Engineers as Problem-Solvers: Career Insights from Engineers
All the questions you had (and didn’t know to ask) about a career in Engineering.
When we surveyed our student community on careers they’d want to learn more about, 46% named engineering as an interest. Together with Praxium, we live-streamed our first panel discussion on Engineering: what is it, how does a job in Engineering look like, and how can a student take their first steps into it?
This article captures the main takeaways from our panel on 7th May 2020, and we hope it will provide you an insight into the field.
In Attendance:
- Lih Wei (Research Engineer pursuing PhD in NUS; Electrical & Electronics Engineering background)
- Zheng Peng (Systems Architect at an energy management company, Materials Science background)
- Ivie Sim (Masters Student in London, specializing in Sustainable Design; Environmental Engineering background)
- Louis Puah (Founder at Praxium; Career Coach background)
- Students: Jyothika (JC2), Mathew (JC1), Kenneth (JC1), Tricia (Sec 2)
What is ‘Engineering’?
“I think the main essence of engineering is solving problems.”- Lih Wei.
Problem-solving underlies most disciplines, and for Engineering, it is done through a focus on science and technology. Problem-solving in engineering can mean producing inventions that make our lives easier, increasing productivity in the process by freeing up our time.
It is also about future-proofing solutions: for instance, planning structures that are safe and lasting, optimising road plans that meet the needs of commuters present and future. Zheng Peng raised how HDB flats were positioned to optimise windflow as an example of optimisation in civil engineering.
“Engineering is not just a science, but also an art.” — Ivie Sim
Ivie recounted her experience from her previous job in construction planning and development where engineers need to be able to communicate with clients to identify what even are the problems to be solved, and then collaborate with other engineers where problems demand more than one specialisation. Knowing what and how to communicate your ideas is critical in these collaborations.
Engineering in Daily Life
Some emphasis was put into how we can appreciate how Engineering is present everywhere around us in our daily lives. Below are some examples that were brought up.
Any form of machine around us, like this motorbike, is made up of numerous parts. Each with a specific purpose, made using a specific process in a factory. Engineers would concern themselves with the purpose of each part, its design, and its durability and maintainability as well.
In this motorbike, engineers would work on things like the gear system of the motorbike, effectiveness of the brakes, as well as the efficiency of the engine in converting petroleum into propulsion
On the left is a photo taken beside a construction area, showing a vibration meter installed right in front of a residence. You may miss these contraptions in your day-to-day life, but paying some attention to it, you’ll be able to see that these are important fixtures that aid construction engineers in their work.
Meters like these, created by engineers, would detect vibrations and shifts in the ground, so that we can avoid disasters (such as building collapse) caused by heavy construction work.
Beyond just machines, engineering also can be found in the natural environment around us as well. Ivie shared her inspiration, the transformation of the Bishan canal into the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park, as a pivotal event that cemented her passion for engineering. This feat was the work of extensive Civil and Environmental Engineering, transforming the purely functional canal into a livable place for people to enjoy.
Fun fact: Did you know that every single tree in Singapore is tracked and maintained? This kind of data is useful for Environmental Engineers as they shape our environment.
What does being an engineer look like?
Again, at the base of it, being an engineer is about problem solving. Every engineer will likely be made to review research, produce prototypes, iterate prototypes, consult engineers from other specialisations, until finally producing a desired solution.
However, this process can translate differently across industries and specific professions. For Lih Wei, an engineer in academia, it involves looking into cutting-edge research, which means to tackle problems yet to be solved. His daily work looks very much like regular office life: working at a desk juggling 20–50 browser tabs of academic journals, running computer models and simulations, and having weekly team meetings of progress updates.
For Ivie and Zheng Peng, it involves applying theoretical research to solve problems for their clients. “How can I glance upon the work that scientists and researchers have created, and how can I apply them in a cost-effective manner but at the same time [help] the client save energy?” summed Zheng Peng.
These problems may be interdisciplinary and beyond a single university major. Zheng Peng, although having majored in material science, found himself in eight-month rotations across the fields of mechanical engineering, systems engineering, and electrical engineering as they are all relevant to providing energy management solutions.
Ivie, on her first job, was challenged to use timber as a structural material despite never having learned it in school. This is why learning on the job — in Ivie’s case through overseas site visits — is essential for any engineer regardless of their specialisation in school.
Not all their work is about making calculations, blueprints and drawings, however. Working with clients means engineers must know how to convey their ideas to a layperson. Zheng Peng’s time, for instance, is also spent on drafting proposals and speaking with clients to understand their needs.
Client work also involves extensive site visits to understand the unique context of the problem. Ivie cited how the PLQ team had to consider how to preserve the old Banyan trees in their development, and Zheng Peng cited the 20 000 steps required to inspect humongous data centres or energy systems on-site.
Should I pick engineering?
If you’ve been reading thus far and are intrigued and interested in the work and examples shared, Engineering could be something that interests you!
“What kinds of problems do you want to solve and what kinds of things are you passionate about?” — Zheng Peng
He adds: “The specialisation comes as a means to an end — it’s for you to solve a certain problem, that’s why you want to pick up a certain specialisation.”
Deciding whether to pursue engineering requires reflection on what problems you want to tackle, and to decide if engineering is the best field to enable you to solve them. Inspiration for this can come from anywhere around you.
Zheng Peng pursued material science as he was excited at the idea of improving the efficiency of solar cells as a solution to sustainable power; Ivie pursued environmental engineering as she was inspired by how the canal at Bishan Park was transformed into a beautiful waterway. Lih Wei pursued electrical engineering as he enjoyed taking apart and fixing electronics when he was young.
It is also helpful to see that engineering can be applied across a wide number of industries seeking to achieve different aims (eg. with healthcare: to run services that protect the health of the people.) Louis Puah — the founder of Praxium — helpfully illustrated this matrix for reference.
Every industry has problems within that can be tackled with an Engineering background. Different specializations would be more relevant in specific alternate industries, so knowing what problem you want to tackle will really help you identify the specialisation you might pursue.
The best way to have great certainty, is to try doing some Engineering yourself! You can perhaps start a project to create a solution for a problem around you, to see if engineering is something you would want to pursue further.
For instance, Louis suggested to one of the student attendees to try “learning to code, building your own apps” as a way to see if software engineering is well-suited for them. Alternatively, the next time some device or appliance is broken or spoilt at home, take it apart to see if you can fix it!
Making Sense of Specialisations
Being such a vast field, you will have to choose a specialisation. However, regardless of which specialization you choose to pursue, you will receive a general foundation that is similar across every specialisation. It is often only in the later part of your first year, or your second year, that you really get into a specialization.
Louis drafted a graphic organiser with the help of the panelists to chart how various specialisations could be (roughly) conceptually grouped, along with proximity to the science subjects that students may be more familiar with. Though definitely neither prescriptive nor exhaustive, we would definitely encourage you to use this graphic as a launchpad for research into specialisations.
This exercise prompted insightful reflection from the panelists on their various disciplines. Engineering Science was described as perhaps the most general specialisation of all, a “philosophy of engineering” but with “quantitative aspects”.
Zheng Peng, having studied Materials Science, shared that the research from materials science is “cross-functional” as it can be applied across many domains. Researching and modifying the properties of materials can have applications in biomedical science for instance, in finding materials that can increase drug absorption rates, or in electronics, in finding the best materials to design semiconductors.
Even within subfields there are further specialisations. Within environmental engineering, for instance, Ivie shared that there are further specialisations of air, water and waste management.
Fortunately, you’ll likely only need to choose these sub-specializations after being exposed to them in your engineering education.
How do we choose an engineering specialisation?
Most universities will make first-year engineering students explore different disciplines and build fundamentals (such as mathematical reasoning, analytical skills, the prototyping process, etc) that all engineering fields share. While most first-years would have been admitted in one discipline, there is likely opportunity in the second year to apply to another.
In picking a specialisation, Zheng Peng’s advice was to see it as “understanding what you want to do, then getting the skillset to…solve that problem”. Even within specialisations there are sub-specialisations, so it is important to identify a niche where you can contribute.
As Lih Wei put it, “In Engineering, you learn how to put things together. Different specializations are just about what kinds of things you will know how to put together.”
If you may still be unsure of the specialisation to pursue, you may consider a more “cross-functional” specialisation like Engineering Science.
Can you change specialisations? The panellists concurred that it is common for engineers to choose to stay in the same specialization but it is definitely possible to switch between sub-specialisations (such as from waste management to water management within Environmental Engineering) or expand from one specialisation into a related specialisation (such as from Electrical Engineering to Computer Engineering).
The panellists also warned against picking specialisations based on trends. Although software engineering may be currently popular, it is also uncertain how long the trend cycle will last and whether it will still be in demand after a 3–4 year study period. It is important, above all, to gain transferable skills that are valuable in any profession — “learning how to learn…how to Google and search well, how to break down a problem” were raised by Lih Wei as skills that are useful to any engineer in staying relevant.
This article was co-published on Praxium.
Found this article on engineering useful? Follow our publication for more in-depth, insight articles coming soon on topics like Media, Healthcare, the Arts and IT.
Thank you to Zheng Peng, Lih Wei and Ivie for sharing their thoughts and their time with us on our panel. Thank you also to our five student participants who asked excellent questions during the QnA!
If you’d like to get in contact with the panelists or other engineers, do DM @praxiumsg on Instagram or Facebook as well, and we can make available our network of professionals from numerous different industries. Find Praxium on Medium too.
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