Gosh, not this again. Engineers are people and, for the most part, look and act pretty similar to the rest of the general population. Suggesting that a third are socially inept is just ridiculous, and if your company was that way, perhaps that reflects the company and it’s hiring and culture moreso than engineers as a broader class of human beings.
I was offering my experience. Yours apparently differs. I said that that is possible in my first paragraph.
You don’t know my company and you don’t know me. Please simply state the nature of your work and present a differing opinion. Perhaps your company didn’t require long hours alone running simulations? Perhaps your company doesn’t hire a lot of engineers with advanced degrees? Please be respectful. I am.
I don’t think my response was any less respectful than impugning the personalities of a sizable chunk of engineers. You might say things like “this might just be my company” but you are saying it in the context of a kid asking if a certain type of personality is required to be an engineer. Implying a large portion of engineers is socially inept is likely to be off-putting and discourages others from considering the profession, in my opinon.
That certainly is the stereotype of engineers, and perhaps it used to be the case, but in my experience, engineers aren’t all that different from the general population. That experience is based on my time spent at two large engineering programs as a student (undergraduate and graduate), a national laboratory with thousands of scientists and engineers (many with PhDs), and now as a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at a third large state school.
Thanks for providing your background. I didn’t intend to impugn engineers collectively. However, I still assert that the solitary work of running analyses without interacting with others appealed to many of my colleagues with apparent social challenges. So, they stuck with this line of work throughout their career. My colleagues that were more personable preferred to move to other engineering jobs that required more social interaction. That is what I observed.
boneh3ead, I believe that, in other threads, you have disagreed with me too, regarding the meaningfulness of engineering rankings. My experience differs with yours on that subject, as well. CC is helpful because it provides an opportunity to present different perspectives.
To the OP: Engineering can be a very rewarding career. I loved solving unique problems and witnessing the success of the missions that I worked on. I have no regrets. I posted comments only in the context of your thread question. IME, certain kinds of people are attracted to certain kinds of engineering. Obviously, all engineers are not alike.
“However, I still assert that the solitary work of running analyses without interacting with others appealed to many of my colleagues with apparent social challenges. '” - That could be true. But I’m under the impression that most engineers, like me, do a lot of projects with teamwork and/or meetings.
I don’t believe someone has to be naturally good at math to study Engineering and become an Engineer. I know some Engineers who claim to not naturally be good at math, had to work harder, get help from tutors, and had to do extra practice to understand and do well in all there classes.