Question: what does an engineer do in a working week?

Emma Ryan answered on 13 Mar 2017:

So, I will give you an example of what I am doing this week.

Monday – Getting data from a thermal camera after we filmed 3D printing a part. Writing a report about some material I analysed.

Tuesday – Meeting with my bosses about my work and to ask them questions about some of my results that I don’t understand. Doing Raman Spectroscopy on my samples (this measures vibrations between atoms which can tell me about what my sample is made from).

Wednesday – Have a meeting with wire suppliers to ask them why their wire isn’t very good. Going to a school in the afternoon to talk to them about engineering.

Thursday – Continue to write my report for the material I analysed. Read some science articles that are similar to the work I’m doing and thinking about whether the results in the article are right or not.

Friday – Analysing my results from the experiments earlier in the week. Writing an application for a conference so I can go to the USA in the summer.

This is quite a normal week. I go to meetings to talk about my work, I do experiments, analyse my results and write my results up and I have external work too – like visiting schools or conferences, to talk about my research.

If it was next week, I would have Friday off! I only work every other Friday.