Well yes, if you just forget for one second the formula that goes for 10 pages where you lose the goal of it or what you were calculating exactly, the sleepless nights, the emotional breakdowns of feeling stupid and unable to understand courses. If you put aside those things, it is really an easy job that requires specific skills just like basketball, soccer, dancing, singing etc. This job has been subject to many rumors which scare people away. Here are 5 of the rumors that I have heard compared to the real facts which make them invalid.
Rumor 1: Engineers do not have feelings.
Fact 1: that is one of the major unfair statement describing engineers. We do have feelings. We really care. You really don’t know how many sleepless nights we have spent trying to give a chance to Epsilon to find Eta in infinity. We cared about those two and have never gave up on trying to make them find each other through 30 pages of formulas with symbols and shapes you had no idea existed in life.
But really, we do have feelings. It is just that we do not believe that the heart is more than a muscle connected to the brain. It is all about wires, connections, energy and other cool stuff we believe in. We believe that feelings are up there, in the brain and every emotion we experience is related to a thought in our brain which stimulates the heart and increases the heartbeat. But really, we can be compassionate, because we can analyze feelings and see them with their complexity.
Rumor 2: Engineers are arrogant.
Fact 2: let’s be clear: there is a big difference between self-confidence and arrogance. Engineers are self-confident. We know what we are talking about and even if we don’t, we can easily manage to announce reasonable and logical facts with a high amount of self-confidence that makes you actually believe they are true even if they are wrong (which never happens because engineers are never wrong, let’s be clear on this point as well).
I believe that the idea of arrogance also comes from the fact that engineers are not talkative and usually take the lead and are tough fighters for their goals. Well yes, we prefer to act rather than spend time talking about ideas. We are natural born leaders (well of course not all engineers, but if you really know how to take the lead and know where you are going, your job will be much easier). We act and start working even if the plan is not 100% ready; once we have a general idea how things are supposed to be and the goal we are looking for, we can start working. We hate long meetings. A 10 min meeting per week shall be more than enough to summarize the plan for the whole week ahead.
Also engineers can work under all circumstances and all conditions. Engineers can work alone or within a team or even both at the same time. Engineers know very well how to protect the back of their team even if they messed up bad; well, this is exactly our strong skill: fixing damaged and messed-up things. We have a strong team spirit and don’t stab other colleagues in their backs.
Rumor 3: Engineers have special genes and are born incredibly smart.
Fact 3: Well, although I like how this sounds (especially the incredibly smart part) but no dear this is not true. Intelligence is a skill. We have just identified the right genes to work on for engineering skills; it is like body building: it takes courage, hard work and time to build up those muscles; same for the skills and genes needed for an engineer. It is an investment. We are simply patient, dedicated and hard workers.
Engineering can in fact be seen as a state of mind with skills that can be taught. It is not magic, I promise. Not all of engineers are geniuses; personality is an important skill in engineering: we know what we are talking about (refer to point 2); we are straightforward, good planners, dedicated, honest, self-confident, and tolerant (one of the hardest skills to learn).
Rumor 4: Engineers don’t have a life.
Fact 4: seriously? Are you kidding me? Engineers party as if there is no tomorrow; engineers are the best in sports because of their dedication and their ability to calculate on spot everything (the best angle and location to shoot a ball, the speed of rotation of the car in drifting, the needed force to hit that squash ball in the dead zone of the playground etc.). Engineers know how to plan, that’s why their vacations can be well thought and a real success. Also they are good romantics (yes, surprise, we are because the best type of romance for us is the logical one with reasonable and down to earth statements. You will never hear an engineer saying: “your eyes are as beautiful as the sweet morning breeze that caresses your face to eternity”; you will hear instead: “I love your eyes”. As simple, true and honest as that.). Also remember that engineering is about connecting the dots and reading between the lines (we have the ability to understand why the simple flapping of the wings of a butterfly can cause an insane hurricane in a distant place); yes, the reading between the lines! that’s why engineers can easily understand women (don’t take it as an offence, I am a woman and have a huge respect for all women fighters out there in this crazy world but let’s admit it, we tend sometimes to be unclear without saying directly what we want). So yes, basically, engineers have a life, and the list to prove this can go on for eternity.
Rumor 5: No risks in an engineering career.
Fact 5: if you think that doctors have the most delicate and risky job that put lives at risks, think again. A doctor’s mistake can affect one patient. An engineer’s mistake (which never happens, refer to fact 2) can affect the lives of hundreds if not thousands: a simple calculation mistake for a building, a dam, a bridge can result in the collapse of any of those affecting the lives of people. But again, and again, engineers are never wrong.
Dina Hajjar
Dina Hajjar 