Why the Best Engineers Aren’t Just Designers
What does engineering look like in the real world?
1. Begin
In school, you'll learn various different types of math you had no idea existed, fluid mechanics, wave theory, thermodynamics, and a host of other studies that seem....excessive. It's overwhelming, and for a while, it may become what you perceive all mechanical engineering to be, but then after countless hours of studying, you perhaps take your first Solidworks or CNC class and see something you designed come to life.
Some people feel underwhelmed at this moment to see all that work put in for a seemingly simple part, but most I've talked to, it was a moment they never forgot. You created, and made something you now hold in your hand.
2. Create
For those of us who love the work, this is the foundation of our love. We are creators, and we love seeing our creation out in the wild doing its thing. It's a proud moment when you can see something in the wild, and be able to say, 'I was a part of that'. Don't let that nuance get past you though, 'a part of' is intentional, because when it comes to larger projects, we are not the sole creator. And now, we start to understand what the life of an engineer is like.
Large projects involving more than just a few people require just that: people. When so many people are involved in all fields, communication becomes the crucial foundation on which all good projects succeed on. That communication also comes in various forms, from the verbal, written emails, to drawings, FMEAs, FEAs, DOEs, Gantt charts, BOMs, presentations, Excel spreadsheet calculations, and the list goes on-and-on-and-on. In order for all the cogs in the machine to function, everything has to be connected, and that communication & documentation is how that is done. In fact, I would argue it is even more important than the design itself...
3. Document
Think about it this way, you could design the perfect part or machine, but 5+ years down the line when a part eventually wears and needs replacement, are you going to remember the exact specs it needs to be for it to work? Worse yet, what if that part you need to replace was done 5+ years ago by another engineer that no longer works there, and you have no documentation on how to make it! That guy unfortunately seems to work at every company. Don't be that guy. We don't like that guy.
So what does the daily life of an engineer look like? Think about what we just talked about, then take this in: it is about creating something in such a way that it not only meets all design criteria, but is reproducible and well understood. It is about finding solutions to problems, then documenting those solutions. It is about documenting how things went together, how they might fail, or how they need to fail. It is about having something you create be so polished, that the person 5+ years down the road can find that drawing stashed away exactly where it was forgotten for years and say, "oh thank God".