what is a regular day for an engineer?

Hi Vira,

That is a tough question to answer.  The short answer is that for many, if not most engineers, every day is different.  That is what I like about being an engineer.  But remember, there are very many types of engineers: civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical are the major ones  But, each of the major types have specialty or a sub-groups (i.e. aeronautical engineers are a sub-group of mechanical engineers, computer engineers are a sub-group of electrical engineering).  But, regardless of the type of engineer as listed above, there are different functions that an engineer might perform.  There are design engineers, manufacturing engineers, field (construction ) engineers, quality control engineers, test engineers, sales engineers. 

I guess that you asked the question because you are trying to decide on what type of engineer you would like to be.  My suggestion is that you go on the Internet and Google the various types of engineers that I  have listed above to get an idea of what types of work each does and what seems most interesting to you.  For example civil engineers design and construct things that don't move (buildings, bridges, roads) while mechanical engineers design and construct things that do (automobiles, machinery, engines,  ships, mechanical systems).  Once you decide on which type of engineering, do you want to be a designer who works with design programs and works mostly in an office or a manufacturing or field engineer who implements the design of the design engineer and actually builds something.

As I said above, not an easy question to answer but, the important thing is to find something that interests you. A typical engineer will be working with people, doing some paper work, going to meetings, talking on the phone and most importantly,  solving problems.

Hope this helps,

Doug   

Hi Viri,

Depends on the position you hold.

For civil engineering, you have three tracks- design, project management and construction management.

All three positions start with technical performance in their early career stage which their perform simple calculations of design, verify others calculation or prepare design reports. However, each position can be vary on their emphasis, design emphasis on design elements, project management emphasis on schedule and budget and construction emphasis on how to construct components result more effective.

i hope it will get you some general ideas of regular day tasks. Feel free to reach out to me and get to know more about civil engineering.

This is a tough question Viri. What kind of engineering discipline are you considering? I am a mechanical engineer by education but most of my experience has been in oil and gas, upstream and downstream. This is much different from my course mates who went on to work in the Aerospace, Manufacturing, Construction, Consulting, Power industry, etc. In addition to that, in all my jobs, I've always found a biomedical, industrial or electrical engineer doing the same job I was hired for. To tell you about a day in the life of an engineer is a bit difficult, it truly depends on the industry, company's mission and specific position. Hope this helps.