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Engineering

Career Overview

If you're considering a career in engineering, it's probably because you love math, science, and solving problems. Whether it's figuring out how to erect a structurally sound skyscraper, design a more efficient jet engine, or formulate a more effective pain-relieving drug, engineers at the most basic level are problem solvers.

Broadly speaking, engineers apply scientific and technical knowledge to address problems and tasks faced by businesses and governments. Engineering may involve developing new processes, such as environmentally sound methods of waste disposal, or designing new products, such as a lighter, stronger and more flexible plastic.

A fundamental part of engineering is the practical application of specialized scientific knowledge. For example, an engineer might apply his or her understanding of how fluids react in high-pressure, low-gravity environments to design a hydraulic system for an earth-orbiting satellite. Whether the end result is a product or a process, engineers need to consider safety, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. If something they've created isn't safe, reliable, or cost-effective, their product isn't going to fly in the marketplace.

Engineering is a career based on logical, systematic problem solving, generally in high-tech, industrial, or scientific fields. Because there is an infinite variety of problems to be solved in each of those fields, engineers have developed a number of specialties. They may specialize in electrical networks, machines or mechanical systems, chemical compounds, airplanes or spacecraft, software or computer systems. The rapid expansion of computer and networking technologies has created vast new opportunities for computer-related engineers, who include software engineers (also known as programmers), Web developers, and specialists in information networks.

Engineers are often the crucial link between goals and reality. Once a company or government agency decides that it needs a certain product or process, the next step is for an engineer or team of engineers to create it as efficiently as possible within a budget. Engineers have a hand in all phases of development, from idea conception, design and development, implementation and testing to customer support.

Manufacturers employ engineers to design and develop products such as consumer and industrial electronics, fabricated metals, machine tools, chemical compounds, transportation equipment, aircraft, communication equipment and space vehicles. Engineers also develop the production processes necessary to create those products, from designing the machinery to designing the factories where the machinery is operated.

Besides manufacturing, some engineers test and inspect products and structures to increase cost-effectiveness or safety. Such engineers typically engage in more service-oriented careers, often working for firms that contract their services to other businesses or government agencies. For instance, engineers may be hired to test the stress limits of metal used in automobiles, evaluate the structural integrity of buildings, or develop a cheaper process for producing corrective lenses.

Engineers need to be able to work with a team. In school, engineers learn to attack a problem by breaking it down into small, independent parts, sometimes called modules. Breaking problems down in this systematic way helps divide the work among team members. An experienced engineer usually serves as supervisor, ensuring that all team members coordinate their parts and communicate effectively to keep the project running smoothly, while less experienced engineers typically follow the supervisor's directions as part of the team.

The most successful engineers have a balance of creative and scientific skills and can master both established techniques and innovate new ones. Discipline, patience, and perseverance are also important qualities in an engineer-some problems may take years or even a whole career to solve. The ability to communicate with others is also a key skill, as engineers need to communicate effectively within their teams and with others who will apply their work.

It's a mixed story for engineers. On one hand, few fields pay as much to entry-level employees with only an undergraduate degree. And experienced engineers remain in demand, since they're core to many companies' operations, unlike people in, say, finance or marketing. On the other hand, with the huge number of layoffs in the Internet, telecom, tech, and related sectors, there are fewer jobs to go around in the short term, meaning intensified competition among engineers.

Longer-term, the story is equally mixed. Overall, engineering jobs are projected to increase by a lower rate than the growth in jobs overall between now and 2010. There are some bright spots, though; engineers in disciplines including biomedical engineering, computer hardware engineering, and environmental engineering all enjoy an employment picture that's much brighter than the overall job-growth picture, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with software engineering projected to be the fastest-growing career field in the entire economy.

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