Engineers spend more than half their working hours handling information
Picture an engineer and you might imagine someone bent over drawings or machinery. Studies of how engineers actually use their time tell a different story: more than half of it goes on finding, using and passing on information, and a large share on talking with other people.
The word comes from Latin roots meaning to contrive and cleverness, which suits the job of turning scientific discoveries into things people and businesses can use. Along the way an engineer defines problems, narrows research, compares possible solutions against requirements and constraints, and makes decisions. Analytical engineers may run production, diagnose why a process failed, test output for quality and estimate how long and how much a project will cost.
Work-sampling research puts numbers on the routine. A 2012 study found engineers spent about 63 percent of their time on technical work, 40 percent on social work and around half on computer-based work, figures that overlap because tasks run together. Other research found nearly 56 percent went on information behaviours, including about 14 percent spent actively seeking information, split between asking colleagues and searching documents or databases.
Specialisation is the norm. Civil engineering alone takes in structural, transport, geotechnical and materials work, while mechanical engineering, essentially applied physics, touches almost every field. Products usually need mixed teams: a robot might combine a mechanical engineer for the body and actuators, an electrical engineer for power, sensors and control circuits, and a software engineer to make it behave.
Becoming a licensed professional typically means a four-year degree, or in some places a master's, followed by several years of supervised practice and board exams. Signing off bridges, power plants or chemical works often requires that licence, marked by letters such as PE or P.Eng in North America and EUR ING in Europe. The Washington Accord recognises equivalent degree standards across many national bodies. Some North American graduates wear an iron ring on the little finger of their working hand, a custom begun in Canada in 1925 and taken up by several US colleges in 1972 as a reminder of their duty to the public.
Source: Engineer
