What do you do during a typical day at work? How do you decide what things to make?

Tre,

That's a very good question! To answer, you first have to understand that there are ALL different kinds of engineers out there. Some of us design things, some of us build things, some of us plan and run economics on things, etc. etc. etc., and the best part about engineering in general is this: if you are a math-minded individual that enjoys challenges and critical thinking, there are so many choices for you to pick the RIGHT type of engineering discipline for YOU. Take some time, and with an adults help, do a little research on all the different types of engineer, I bet you'll be very intrigued!

To get to the meat and potatoes of your question, in regards to my daily work, I work in the Oil & Gas industry for a company that owns and operates oil and gas wells. It's my job to manage five different fields, each field with a foreman, and each foreman with several employees called "pumpers". I work with these field employees to identify any operational issues or potential for improvement in performance with any of my nearly 200 wells (and soon I'll have 250 more!). This can include repairing the well if something goes wrong, designing new equipment that will go thousands of feet into the earth to pump the hydrocarbons to the surface, or even sending tools down thousands of feet to clean out and stimulate the wells! So my job stays exciting every day, with new challenges and problems thrown at me with every project I take on.

I hope this answers your question!
-Flint

Well engineering is a great career if you like to make and improve things. There are lots of types of engineers...chemical, mechanical, civil and many specialties like mining and aeronautics. Within these engineering groups you have engineers that design and improve things as a team and Project engineers that take an idea and design and install separate projects, They research the problem come up with solutions, figure out the costs and get it installed and started up. I've been a Project Engineer, and a Manager for a group of Project engineers for 35 years in the chemical industry. I have created, designed, and help install hundreds of things to make chemicals faster, safer and more environmentally friendly. Depending on your job, most projects/problems to be solved will come from your boss. He/she gets instructions from other people who are having problems that need to be solved. You will get a problem, and you, and/or a team will work on solutions to that problem. There are many things the need to be done to solve a problem,...talking to the people with the problem, coming up with ideas and solutions, getting money to fix the problem, getting the solution installed and working. You may be involved with one or many of those parts. Engineering has a lot of variety and is very interesting. It sounds like you will be a good engineer. Study math and sciences when you get in middle and high school to get you started,