Engineers! Please share you experiences!!!

[Engineer]

1.What excites you most about engineering as a career?
I love to build stuff. Ever since I was a kid, I built stuff. I even put a sail on my littler red wagon so I could ride in it instead of pulling it around.

2. What made you decide to become an engineer?
One of my dad’s clients was an engineer from Shell Oil who was the project manager for those platform ships that go out and they sink one end of them. He saw stuff I built around the house like a fire place heat exchanger and custom suspension systems. He said “you should become an engineer” and I did.

3. In your job, how important are good communication skills (written and spoken)?
Engineers are typically not touchy-feely people. Our communication skills are usually lacking. What is important is attention to details and documentation. Depending on the type of position, your verbal and written skill requirements vary. In engineering sales, they are very important.

4. Do you primarily work alone or in teams?
I primarily work alone. We do meet and brainstorm but you usually go off and complete your assignments and present the results. Where I work right now, there are only a few engineers and we just talk over the cubical walls.

5. Is it important for an engineer to understand strength of materials concepts (stress, strain, deformations)?
Not every engineering position requires an in depth analytical knowledge of stress, strain, and deformation (or expansion/contraction ratios and galvanic cell potentials). But all engineers need to understand the concepts and keep that in mind while working.

6. What kind of engineering did you study?
I studied mechanical engineering at UCSD.

7. What kind of engineering do you do now?
Right now I do mechanical, electrical, fluid dynamic, thermal dynamic and hydraulics.

8. Where do you work now and what do you do?
I work for a Pentair company called Hypro. I work in the FoamPro division. We do the fire fighting foam proportioning equipment. I get to play with fire trucks and make lots and lots of bubbles. It’s really fun to make bubbles. Ever seen an Olympic swimming pool emptied in one minute (10,000gpm) and all that water turned into foam. That’s a lot of bubbles every minute.