“What is your job?” I said to someone
“I am an engineer.” Someone replied.
It was when my mind started thinking about a man with glasses sitting in front of the computer screen writing codes and modeling the parts. He is lonely. He isolates himself inside a tiny room, not talking to anyone.
As many things have been figured out in college, I figured that out in college too. When I recall the scene about an engineer, I complained to myself: “what was I thinking at that time?” I could be true though, in some way, because in older times, engineers were like that. They were not talkative. They were only productive by themselves.
But now, as the world is changing, engineers now transform into a multifunctional group. They are creative. They seek teamwork. They actively convey and communicate ideas.
Yet why is communication so important?
Suppose that you work in a team and work together on a specific part on the project with several people. You have a good idea, but you may need some assistance from others. You want to convince your colleagues that they think this is a great idea. You must clarify and reiterate the idea to make sure that they are persuaded and are willing to do it. The thing is that you must have good communication skills, otherwise your colleagues will place doubts on that, and even deny cooperating with you because you cannot even tell your plan. You do not have detailed plans. How is that possible for them to trust you? In contrast, if you have excellent communication abilities, you could simply illustrate objectives of your plan, the workability of your plan and the reason that you choose to do it. The messages are clear. You can use either speech or PowerPoint slides to show it. Seeing so many details, your partners will be fully convinced that you have deep thoughts into the plan, and they are willing to help you. They forecast the future simply from your presentation.
As a leader, communication is still important. Back in high school, I learned ways of communication: oral, written, electronic media. The leader must convey clear and direct messages to the subordinates, and that’s really important. Usually your subordinate will not doubt your order, especially in the army (they have engineers there!). Even if they doubt it, they will understand that it is the decision of the higher level of hierarchy. As a result, they will follow your order, and do exactly as you have told them. Unfortunately, if you use the oral communication and pass it through hierarchy, the messages could be completely different. It could be distorted if not properly conveyed. Remember a game we played before, the messages could be exactly opposite after ten people have passed the information.
As I have said before, older time engineers need to be replaced. The need of the companies for communication and teamwork really impressed me on the career fair.
Many companies have “clear communication skills” as their top requirement under the “Qualification” item. Therefore, as a new generation of the engineers, we need to communicate more with our teammates to practice for the world.
kinda disagree with statement "older time engineers need to be replaced". Yes it is true that older engineers education may be outdated and that they are slower than new people. But they may also have a different perspective than us because of their age and if we get rid of old engineers we may be losing something great.
ReplyDeleteBo,
ReplyDeleteI found your post to be quite interesting in many ways, your observations as to what skills are needed for most engineers to be effective, i.e strong presentation and communication related skills, was a very accurate observation in my opinion and how you build on that with various examples and references was impressive. I especially liked your final reference to what companies at the career fair were looking for, good job noticing.
However, I do have certain queries. When you use words and statements like "not talkative" and "lonely" to refer to engineers of the past I wonder if you are going a little too extreme? Modern engineers definitely need to be much more effective in communication and interaction with their fellow engineers and others they may work with, but I would not say that the engineer of the past was a complete recluse. I would go back reexamine your statements once or twice.
Regards,
Akbar
I've personally never imagined engineering to be a 9-to-5 desk job, but I can't say that I always thought of engineers at the forefront of technology in both production *and* management.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I wonder, though, is if giving finite details is always a good thing. It's useful in some cases to leave room for others' imaginations as part of your communication skills. After all, engineering is a collective effort. Even by giving the detail of your own design, you may be preventing others from coming up with their own. "Give a man a fish..." Fish are a commodity. Fishing is an asset.
Engineering consists of not just experiment, data base or technique. It is tightly connected with social activities and involved with human interactions. It is a system, from the first beginning of designing, modeling, construction and to the final stage of application. I strongly agree with your opinions and I believe engineer should participate in the social interactions to broaden their perspective.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't think older time engineers should be replaced. They could change their thoughts and accept the bran-new perspective to help them continue on scientific research and discovery. It is a natural selection, if they can continue on their research without changing their thoughts, it is fine; if they can't continue on their research without changing their thoughts, and they will be out. So I think the older time engineers should not brifely be replaced.