-Walter W. Frey

fter working as an engineer for over 35 years, I now conclude that a successful career depends

on understanding what engineering is, academic performance, and personality. And these considerations are not all important for the right reasons.

think innovatively, and skill in interact- ing with others. Personnel departments (often for legal reasons) stay away from trying to rate these subjective areas and stick to easily quantified areas, i.e., “GPA, class standing, etc.” Thus, many potentially good engineers are turned

5 Engineering is the art of applying sci- 2 entitic principles to solve a problem. It is gnot a separate area of science such as

physics. Engineering projects are bound 3 by three variables: the number of prob- 5 lems to solve, the funds available to solve 3 these problems, and the delivery date of

the finished items. The catch is you can only fix two of the variables, while the third is determined by the others.

Although a modicum of academic performance is necessary to graduate, a high GPA does not predicate a success- ful career. The real indicators for engi- neering performance reside in a person’s personality traits, ability to

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away due to poor grades. The following subjective areas

also are necessary for a successful engineering career:

Curiosity-The desire to find out how things work, or why they don’t. The engineer notes the good and the bad approaches to the problem.

Perseverance-This trait is needed to stay with a problem even though the solution is not adequate or eludes or seems to fight the engineer. However, this must be not be carried to an extreme, i.e., it becomes a futile obsession. Also, oftentimes a problem will have to be temporarily shelved to work on projects which will produce more immediate results.

Self-confidence-The engineer knows his or her capabilities and problem areas; for example, he or she has a tendency to settle on the fiist solution that presents itself.

Common sense-The ability to make decisions on partial or contra- dictory information. It is also used to balance perseverance against what is best for the overall program.

Sense of humor-This trait is necessary to keep from getting depressed when the solution has

been elusive and all sorts of irrelevant problems are obscuring the answer. Humor is also very useful in handling personality problems with subordinates andor superiors.

Ingenuity-This means the engi- neer is not limited to the “by the book” way of doing things. This person is open to unique or unproved solutions to difficult problems; he or she is will- ing to take a chance if the potential gains are great.

Communication-Engineering is an occupation that depends on the exchange and interpretation of ideas. An engineer must be aware of how oth-

ers have tried to solve a problem. This knowledge often presents itself when engineers get together and ta.lk shop. Very often, the solution requires merg- ing the best parts of competing solu- tions into a unified approach. However, this is not the same as when, stuff is included just to keep everyone happy. This “team approach” typically results in mediocre products.

Luck-Luck is always useful since “no amount of planning will replace dumb luck.” However, good planning and contingency planning often help or are confused with luck.

Altogether, these eight attributes will more greatly affect one’s performance as an engineer than his or her GPA.

About the authclr Walter W. Frey is an IEEE Life Senior.

DECEMBER ’97lJANUARY ’98 39