3 answers
Caleb
Student
Lynn, Massachusetts
1
Question
Asked
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I am interested in becoming an engineer but I don't know what different engineers do on a daily basis
I am Junior in high school interested in engineering and I want to figure out what engineering field to major in. I want to know what the day to day life looks like for different engineers. #college #high-school #engineer
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3 answers
Adam Pridgen
Process Engineering
26
Answers
Columbus, Ohio
Updated
Adam’s Answer
Hi Caleb, great question! I can speak to chemical engineering as that is my background. I had that same question when I was in high school too.
Here's a bit on how I chose my field first.
What led me to pursue chemical engineering studies in college was my affinity to math and chemistry specifically over other science focuses. However, during my freshman year of college I was undecided in which engineering field to focus on and was taking the general classes engineer majors take, but math and chemistry classes were still my strong suits. After speaking with my guidance counselor a bit on engineering fields to select I did some basic research on the web on each engineering field. Chemical engineering was still, in my mind, the most prominent because of the chemical aspect of the major. Also, chemical engineering today is very applicable as the fundamentals of the field are improving existing systems through optimization, streamlining, and continuous improvement. It also provides the flexibility of cross-functionality in most manufacturing industries so the probability of acquiring employment after school is high, depending on the economic state.
Day to Day work
I've curated my career as a process engineer within manufacturing which entails supporting the production and operation of raw materials upstream (beginning stage) to downstream (ending/finished product stage) activities. A lot of chemical engineers end up in process engineering because it allows you to be collaborative in many departments rather than being siloed into one area. I think of process engineers as grease to the equipment that keeps it running.
Some of my day to day activities include:
- overseeing operation activity by evaluating product activity within machines
- addressing raw material concerns during inspection or while products are running
- mitigating product hang-ups from operation errors or material reactions
- creating/reviewing recipes that operators follow to make the product
- drafting technical reports from collected outlined data during production (Feedback from operation)
- support qualification of new launch products through protocol installation and monitoring small scale evaluations
- collaborate with vendors that supply the raw materials on their best practices
- Ensure quality standards and in-process checking is consistent
Chemical engineers in general terms are amplified chemists so to speak meaning they are a liaison between the laboratory and production on a commercial scale which requires an understanding of engineering fundamentals.
Recommendation
To Brittany's suggesting I'd start researching engineering fields and see what sticks out to your interests best. What classes in HS are your favorite? What comes easy to you? Or rather what class/subject(s) do you enjoy learning in? From there, start passively looking at job boards to see what qualifications certain engineering fields require for entry level roles. Can simply type in for example: Mechanical Engineering jobs near me. You'll pick up consistent requirements that the field search is looking for when sifting through job descriptions. That should help provide you a better idea as well of what engineering field to pursue. It would also give you and edge on what college electives, co-ops/internships/research opportunities to pursue as well.
Hope this helps a bit in your decision process!
Here's a bit on how I chose my field first.
What led me to pursue chemical engineering studies in college was my affinity to math and chemistry specifically over other science focuses. However, during my freshman year of college I was undecided in which engineering field to focus on and was taking the general classes engineer majors take, but math and chemistry classes were still my strong suits. After speaking with my guidance counselor a bit on engineering fields to select I did some basic research on the web on each engineering field. Chemical engineering was still, in my mind, the most prominent because of the chemical aspect of the major. Also, chemical engineering today is very applicable as the fundamentals of the field are improving existing systems through optimization, streamlining, and continuous improvement. It also provides the flexibility of cross-functionality in most manufacturing industries so the probability of acquiring employment after school is high, depending on the economic state.
Day to Day work
I've curated my career as a process engineer within manufacturing which entails supporting the production and operation of raw materials upstream (beginning stage) to downstream (ending/finished product stage) activities. A lot of chemical engineers end up in process engineering because it allows you to be collaborative in many departments rather than being siloed into one area. I think of process engineers as grease to the equipment that keeps it running.
Some of my day to day activities include:
- overseeing operation activity by evaluating product activity within machines
- addressing raw material concerns during inspection or while products are running
- mitigating product hang-ups from operation errors or material reactions
- creating/reviewing recipes that operators follow to make the product
- drafting technical reports from collected outlined data during production (Feedback from operation)
- support qualification of new launch products through protocol installation and monitoring small scale evaluations
- collaborate with vendors that supply the raw materials on their best practices
- Ensure quality standards and in-process checking is consistent
Chemical engineers in general terms are amplified chemists so to speak meaning they are a liaison between the laboratory and production on a commercial scale which requires an understanding of engineering fundamentals.
Recommendation
To Brittany's suggesting I'd start researching engineering fields and see what sticks out to your interests best. What classes in HS are your favorite? What comes easy to you? Or rather what class/subject(s) do you enjoy learning in? From there, start passively looking at job boards to see what qualifications certain engineering fields require for entry level roles. Can simply type in for example: Mechanical Engineering jobs near me. You'll pick up consistent requirements that the field search is looking for when sifting through job descriptions. That should help provide you a better idea as well of what engineering field to pursue. It would also give you and edge on what college electives, co-ops/internships/research opportunities to pursue as well.
Hope this helps a bit in your decision process!
María José López Monzón
Project Manager
2
Answers
Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain
Updated
María José’s Answer
Hi Caleb,
I am a telecommunications engineer, although, now i am more in Project Management role I started as an Integration Engineer. What i can tell from my experience is that:
- As Integration Engineer for Core Network solutions i had to work on coding, configuring and managing the solution i was in charge of installing. Basically, there were a lot of nights shift, because you cannot touch a telco network during day time, we cannot stop any traffic... imagine you are not able to make any call!! :)
- After Integration Engineer i became Solution Architect. In this role, i had to design solutions. The main objective was to have a clear view of the network and suggest how the new system could be integrated.
- Finally i jump into management. In this case, basically you need to know a high level of solutions and help the team to reach customer expectations and deadlines. At this level engineers don't do much technical work, although if you are keen on coding or doing more technical stuff, you will probably can help the team doing some of the tasks.
As you can see an engineer can do a lot of different things during their day to day. However, it depends on your interests. The activities of an engineer could vary a lot during your work life.
Hope i have give you a small hint :)
Good luck!
Review all different engineers
Identify which engineer is more interesting for you
Get more information about different companies related to that engineering paths
I am a telecommunications engineer, although, now i am more in Project Management role I started as an Integration Engineer. What i can tell from my experience is that:
- As Integration Engineer for Core Network solutions i had to work on coding, configuring and managing the solution i was in charge of installing. Basically, there were a lot of nights shift, because you cannot touch a telco network during day time, we cannot stop any traffic... imagine you are not able to make any call!! :)
- After Integration Engineer i became Solution Architect. In this role, i had to design solutions. The main objective was to have a clear view of the network and suggest how the new system could be integrated.
- Finally i jump into management. In this case, basically you need to know a high level of solutions and help the team to reach customer expectations and deadlines. At this level engineers don't do much technical work, although if you are keen on coding or doing more technical stuff, you will probably can help the team doing some of the tasks.
As you can see an engineer can do a lot of different things during their day to day. However, it depends on your interests. The activities of an engineer could vary a lot during your work life.
Hope i have give you a small hint :)
Good luck!
María José recommends the following next steps:
Brittany Ferguson
Lead Development Product Owner
22
Answers
San Antonio, Texas
Updated
Brittany’s Answer
There are types of engineers in almost any field you can imagine - from chemical engineers to aerospace to process to electrical. If there is a particular field you are interested in (for example: biochemical, medical, mechanical, etc.), you can target engineering career information within that field.
The wiki page below will get you a good reference of types of engineers available, with references at the bottom to social and financial engineering categories:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_engineering_branches
Without a target field, it's hard to fully answer what the outlook in the profession or the education you would need; but the info above should help you get started in figuring out which fields you are most interested in to make that decision on further info you would need. My recommendation is to narrow down to a category and explore the options there by looking into specific colleges and career outcomes (indeed.com can help with that).
The wiki page below will get you a good reference of types of engineers available, with references at the bottom to social and financial engineering categories:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_engineering_branches
Without a target field, it's hard to fully answer what the outlook in the profession or the education you would need; but the info above should help you get started in figuring out which fields you are most interested in to make that decision on further info you would need. My recommendation is to narrow down to a category and explore the options there by looking into specific colleges and career outcomes (indeed.com can help with that).