The 5 Most Essential Skills For Engineers by Staff Writers - The Graduate Engineers Magazine

Engineers are exposed to a variety of scenarios and are required to be well-rounded individuals. To perform well in their role, they need to have a range of skills at their disposal. This list is from my personal experience and is not exhaustive. Many skills are essential for engineers however, these are the 5 most essential skills for engineers I have chosen.

Communication

Although engineering has a portion of the work that consists of individual work, for example, designing, the requirements stem from communicating with one another. Good listening skills are critical for ensuring you understand the goals of the project/design.

Once you’ve created your designs or solved a problem, you must be able to communicate the idea and principles effectively. Without being able to do so, others will not grasp the concepts and may not have confidence in your proposal. It can be complex to describe engineering concepts and theories to others.

In addition to verbal communication, writing communication is equally important as you will be required to write reports on your work. Being able to write accurately and concisely will have a positive effect on how your reports are perceived. Reports are often sent to customers, meaning customers will develop an impression of you and your work.

Problem Solving

Engineering is mainly about problem-solving, so problem-solving skills are essential for engineers. How problem-solving skills are utilized within engineering can vary. One instance of problem-solving is to design a product that solves an issue for your customer/others. An investigation is an alternative scenario use of problem-solving skills. You may have an item/product returned which has failed and, it is up to you to determine how it occurred. Problem-solving skills in this scenario are different from those first discussed.

Problem-solving skills can be aided by creativity as they will allow you to approach solutions that others would not have considered. A lack of creativity may be the cause of the problem that arose in the first place, so creativity matched with problem-solving are a match made in heaven.

Technical Knowledge

Having the necessary technical knowledge is an essential skill for engineers. It does not mean you must know every bit of technical knowledge in engineering, but you must have technical knowledge in your industry segment. Realize that some technical principles are fundamental and are present across all sectors of industry.

Sometimes, technical knowledge comes with experience. As I have found myself, you will learn a lot on the job and understand that many knowledgeable people have had lots of experience. It is different learning a concept at a college or university as compared with dealing with real world situations.

Teamwork

More often then not, you will be working within a team, be it a project team (multidisciplinary) or in a team of engineers. For this reason, team working is one of the essential skills for engineers. A solid basis for team working skills is understanding that more can be achieved, as a whole than from one individual. Getting the best out of each team member and utilizing each other’s strengths can help the team function better and more efficiently.

Working in a team will require you to use both communication and problem-solving skills, effectively. Strong communication skills allows you to express ideas and thoughts more effectively within the team.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is related closely to problem-solving. Critical thinking involves analyzing information, data and facts related to an issue or problem. Strong critical thinking skills allow you to make good logical decisions based on the information provided. However, a hard aspect of critical thinking is performing it objectively, not allowing your opinions or personal experiences influence you.

Critical thinking is a skill that is rather hard to develop, and is tested when exposed to situations that require critical thinking. Identifying and controlling any biases that you or others have is critical to getting clean results when applying critical thinking lenses.