• Question: is engineering a social job or do u do it alone?

    Asked by jj to Huw, Gosha, Ray, Stacey, Steve on 16 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Steve Cox

      Steve Cox answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      Any piece of engineering these days usually involves you working very closely as part of a team. A car for instance is made up of thousnds of components, all of which need to be engineered, and all of which need to work together perfectly.

      So you have to be able to work in teams and you have to be able to talk across disciplines, I’m a Mechanical Engineer but we had to work very closely with the Electrical and Electronic engineers because many of the parts we were engineering were electro-mechanical.

      I’ve made some great friends over the years through working in teams and if you’re good at your job your team mates also learn to really respect what you can do.

    • Photo: Ray Butchart

      Ray Butchart answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      Team working is essential, but so is being able to think and work alone. Handling both is a good trait. Communication is a must. Are you a sociable person?

    • Photo: Stacey Cutten

      Stacey Cutten answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      As I’m still training I spend a lot of my time with my team. However I do occasionally get given tasks to do by myself. In the construction industry, a lot of people come and go as you travel from site to site, so its social because you get to meet a lot of different people! We go out every now and then to keep team morale high, as things often get stressful 🙂

    • Photo: Huw Williams

      Huw Williams answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      It’s very much a team sport, I work with 20 other Engineers all doing subtly different projects but in the same field. You also have to be very self motivated to get the job done yourself when you have to work alone.

      Huw

    • Photo: Gosha Barzowska

      Gosha Barzowska answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      Hey jj!
      I very rarely do tasks on my own. It usually is a team effort. In an industry that I work in – aerospace, it would be really hard to do everything by yourself . I’m certinally not an expert in everything (and BTW i’m still learning) 🙂

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