• Question: What advice would you give if I said I wanted to be an engineer?

    Asked by Abbi to Jamie, Kristen, Sheun, Simon, Will on 19 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by Dehayna, GHY24578LKLKLGH.
    • Photo: William Scott-Jackson

      William Scott-Jackson answered on 19 Jun 2015:

      My advice to start with would be to be curious and passionate about the world around you. Learn what’s new in the world of science and technology and what people are doing to tackle current problems.
      Perhaps challenge yourself to learn something new outside of school like learning to code; maybe in something simple like Python.

    • Photo: Simon Marchant

      Simon Marchant answered on 20 Jun 2015:

      I reckon you could do worse than finding out more about what kind of engineer you want to be (it’s a big field – engineering covers nearly all of human invention!). There main kinds of engineering are electrical, electronic, mechanical, software/control, chemical, and some other disciplines are quire big now like aerospace and biomedical. Maybe you could see if you could shadow a real engineer for a few days, or just visit them at work to see what they do. Or, if it’s engineering in healthcare that yiu might be interested in, the Smallpeice Trust run sort of engineering camps where yiu stay for a week and do fun biomedical engineering stuff.

      PS. William’s right about learning to code, you’ll probably have to do it eventually, and a good place to learn is codecademy.com – but don’t feel you have to, just see if you like it! 🙂

    • Photo: Sheun Oshinbolu

      Sheun Oshinbolu answered on 20 Jun 2015:

      1. Study hard in all your subjects
      2.Find what your passionate and interested in
      3.Do extracurricular activities in/outside of school e.g. join a sports team, learn to play an instrument (It makes you a well rounded person)
      4.Find the type of engineering that suits you-speak to other engineers/get work experience
      5. Speak to your careers advisor in school

    • Photo: Jamie Johnston

      Jamie Johnston answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      Question everything! How does it work, why does it work? Could it have been done better? Why didn’t they make it this way?

      Study is important, especially the STEM subjects but also languages, both your own and others, communication is key.

      Past that I would definitely recommend taking part in extra-curricular activities or have a hobby related to engineering somehow, you’ll learn so much more about the practical side of engineering spending an evening of your own time than you could in 40 mins of class time.

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