5 truths about a career in engineering

A career in engineering has become super mythologised over the past few decades. Thanks to the likes of Jobs, Musk, Solivan and Gates, the narrative around technology has been muddied by the exciting narratives concerning college drop-outs, unicorn businesses, venture capitalists, screens full of scrolling green code and nerds in movies hushedly proclaiming “I’m into the mainframe”.

The reality is a little more complicated and mundane, but certainly no less interesting. So, let’s crack on: 5 truths about a career in engineering you should know.

1. You’ve got LOVE it, otherwise people will get ahead

This is a wildly competitive industry. That’s a given, sure, we all know that. But it means that those that get to the very top adore what they do, and live and breathe every industry detail. They become experts through a sheer amount of time put in, because it’s their whole life.

Saying that, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a tech career that is just normal, 9-5, pragmatic, and not massively passionate. Not everyone needs to be Elon Musk (thank God), and a career that serves you and your family’s needs is a brilliant thing - obviously.

But if getting to the top is your aim, you’ve kind of got to come out of the womb knowing whether you prefer Windows, Mac, or Linux, (definitely Linux).

2. You’ll sometimes spend all day swearing at your computer

It’s 10pm and you’ve spent 6 hours trying to get something to run. For the last 4 hours most of your vocabulary has been four letter words and - if you’re working from home - another member of the household has popped their head round the corner a couple of times to ask if everything is okay. It is absolutely not.

Eventually, at around midnight, you’ll give up and go to bed. Hallelujah! Why? Because about 1 in 3 times, you’ll dream up the solution at night. It’s then just a question of whether you can be bothered to get up to note it down.

3. Everyone will ask you for advice

You come home for Christmas at your Mum’s. The first thing she asks you is if you want a mince pie. You do. The second thing she asks you is if you know why her phone is making a funny noise every 15 minutes. You do not. You look at her phone and see she’s got the repeating timer function turned on. You turn it off. She is absolutely thrilled. You have another mince pie.

This is the life of anyone in tech. Whether you’re at the very top of your game or just starting out, you’ll be getting people, anyone really, coming to ask for your help. Step brothers, half-cousins, the dog’s best mate from Winchester. Doesn’t matter - they’ve all forgotten their wifi password, and it’s your problem to deal with. Thankfully, you’ve usually just got to turn it off and on again.

4. It takes a lot to keep up with the industry

As mentioned before, it moves rapidly. Keeping up with what’s changing is sometimes a round-the-clock challenge. If you ever don’t know what to do, head to Stack Overflow. It’s your new best frie- no. It’s your new homepage.

5. Building things is so satisfying

Have you ever built a model or painted a wall, or done anything hands-on, and then realised that it’s all wrong and you’ll need to start again? It’s a feeling of incredible frustration and defeat. The beauty of engineering and working with computers is that you can mess something up in a BIG way and undo it immediately to have another go.

This means you can build big, beautiful, tangible, impressive things in a relatively short amount of time. That is SO Satisfying. And fun.

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I couldn’t recommend engineering more highly to anyone that is technically minded. In my opinion, it’s the most exciting, challenging, fascinating space to work in. Please feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions - any at all - about the profession.