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What is a hard problem you kept having as an engineer?

I'm asking this because I wanna know some problems so I can be prepared for the problem. I want to know at least 1 problem you had. #data-engineer

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Wael’s Answer

There is no one hard problem. An engineer you need to design mechanisms to satisfy certain goals. You are going to see different things coming up and you have to resolve them.
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Nicole’s Answer

H Ryan L. I see that you posted this question a little while ago so I hope my answer to you (or others who may read this response) is still helpful.

I have countless examples of hard problems I had as an engineer. The good news is I have as many examples of hard problems that I was able to solve. A lot of the answers that have been given speak to how important it is to stick with a problem because there is so much that can be learned in that process.

Specifically, I spend a good amount of time coding. There have been numerous instances where I knew what I wanted my code to do but I would either run into syntax issues (that is the coding language I was using wasn't right) or the results were incorrect. Believe it or not, syntax issues can be a little easier to fix. Often times, they happen when you are familiar with different coding languages, that use similar but not the same code phrasing.

Getting the right results...now those can be a doozy. Some ways to get over those types of problems (coding or otherwise) could include, taking a break (give yourself some time to think through how you can approach a problem differently), putting in control steps to understand where the results are going wrong...and then there's good old trial and error. Having others around that you can bounce thoughts off of is also really helpful.

Hope you find some of these examples helpful. Best of luck to you!
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William’s Answer

It's important to understand the problem and also use assumptions before diving in to the solution. In college, I made a lot of problems tougher than they could have been because I immediately attempted to solve engineering problems without first developing a framework. It's critical to break down problems and understand what exactly you're solving and also what assumptions you can reasonably make.
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Brett’s Answer

Hello there Ryan! It is so great you are thinking about how you want to be prepared for future problems you are going to face. That shows a lot of maturity on your end. As an engineer, problems are always coming up again and again and you are constantly having to rethink about the best route forward. This may sound a little scary or daunting, but it is actually the best part. You constantly get to try out new approaches and iterate through different ideas until you have created a solution that works. And once you get a solution that works, it is so rewarding. The two most important qualities I think an engineer can have are resilience and determination. You have to be okay with failure and learn to make the most of the times things don't go your way. So coming back to your question, I think my "first" problem when learning to be an engineer was not being okay with failure. It took me a couple tries to get the hang of it but once I did, I was able to grow and become a better engineer. Wishing you the best!
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