• Question: What, if anything, do you NOT like about being an engineer?

    Asked by tdolra2im7 to Becky, Carrie, Kelly, Robin, Usaid on 13 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Usaid Rauf

      Usaid Rauf answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      Personally, I don’t like too much red tape. Red tape describes things like complex company procedures that you must progress in order to get something done. Bureaucracy is something that engineers have to live with, and I’m finding it hard to see why it’s there, but I’m really new to the corporate world.

    • Photo: Caroline Roberts Haritonov

      Caroline Roberts Haritonov answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      I get frustrated when people think that if you’re an engineer you must be a car mechanic, or a photocopier repairer. In Europe the word for engineer comes from the word ingenious, in the UK it comes from the word engine. Engineers work on a professional level similar to GPs, Lawyers, etc. They generate national wealth through innovation, technology advancement and manufacture, to make life better for others, but many people think of engineering in terms of fixing things when they break.

    • Photo: Robin Stafford Allen

      Robin Stafford Allen answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      @tdolra2im7: There is always bits of a job that seem tedious and boring and when someonme over-rules you when you KNOW that you are right and have suggested the better way. However the compensations of Engineering are worth the occassional bit of hassle to get to the really fun bits – working on technical problems. That’s when the imagination can run riot and you can go through lots of ideas before plumping for the one you take forward. Regards Robin

    • Photo: Becky Selwyn

      Becky Selwyn answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      I agree with Caroline – I really don’t like people assuming I can fix a car. People think engineers just fix things, but we actually invent new things to solve problems. It’s much more exciting than just fixing things.

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