• Question: Do you have to be good at science to become an engineer?

    Asked by tuckp to Al, Emma, Ivanka, James, Omar on 14 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: James Vokes

      James Vokes answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      This is my favourite question so far. I would say…not necessarily. There is a big overlap so being good at Science is a bonus if you want to be an Engineer but it’s not a requirement. I think I would have to draw the line at Maths. To be an engineer you have to be able to do maths even if you hate it and you have to force yourself to do it. It’ll teach you to think logically, to work through problems in steps. You’ll almost certainly be using numbers in some form in your day to day if you’re an engineer.

    • Photo: Emma Bould

      Emma Bould answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      I agree with James – you don’t have to be good at science. I think you have to enjoy Science….. although not necessarily all science. I’m really interested in Biology and Chemistry, but I’m not very good at it!

      Maths is definitely an important part of being an engineer, but….. it’s a really important part of most jobs. There are not many jobs or even things in life, that don’t require you to be able to do maths in some way or another. The everyday part of my job at the moment doesn’t use a lot of maths, but there are times when I need to be able to apply trigonometry to figure out how tall something is or draw a graph to work out whether my sensors are aligned.

    • Photo: Al Bartlett

      Al Bartlett answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      Hello tuckp,

      James is correct – Science is a great subject but it is not necessary to be good at it to be an engineer. Some types of engineering require you to have a good understanding of scientific theories but jobs such as mine need you to understand what is going on there and then. If you are good at science, its always a good understanding to have!

    • Photo: Omar Mustufvi

      Omar Mustufvi answered on 22 Mar 2012:

      I think I agree with Emma, I think it is important to be interested in Science and Technology to be an engineer, because if you have an interest in something and are enthusiastic you will want to work hard and you will end up being good at it (remember the famous saying by Edison- “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration!)

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