• Question: Why an engineer? It has a bad reputation for children. We grow up learning that we should aspire to be scientists, teachers, doctors etc. We want to earn good money and in my mindset that is the opposite to being an engineer. What made you come into this industry?

    Asked by MK to Alessandra, Dimitrios, Niamh, Becky, Stacey on 21 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Stacey Marple

      Stacey Marple answered on 21 Jun 2017:

      Hi MK, engineers can earn good money, Elon Musk is a billionaire. I am disappointed to hear that engineering has a bad reputation, engineers are involved with many things that influence our day to day lives (transport, food, energy, connectivity) and are trying to solve the big problems facing the world, like clean energy. I think children aspire to be scientists, teacher and doctors because they are more visible careers. We know more people and see people more often who do those jobs. Engineering needs to make its self more visible, allowing students to interact with engineers like through this event will hopefully help to change children’s views on engineering. I became an engineer because I like creating and fixing things, solving problems and I hope to work on projects which contribute to society.

    • Photo: Alessandra Treviso

      Alessandra Treviso answered on 21 Jun 2017:

      Oh well, I didn’t know about my bad reputation as an engineer.i think engineers are often seen just as cold calculators, merely applying formulas or working behind a screen. To be fair, we do lots of science education produce lots of knowledge but sometimes this is not visible and that’s a real shame. We do a lot of cool things and come up nice inventions too.
      Making money is an objective but it should be passion to drive you and your career aspiration. If engineering inspires you and involves you than go for it. By the way, you can make good money as an engineer too.

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