Engineer as a job title can include hundreds of jobs. Whether it is designing buildings as a mechanical engineer, writing code for mobile apps as a computer engineer, or even structural engineering – there are a few responsibilities they have in common.
The jobs are always highly technical in nature. They are heavily involved in planning and drawing. Engineers are used to working with budgets. They are also responsible for providing technical documents to both the customers, and in some cases, to regulatory agencies. Lastly, nearly all engineers are well versed in mathematics. Below we’ll cover these topics in further detail.
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Planning and Budget
The first step in planning is to get precise instructions from the customer on what’s required for the project. The engineer then begins planning the project following the instructions. This will involve understanding the project’s scope and any parameters set by the client. They will need to plan out the entire project from start to finish including, making sure that the project will fall within the budget limit set by the client.
Budgeting can be challenging, and it helps to leave extra money available to meet unexpected costs which may show up later during the project. For example, what costs one dollar today may end up costing three dollars by the end of the year due to supply issues. Or, if you are working in the winter, extra money may be necessary to ensure that the equipment remains usable. Conversely, in the summer, it may be easier on the wallet. Budgeting is critical to a project’s success or failure.
Drawings and Technical Documents
A structural engineer may be required to provide a drawing of how steel beams will efficiently hold up a building’s roof. A mechanical engineer may be required to provide drawings with technical specifications of a machine the client has requested for their factory.
At the end of the day, technical specifications are an engineer’s bread and butter. Anything from gears and motors to metal beams and concrete needs to have all kinds of technical measurements attached. These may include material strength, revolutions per minute, and compression measurements. Even computer engineers may be required to show their math skills in showing how an AI algorithm is calculating probabilities.
Providing Documents to Customers and Regulatory Agencies
Typically if someone is looking for an engineer, they need someone with multiple certifications or university degrees that can be verified. So, both the client and the government can be assured that the individual can be relied upon to provide accurate information that can literally involve the safety of people’s lives.
A well-trained engineer can provide detailed documentation to the customer regarding their projects that explain technical details that can be immensely complex. As well as providing the information to customers, for example, if engineers are responsible for designing a building, they will have to provide documents to the relevant authorities for approval.
Math, Math, and More Math!
When designing a next-generation rocket for a trip to the moon, an aeronautical engineer calculates parameters, such as forces and trajectories, that would make an average person’s head spin! How much fuel is burned per second by the engines? What are the dimensions of the rocket’s body? How strong is the parachute material? It is obviously critical that literally every one of these calculations is accurate to the decimal.
An engineer might be required to think not only in 2d like in a chess game but in 3d. The physics behind how far an airplane will fly if the fuel runs out, to how deep a skyscraper’s concrete foundation needs to be – all rely heavily on a deep understanding of mathematics. Engineers may use calculators so they don’t have to do long division by hand, but the math has to be checked and rechecked hundreds of times during the course of the project.
Conclusion
To truly succeed, engineers often need to have a rock-solid educational foundation to ensure they fully understand every aspect of their trade. They’ll also need to have several certifications on hand to showcase their competence in a wide variety of disciplines.
These certifications can come in many forms – some are provided by corporations to validate their skills with proprietary software while others are licenses handed out by the government to show that they can be entrusted with performing engineering duties related to their specialty.
If an engineer can tie together their understanding of mathematics, project management, drawing and technical specifications, they can find themselves on the road to a successful and often very well-paid career!
