Engineers Week 2024: Andrew Douglass, PE

How long have you been an engineer and from where did you graduate? What is your degree?

I graduated from Virginia Tech with a Mechanical Engineering degree and have been an engineer for about 5 years.

What attracted you to the engineering field?

I was attracted to the engineering field because I love to learn how things work. At the time, I did not know what field of engineering I would land in, but the opportunity to problem solve and learn more every day about how the world worked excited me.

What do you enjoy most about what work you do? What are you looking forward to in the future?

I most enjoy interacting with a wide array of very talented, smart, and experienced people. I look forward to each day knowing that I will often get to meet someone new and that I will undoubtedly learn something that I did not know the day before. I also hope to do my small part to reciprocate and share some knowledge with others. It is amazing to look back and see how far a little bit of daily growth can take you.

What is some advice you would give to someone considering becoming an engineer?

Don’t be afraid to ask why. Learning the “why” and not just the “what” helps build a foundation of knowledge that you can use to solve unique and challenging problems in the future. Then, once you progress to the point where others are asking you questions, be a willing teacher. Sometimes you end up learning more as a teacher than as a student.