4 answers
Oscar
Student
Midlothian, Texas
1
Question
Updated
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What is it really like to study and work in engineering?
I am a high school student and am doing an interview for a project that’s supposed to help me with my future pathway. I want to be an engineer and need someone with that expertise to answer a couple of simple questions.
- What’s the most life-giving part of your career (or college/major)?
- What is something you wish you would’ve done (or not done) in working toward your career (or college/major)?
- What is something you wish someone would’ve told you about your career (or college/major) that you didn’t anticipate?
- Does your career (or college/major) relate to math (or require certain math courses) in any way? Thank you!
I am going to use the interview for the project and I would be very grateful for any answers
*Note: Edited by Admin for clarity
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4 answers
Kalyan Vuddemarry
manager
13
Answers
Houston, Texas
Updated
Kalyan’s Answer
Absolutely — here’s a strong, honest interview-style response you can use for your project.
What’s the most life-giving part of your career or major?
The most life-giving part of engineering is solving real problems and seeing your work turn into something useful. You get to take ideas, build them, test them, and improve them. That mix of creativity and logic can be very satisfying, especially when your work helps people or makes something work better.
What is something you wish you would’ve done, or not done, in working toward your career or major?
I wish I would have spent more time building a strong foundation in math and problem-solving earlier. In engineering, the basics matter a lot, and it helps to practice consistently instead of cramming later. I also would not have been so afraid of making mistakes, because engineering is really about learning through trial, error, and revision.
What is something you wish someone would’ve told you about your career or major that you didn’t anticipate?
I wish someone had told me that engineering is not just “hard math.” There is a lot of teamwork, communication, creativity, and persistence involved too. It also takes patience, because projects and classes can be challenging before they make sense, and that is normal.
Does your career or major relate to math or require certain math courses?
Yes, engineering is very closely related to math. You usually need algebra, trigonometry, precalculus, calculus, and sometimes statistics and differential equations depending on the engineering field. Math is used every day in engineering for design, measurements, modeling, and problem-solving.
What’s the most life-giving part of your career or major?
The most life-giving part of engineering is solving real problems and seeing your work turn into something useful. You get to take ideas, build them, test them, and improve them. That mix of creativity and logic can be very satisfying, especially when your work helps people or makes something work better.
What is something you wish you would’ve done, or not done, in working toward your career or major?
I wish I would have spent more time building a strong foundation in math and problem-solving earlier. In engineering, the basics matter a lot, and it helps to practice consistently instead of cramming later. I also would not have been so afraid of making mistakes, because engineering is really about learning through trial, error, and revision.
What is something you wish someone would’ve told you about your career or major that you didn’t anticipate?
I wish someone had told me that engineering is not just “hard math.” There is a lot of teamwork, communication, creativity, and persistence involved too. It also takes patience, because projects and classes can be challenging before they make sense, and that is normal.
Does your career or major relate to math or require certain math courses?
Yes, engineering is very closely related to math. You usually need algebra, trigonometry, precalculus, calculus, and sometimes statistics and differential equations depending on the engineering field. Math is used every day in engineering for design, measurements, modeling, and problem-solving.
Patryk Nowak
Product Manager
4
Answers
Chicago, Illinois
Updated
Patryk’s Answer
Hi Oscar - these are great questions!
What’s the most life-giving part of your career (or college/major)?
Engineering is truly a field that encompasses all aspects of our lives and that is what makes it so great. Any engineering field you chose, you will be positively impacting how other people live or interact with each other and this is the most rewarding for me. Engineering is also about innovation, for example, engineering a product to consume less energy. Being able to hypothesis, experiment, and build something that makes the world a better place is wonderful.
What is something you wish you would’ve done (or not done) in working toward your career (or college/major)?
Going out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed my STEM courses and they prepared me very well for my career. Although I did take a 'public speaking' course, I wish I would've done more of that in practice as public speaking was not something I was very comfortable with.
What is something you wish someone would’ve told you about your career (or college/major) that you didn’t anticipate?
Don't stress about making the right career decision. Trust in yourself and you will be successful.
Does your career (or college/major) relate to math (or require certain math courses) in any way?
Yes, math is everywhere. Even in business or non-technical/engineering fields, because data is everywhere. Math helps us make sense of all that data.
What’s the most life-giving part of your career (or college/major)?
Engineering is truly a field that encompasses all aspects of our lives and that is what makes it so great. Any engineering field you chose, you will be positively impacting how other people live or interact with each other and this is the most rewarding for me. Engineering is also about innovation, for example, engineering a product to consume less energy. Being able to hypothesis, experiment, and build something that makes the world a better place is wonderful.
What is something you wish you would’ve done (or not done) in working toward your career (or college/major)?
Going out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed my STEM courses and they prepared me very well for my career. Although I did take a 'public speaking' course, I wish I would've done more of that in practice as public speaking was not something I was very comfortable with.
What is something you wish someone would’ve told you about your career (or college/major) that you didn’t anticipate?
Don't stress about making the right career decision. Trust in yourself and you will be successful.
Does your career (or college/major) relate to math (or require certain math courses) in any way?
Yes, math is everywhere. Even in business or non-technical/engineering fields, because data is everywhere. Math helps us make sense of all that data.
Anuj Gupta
Software Engineering
330
Answers
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Updated
Anuj’s Answer
Use the next 6 months as a testing phase. Pick your top 3 career interests, spend 2 months actively exploring each (reading, projects, networking), and compare which one you return to naturally and perform best in.
William Vvuko
Retired engineer
240
Answers
Moyo, Northern Region
Updated
William’s Answer
Hi Oscar,
Thank you very much for this interesting query.
Engineering is and has always been about meeting human needs. You just need to look at your immediate neighborhood to see some of it's contributions: housing, roads, water supply, automobiles, aeroplanes, home appliances, machines, clothing, electronic equipment, processed food, pharmaceutical products, beverages, railways etc.
Engineering is a fairly vast field of study and therefore many choices do exist in terms of specialization: electrical, civil, structural, biomedical, mechanical, software, aerospace, automotive, production, chemical engineering, robotics, AI etc.
Roles are available in the areas of design, production/manufacturing, maintenance, projects, utilities, consulting, research and development, teaching in institutions of higher learning etc.
To get there however, you need to be proficient in mathematics and physics in high school as they are foundational subjects for any engineering course. Other important subjects include chemistry, computer applications, design & graphics.
Long-term aspirations are influenced by interest, love for and enjoyment of what we do. Excellence must be at the center of every effort & endeavor. Sincere effort counts - sometimes our best effort is not good enough: we need to take this as an opportunity to improve.
Focusing on important human needs can be a sustainable pathway to financial freedom.
I'm a retired mechanical engineer. I spent most of my career in the beer industry and mostly in maintenance roles and therefore I had to obtain qualifications in brewing. I have expertise in human resources management, quality management, occupational health & safety, world class manufacturing best practices and talent management.
In practice, you can add many secondary competencies to your core profession - it makes you more useful to society.
For most of my high school days, my aspiration was to study human medicine. Engineering was my natural calling though - the decision to pursue it came at short notice. It eventually took me into areas I had never envisioned during my school days. Curiosity and an open mind can be very helpful in enabling us progressively move towards our full potential.
Best of luck in your studies.
Thank you very much for this interesting query.
Engineering is and has always been about meeting human needs. You just need to look at your immediate neighborhood to see some of it's contributions: housing, roads, water supply, automobiles, aeroplanes, home appliances, machines, clothing, electronic equipment, processed food, pharmaceutical products, beverages, railways etc.
Engineering is a fairly vast field of study and therefore many choices do exist in terms of specialization: electrical, civil, structural, biomedical, mechanical, software, aerospace, automotive, production, chemical engineering, robotics, AI etc.
Roles are available in the areas of design, production/manufacturing, maintenance, projects, utilities, consulting, research and development, teaching in institutions of higher learning etc.
To get there however, you need to be proficient in mathematics and physics in high school as they are foundational subjects for any engineering course. Other important subjects include chemistry, computer applications, design & graphics.
Long-term aspirations are influenced by interest, love for and enjoyment of what we do. Excellence must be at the center of every effort & endeavor. Sincere effort counts - sometimes our best effort is not good enough: we need to take this as an opportunity to improve.
Focusing on important human needs can be a sustainable pathway to financial freedom.
I'm a retired mechanical engineer. I spent most of my career in the beer industry and mostly in maintenance roles and therefore I had to obtain qualifications in brewing. I have expertise in human resources management, quality management, occupational health & safety, world class manufacturing best practices and talent management.
In practice, you can add many secondary competencies to your core profession - it makes you more useful to society.
For most of my high school days, my aspiration was to study human medicine. Engineering was my natural calling though - the decision to pursue it came at short notice. It eventually took me into areas I had never envisioned during my school days. Curiosity and an open mind can be very helpful in enabling us progressively move towards our full potential.
Best of luck in your studies.
Thank you so much!