Need to interview an engineer for school assignment.

Hey, I'm a high school student and I'm trying to interview an engineer for an assignment in school. I have a few questions that I would like to ask and if anyone could take a few minutes to answer them I would be very grateful. Also if anyone would be more comfortable doing this over private message, that would be cool too. Thank you in advance for your time.

• What type of work do you do?
• Why did you choose this career?
•What is the biggest issue that affects your workplace?
• What would it take to solve this problem?
• What type of person do you think is most suited for this type of work/this college?
• What are day-to-day challenges you experience?
• How has your job changed over time?
• What do you like best about your job?

This is probably too late for your class, but here you go anyway:

• What type of work do you do? Electrical Engineering

• Why did you choose this career? I had always been interested in electricity, computers, and what made things work. I took many things apart as a kid so that I could see how to put them back together and find out how they operated.

•What is the biggest issue that affects your workplace? People not checking their work before they present it as complete (or they just are not learning from past mistakes - I tell myself most of them are just not checking their work - They tell themselves there was not enough time)

• What would it take to solve this problem? You would think a discussion or two on the topic but that does not consistently work. To solve the problem the person doing the task has to take ownership of it and be credited when successful and responsible to help fix it when it is not.

• What type of person do you think is most suited for this type of work/this college? Persons who can understand the big picture of what they are doing so that they know the importance of their design contributions and how they can affect others designs or construction. Being technically competent is important too. Not necessarily a genius, just having a good technical foundation to know when a result does not look right or when someone really does need more detailed information to build it instead of relying on them to fill in a lot of blanks.


• What are day-to-day challenges you experience? Most day to day challenges are coordinating schedules and timing to keep clients happy and deliverables on schedule while providing what seems like instant feedback to those who call, come by the desk, or email. It seems that the culture today is one of feeling like responses should be real time when questions are asked without necessarily taking into account many engineers work on multiple projects for multiple clients and may not be working on their project at that particular time.

• How has your job changed over time? The speed of communications along with the transition of designs largely being computer based has led in many cases to clients feeling like it is okay to make late stage changes in the designs and ask you to pick them up for free because these changes can occur much faster. This often still results in significant work but it is not necessarily perceived as such by the clients making the changes and emailing them to give you instant access to their revisions. Email, FTP sites, cloud sites, tablets, ipads, smart phones, and these types of devices have created the expectation of instant contact before and outside of the workday for many in the industry.

• What do you like best about your job? Going home. Just kidding. I personally like the variety of design work I get to do. I dont work on a specific type of project all the time but have the opportunity to work in many different market sectors to provide power, lighting, and low voltage systems designs. I also like being able to work directly with clients and being able to visit jobsites and see actual design work built and turned into functional installations that people use. Visiting jobsites also provides a great feedback loop because contractors are always willing to share what they liked and what they wish was different in the design package. Many contractors have good ideas and knowing what works well for installation or cost on the construction side can help all designers become better engineers.

Wow, I must have been having a bad week when I listed "people not checking their work" as one of the "biggest issues in the workplace". I don’t recall what was going on that that time but I guess it goes to show you that what’s going on can affect us.

I am going to change my answer on this question and I am glad to see that the group did not give a well-deserved “what were you thinking” chain along the way.

• What is the biggest issue that affects your workplace? Communication is the biggest challenge. It is understanding what your client or co-worker needs. It is explaining what you are providing in a way that can be understand by your audience to find out if they agree or want something different. It is asking for help if you need help to meet the schedule or need help with technical expertise. It is about taking the time to get buyoff on your assumptions and help everyone avoid surprises or missed expectations. Good communications helps our clients understand what’s included in what they asked for, what the options are, how much the options cost, and how long the options take to do them correctly. They can then make informed decisions on direction or deliverables while taking our recommendations into account. Good communications do not eliminate all problems or guarantee error free work, but it sure helps the process. Communications skills are the key to helping resolve problems or differences in expectations that do arise in a way that builds positive relationships and helps the project or deliverable be considered a success.
• What would it take to solve this problem? Creating an open work environment where people feel free to communicate knowing they will be heard and will get constructive responses and support in a positive way. People already have a fear of saying they don’t know how to do something or that they can’t get it done in the time provided. Think about this in your response so that you don’t build on these fears. The best engineers don’t know everything. The best engineers know what they don’t know and how to get what they need to do it right. Understand that communications goes both ways and sometimes the person you are working with may not have the experience to understand that they are missing something they need so you need to keep in touch and communicate too. Consider that you might need to do better, and if that is the case what can you do to get back on track. Be flexible to allow others to adjust their approach or direction without making it a negative. Don’t format your communications like a repetitive legal document which starts to put others on the defensive, but do document what is being done and why for others to review. Stop the long email chains by using the phone or having a meeting. Put requests or actions for others at the top of the email unless they don’t read the whole document (people get busy you know). Think about how you can make your client or team look good and exceed expectations because in the end that goes a long way towards project success.