What are the basic characteristics of an Engineer? Lets look at the the Wikipedia description of Engineer. Engineer is one who works to develop economic and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics, scientific knowledge and ingenuity while considering technical constraints. The term is derived from the Latin root "ingenium," meaning "cleverness". The work of engineers is the link between perceived needs of society and commercial applications.
So in simple terms, engineer is a clever guy (or of course clever gal as well !!!!) who solves problems using whatever hell s/he has learnt to help a common (wo)man get whatever s/he needs. So for solving problem, engineer has to analyze it, understand it. How does s/he do it? Well, by breaking problems into small bits, attacking each bit separately and then linking these bits together to finally solve the full problem.
Let me tell you one story. In the first year of engineering, we had ApPhysics as a subject. There are many difficult monsters like ApMech, M1, M2 to fight with. So nobody would study ApPhysics till the night before the exam. On the eve of the exam, we would go to AP (Appa Balwant Chowk is a place in Pune where all the academic books are available) and buy the thinnest possible book of ApPhysics!!!!!! I think, there were 12 chapters in the syllabus. In our hostel, there used to be three students in each room. So we will tear apart this book such that each one would read 4 chapters for 2 / 3 hours till about 9:00 pm. Then go to mess, have a dinner and then sit together. Each one will explain what is there in the 4 chapters he has read to other two. Other two would ask questions, why, why not, when, how???. We would remember things by some simple, sometimes stupid logics. To remember characteristics of one particular element, we would create some acronym as weird and vulgar as FCUK!!!!!!! By midnight, we would have tentatively understood what is there in all 12 chapters. We would go for a fag and tea at NCR (Irani restaurant) and over tea and cream-roll, we would sort of establish connections between all the 12 chapters one last time, come back to hostel and go to sleep. Hardly anybody would crack in this subject but everybody would clear the subject with at least 40 marks!!!! That used to be the objective anyway. Get the subject out of way with minimal time and efforts so that you can concentrate on other subjects!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And this is exactly how an engineer functions for entire her life. Any problem faced, think logically, break it into small logical components, analyze each component rationally by asking why, why, why why???? (that is why, you will notice that an engineer would always ask too many questions), understand what exactly the problem is, then try to solve each problem, and intuitively in head link all the components together and arrive at a practical solution. They use their left brains too much or predominantly. I know a friend of mine who actually drew cause-effect, dependency diagrams to plan funeral of my another friend's father!!!!!!!!! Might appear funny or emotionless. But fact of the matter is: this is how engineers are.
However, all the engineers are not same. Some are really intense. Lets call them Intense Engineer Group. The PhD types. They would zero down on a specific area of specialisation and literally bury themselves into it. They would know inside out of the topic and still would go on digging further. In the final year itself, they would appear for GRE / GATE and start MS / MTech immediately. And then pursue their PhDs. In every class, you will at least have one / two of this type. They would typically join the R&D departments of companies and generate breakthroughs through their research in their areas of specialisation. Some of the engineers from this Intense group, you would find in the academic field as well. They may not be too keen on the teaching part (of course, some PhDs are really good teachers while many are just awful!!!!!!) but would join academics so that they can continue their research without any distractions. Some would also commercialize the results of their research by designing a technical product which has a huge demand from the industry and earn tonnes of money!!!!!!!! My class topper from engineering college followed this path and she is one of the well respected entrepreneurs in US!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another type of engineers are Street Smart kind of engineers. They are good in their subjects and want to create working products by applying their knowledge. Pro. Wangdu (or Rancho) types from 3 Idiots, having 500 patents under the belt within the span of 10 years!!!!!!! They would design an atta chakki which runs on bicycle pedaling power for the villagers since the electricity is very scarce and unreliable in the rural area!!!!!!!! They have passion for engineering. They would like to improve everything, better refrigerator, better car, better telephone. Lets call this group Application Engineers group.
Yet another group is typical Engineer - MBA group. They use engineer's basic characteristics of logical thinking in different subjects other than pure engineering. They would typically take experience of couple of years and get admitted to MBA, most of the times in IIMs. These guys are taught and conditioned to think like a CEO in the MBA programme. So these engineers develop general perspective about most of the things. They always have a 10,000 ft above sea-level perspective. So many times, they are criticized for being more of gas and less of content or stuff!!!!!!!!! Leaving aside this criticism, these guys develop an holistic perspective for looking at issues at hand. They use their engineering technical knowledge combining with management theories and practices and literally go places. Let me give you my own example. I fall in this category of Engineer - MBA working in a banking sector. I always had an edge over non-engineer MBAs. Typically, during banking system implementations, quality initiatives, re-engineering initiatives, my engineering background came in really handy. I could synthesize the essence of banking and technology nicely. This is the strength of this Engineer-MBA group. Lets call it Synthesizing Engineer Group.
Finally, the last category of engineers is sort of combination of all the above + wisdom + the people focus. Typically, these are the CEOs / Heads of various functions in organizations. They are technically sound; they are street smart; they can spot an business opportunity; they have a global perspective and most of all, they can relate to people, motivate them, inspire them and take the along. Typical example of this could be S B Dangayach, CEO of Syntex water tanks. Lets call this Manager or Leader Engineer Group.
Oh before I conclude, let me give you another important characteristic of engineers. Their huge confidence. Since they understand (presummbaly!!!) how the things work at a very conceptual level, they are very confident. (sometimes crossing limit to reach arrogance) They would not restrict their ability of understanding to engineering only. They would use the same logical thinking to understand money matters. So they actively manage their personal finances effectively. They would try to understand how the politics and administrative machinery works and how to use it to the advantage of corporate world!!!!!!!!! (You know what I mean) They would even get into spiritual world. For example, Shree Rajendraji Maharaj is engineer by profession!!!!!. I am sure the operations managers behind running of organizations of spiritual gurus like Sri Sri Ravishankar, Baba Ramdev Maharaj are engineer-MBAs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
However, because of the same characteristics which make engineer so peculiar, confident and sought-after, s/he faces own set of challenges. We will cover them separately
Milind Kulkarni
31st March 2010
milindinpanhala@gmail.com
