ATTRIBUTES OF ENGINEERING

1. Maintaining Up-to-date Technical Knowledge

Up-to-date technical knowledge and skills are the main skillset that engineering recruiters are
looking for. You will spend at least four years in college and perhaps a couple more doing a
Master’s degree to acquire the necessary skillset to qualify as an engineer in your desired field.
If you can graduate from a top university that will also add valuable branding to your name.

Even so, your engineering education will not end there. First and foremost, experience on the
job will add to your value. There is nothing that an employer values more than a proven track
record of success. It is important to also recognize that every field of engineering is an evolving
discipline with new technologies and methodologies being developed all the time. Therefore, to
stay at the top of your game you will need to keep on top of industry news, trends, and scientific
research.

Likewise, continuing education will be crucial to maintaining your professional certifications as

well as your competitive edge and value to employers. You may even consider getting certified
in new technologies and up-and-coming areas to help maintain and expand your commercial
value. Recruiters and hiring managers like to see that you are capable of and willing to
undertake additional technical training, since different companies often use different software
and systems that you will have to get to grips with if you work for them. Speaking of which,
engineering is becoming ever more aligned with computer technology, and as a result if you are
an engineer with programming skills you will be well positioned to integrate complex machine
systems and run valuable simulations. On the same token, employers are on the lookout for
applicants who possess specific technical skills, so do your research and make sure that you
are the perfect fit for your prospective employer.

2. Problem Solving

Possessing good problem solving skills is crucial in engineering roles. As an engineer, you must
be able to identify, analyze, and solve complex problems, and you must be able to do so quickly
in urgent situations. It is especially valuable to be able to anticipate problems before they arise.
This is not something that can be learned overnight or from academic study alone. You can only
learn these skills by experience. Of course, your education will help you apply relevant theories
and formulas to a particular situation, but experience acquired either from your own trial and
error or the advice of an expert mentor will serve as the best guidance. Learn from these
sources and your problem solving abilities will continue to grow.
3. Critical Thinking

To think critically it is important to develop a solid sense of reality and trust in your own abilities.
It is also crucial to not be distracted by trendy ideas with no substance, but rather to focus on
the principles that have withstood the test of time. The knowledge acquired throughout your
education and career to-date forms the basis of the core understanding needed to evaluate
situations correctly. Being critical also means not taking information at face value, digging
deeper, and not necessarily accepting the opinions of others when they contradict your own
judgment, even if they come from putative ‘experts’. These capabilities will hold you in good
stead not only in your career, but also in other aspects of your life such as health choices and
investing.

4. Attention to Detail

Attention to detail, being responsible, reliable and conscientious, and having a focused, orderly
and organized mind is vital in engineering practice. This is true in regard to your measurements,
calculations, applying the correct safety margins, specifying the right materials and
manufacturing processes, and even double-checking that what you have specified is actually
what is being used on your project. In many fields of engineering such as civil and aeronautics,
lives are also at stake in your assessments, and a single mistake can irreparably injure your
company’s brand image and reputation, overriding decades of good customer relations or even
compromising the financial viability of the entire company – not to mention damage to your
personal reputation and future employability. Therefore becoming exacting and systematic in
your work is a valuable attribute to cultivate for any aspiring engineer.

To help cultivate this skill, it is crucial to develop systems for checking your work. One useful
exercise is to record every instance where you have made a mistake or missed an important
detail in dedicated journal, and as you work, periodically refer back to it to ensure that you never
make the same mistake twice. In essence, you are learning how you make mistakes, and
through introspection and conscious effort are systematically correcting any faulty thought
processes. This practice is also a useful tool when preparing for exams!

5. Creativity

It may not at first seem that engineering is a field in which creative ability would be highly
valued, but nothing could be further from the truth. As any engineer will tell you, the ability to
think creatively is key in dealing with novel situations, and you will constantly encounter
situations as an engineer that you didn’t learn about in your textbooks, and which perhaps no
one else has ever been confronted with. Being an engineer is about innovating and building
things which have never existed before. When problems arise and the prescribed solution; (i)
can’t be administered, (ii) fails to work, or (iii) doesn’t yet exist, it is crucial to be able to solve the
issue in front of you in a novel way. A creative mind will be able to combine prior experiences in
original ways to formulate a practical solution. To add to this, possessing good spatial
intelligence is a huge asset which will help you visualize an entire device, structure, system, or
process in your head before putting pen to paper to design it.

If you do not consider yourself a creative person yet, don’t despair. Your creative ability will
improve with practice and through exposure to those who have it already. Moreover, mastery
leads to creativity. So keep at it, and with the right guidance and determination you too will
develop this valuable skill.

CHARACTER SKILLS

6. Resilience

Resilience is another important skill in any walk of life. To become an engineer requires years of
dedicated training in mathematics and depending on your specialization, also physics,
chemistry, biology, electronics, computer programming, robotics, and more. Even if you are
naturally gifted in math and science, mastering these subjects takes perseverance and mental
fortitude.

A key skill along these lines is pressure management. Engineering projects can be challenging,
so being reliable under stress and having the ability to deliver in difficult situations is essential.
The nature of engineering also means that you can be on call 24 hours a day, which can be
taxing. When a key component fails or a safety issue is identified, you will be in a race against
the clock to come up with a solution. Even where you don’t find yourself on call, engineering
jobs can be equally demanding in other ways, including long hours and potentially tedious
repetition and scrutiny of minutiae. However, if you have what it takes to become an engineer,
adversity will only strengthen your resolve and you will keep moving forward regardless of any
obstacles.

7. Passion and Enthusiasm

Passion and enthusiasm is essential if you are trying to achieve anything great. In engineering,
enthusiasm will help you to log the long hours necessary to get to grips with complex
mathematics, and will give you the stamina to keep working on lofty goals when others would
have given up. Enthusiasm is also contagious, and is an attribute that is attractive to your
colleagues and desirable in leaders. So if you want to work as an engineer be sure to constantly
express how much you love it!

PEOPLE SKILLS

8. Communication

Although engineering is a highly technical discipline that is often practiced individually at a desk
or on a computer, engineering projects always start and end with human discussion and
collaboration. Therefore it is no surprise that one of the most sought after skills that engineering
firms demand is the ability to communicate effectively. Like many others in technical fields
engineers sometimes have a bad reputation for lacking communication skills. However, it is vital
as an engineer to be able to communicate and listen, in order to ensure that client needs are
correctly understood and any personal or technical issues that arise in a project are resolved
quickly. A proficient engineer with expert communication skills is a rare and valuable
commodity, and will have a distinct advantage in the marketplace.

Great communication skills are needed in effective brainstorming, project meetings, designing
products and, of course, problem solving. Engineers interact with clients and colleagues at all
levels of the organization and misunderstandings can lead to big problems. Moreover, as the
scale and complexity of engineering projects have grown, so too has the range of necessary
interactions within project teams and between stakeholders.

Engineers must also be well versed in switching between different forms of communication
depending on their audience, including technical versus non-technical language, and different
modalities including oral, written, online, in-person, and public speaking. Given the multinational
nature of many top engineering firms and projects, mastery of a foreign language is useful, and
it is certain that you will have to become comfortable with virtual meetings and discussions. It is
even likely that a virtual interview will comprise at least one stage of your recruitment process.

9. Teamwork
Few engineering projects will see an engineer working on their own without the assistance of
co-workers or outside professional advisors. Teamwork skills are therefore essential for
ensuring efficient cooperation and maintaining a harmonious work environment. Collaborating
with teammates, motivating and appreciating each other, and resolving any tensions or conflicts
in a productive way is critical in succeeding as a unit and performing to your highest combined
ability. If you are not yet comfortable socializing and working with other people, seize
opportunities wherever you can to practice your social skills and challenge yourself by working
in teams.

10. Leadership

As in all professional fields, leadership is a key quality in the modern world of engineering.
Businesses want to hire people who are self-starters and want to work their way up and add
value to the organization. Engineers are given different responsibilities depending on their level
of experience, but no matter their role, to be successful they need to develop their skills as
leaders and managers.

As a leader, engineers need to be able to assess their team-members’ strengths and allocate
available manpower to build an efficient team. Part of this skill involves being able to identify
which team members have the most expertise in a given facet of the project, and like a good
economist ensuring that there is an efficient division of labor through proper delegation. This will
include making sure that everyone’s role is clearly defined, that they have objective milestones
they are expected to reach, and that each team member is held accountable at key touchpoints
to ensure timely progress and that additional guidance can be provided as needed. When the
project is over, constructive feedback should be dispensed.

Leaders also need to be able to motivate others if they want them to follow their guidance, while
at the same time getting along with others and building a cohesive team. If you are not in a
leadership position in a given role or project, you must learn how to be a good follower, following
instructions precisely, but also speaking up and adding necessary input to a situation when it is
called for. The most important leadership skill however is taking initiative. Everyone wants to
work with someone who takes on difficult problems, especially those that haven't materialized
yet, and proactively looks for solutions. Leadership is a never-ending path and the ultimate
marker of success on your personal development journey.