What it takes to be a successful engineer is difficult the quantify; that is because it is difficult to quantify what it is to be an engineer. Above all it is about being analytical and logical, but it doesn’t stop there. As an engineer you have to be able to conduct the technical work with ease and diligence; but you are also required to hold your own in the project finances; understand and control the influences of your work; and be able to communicate your ideas and thinking with an unparalleled range of colleagues, interested parties and stakeholders. As an engineer, you must fully accept that you may be, and should be, the go-to point, the focus of an entire range of queries and direction defining questions. This requires the modern engineer to be versed in a wide range of disciplines and have the ability to blend and integrate them for the most beneficial outcome.
Beneficial for whom though? Engineering has moved beyond delivering a solution on time, on specification and on budget. The advent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) although not part of the engineer’s direct remit, does mean that as an engineer you must be fully aware of all the implications of your work. The implications to you, your team, the company and its financiers. But what of the people your work affects, indigenous populations, employees/employers, and what of the environmental impacts, local, regional and global? The logical approach engineering engenders allows the modern engineer to fully embrace what it is to operate within a socially responsible environment.
How does all this pertain to me as an engineer though? Engineering is almost platform independent, but what does that mean exactly? It means that regardless of the problem at hand be it technical, financial, social, ecological… the same process is followed; that of: analyse the problem, decide what is important and what is not, generate a solution (or solutions), implement the solution, test to see if the solution solved the problem, if not go back and re-start the analysis until a working solution is found. With this in mind I have a clear idea of how I see my career progressing. I will implement my schooling, and utilise and polish the technical skills it has offered, but there is more to engineering than the technical (as I allude to above). I fully intend, having honed a good technical base, to rapidly move into project management and all that it entails, with the ultimate goal of working in business strategy. The energy conundrum ensures that the energy sector is going to have to undergo enormous changes and upheavals; and I revel in the prospect of guiding those changes to ensure that engineers provide the solutions to keep companies profitable and which will also guarantee a socially acceptable and responsible approach to energy supply.