The need for negotiation and
collaboration skills at the work place are also more important insights worth learning (Yates 2012, P.13).
I have come to accept that employees in every organization need to develop these skills in order to be
more productive in their teams. I look forward to horning my soft and technical skills to enable me to
enhance team work with my colleagues and become more productive at work. It is interesting and
desirable to work with others in order to activate their knowledge bases and have mine activated too.
The relevant skills can be developed in class through engaging in group learning discussions and
discussions.

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Solution 8
Listening, seeing, and reading are perception skills that some people might neglect and not
recognize their importance in their career. Visual communication should not only be about drawing
beautiful images or extracting them from other sources. Professional engineers for instance would
carefully study the message passed through visual communication, reading, and listening. These
perception skills enable the engineer to carry out more research and establish whether the information
relayed by these channels should affect their decision making. Listening can be limited by distractions,
noise, prior conclusions, and poor attitude towards the speaker (Brownell 2015, p.34). Learning to
achieve more from listening, seeing, and reading is of much interest to me. These skills would enable me
to relate well with people and make rational decisions based on the ideas obtained from them. To boost
my listening skills, I try to maintain eye contact with the speaker, avoid distraction, and avoid jumping
in to conclusions. Books, magazines and other sources contain a huge body of knowledge that when
extracted through reading, can boost one’s knowledge about issues of interest.
Solution 9
Critical research involves reading parts of text and organizing them by writing in own words. It
includes creation of mind maps to boost understanding. This style of reading is highly productive and
thus worth using in order to make reading more resourceful. While conducting research, I use this
method since I find it as the best method of reading especially when interested in details. I take short
notes and write mind maps where necessary in order to keep records. Writing meanings in own words is
appropriate after reading in order to be able reflect and write the key information obtained from the
reading based on the objectives of the research (Whittaker 2012, p.8) . The record that has been read is
kept by writing key points after reading and understanding the text carefully and carrying out all the
critical appraisal of all the aspects on the text before writing critique of the research.

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Solution 10
Attaining expertise in a career is a wish that most people would hope for. An expert is one who is
very knowledgeable or skilful in a particular area (Rychener 2012, p.9).The time someone takes to
become an expert depends on personal goal and the amount of time one has set for himself. Top
performance universally requires extensive practice, and research has shown that individuals specifically
identified as 'ordinary' rather than talented can become exceptionally skilled with the right training
(Trevelyan 2014, p.17) . People should stop worrying about whether they are talented enough and learn
more to obtain experience since all experts were once learners. It can also take a special, inborn talent to
become an expert in a particular area. Some are slow learners taking a much longer time to become an
expert compared to others who can achieve the same in a short time.

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Reference List
Arnold, E.C. and Boggs, K.U., 2015. Interpersonal Relationships-E-Book: Professional Communication
Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Allee, V., Schwabe, O. and Babb, M.K., 2015. Value Networks and the true nature of collaboration.
Meghan-Kiffer Press.
Brownell, J., 2015. Listening: Attitudes, principles, and skills. Routledge.
DuBrin, A.J., 2014. Human relations: Interpersonal job-oriented skills. Pearson Higher Ed.
Hill, D., 2013. A history of engineering in classical and medieval times. Routledge.
Reis, R.M., 2012. Tomorrow's professor: Preparing for careers in science and engineering. John Wiley
& Sons
Whittaker, A., 2012. Research skills for social work. Sage Publications.
Rychener, M. ed., 2012. Expert systems for engineering design. Elsevie
Tribus, M., 2016. Rational Descriptions, Decisions and Designs: Pergamon Unified Engineering Series.
Elsevie
Trevelyan, J., 2014. The making of an expert engineer. CRC Press.
Wagner, T. and Compton, R.A., 2015. Creating innovators: The making of young people who will
change the world. Simon and Schuster.
Yates, J.K., 2012. Engineering careers case study: K–12 recruitment initiative. Leadership and
Management in Engineering, 13(1), pp.3-10.