C.A

If youre considering a career in engineering, you've probably at some point thought about the daily work an engineer does.  But what did you think of?  Working on machines?  Performing maintenance?  Designing some sort of engine?  That’s one of the most interesting aspects of engineering—there are engineers who do all of these things each day, but there are also engineers who don’t do any of them!  There are so many different types of engineering—aerospace engineers, civil engineers, subsea engineers, software engineers, just to name a few—that it’s almost impossible to sum up what “an engineer” does.

Much of what you will do as an engineer also depends on how much education and training you've had and how long you've been at your current job.  A brand new engineer straight out of university, no matter what field he or she has gone in, will be doing a lot of grunt work.  Much of this work is straight “textbook” work, meaning it’s a lot of analysis, performing routine tests and maintenance, and performing calculations for someone else.  It may not sound exciting at first, but as with any job, you’ve got to start at the bottom and work your way up.

After a few years at the entry level, you may find yourself being given more responsibility and larger tasks.  You may even get a promotion or seek a new job that requires more of you.  At this point, you may find yourself supervising employees who are now doing the grunt work you once did.  These engineers often find themselves overseeing projects or developing new ideas.  They oversee the day-to-day work, delegating tasks and making sure things are done on time.  They will attend some meetings, but they also do hands-on work.

Engineers who are in a manager or supervisor position will spend more time in meetings than they once did.  They will also be in charge of designing projects and delegating tasks.  For some, these types of positions are not quite as enjoyable—engineers in managing positions don’t get the chance to get their hands dirty or do actual work as often.  However, if you enjoy bringing ideas, resources, and people together to create something tangible, you may really like what these positions entail.  Managing engineers have to work with budgets, know how to handle many employees, and be able to deal with problems with a project goes off-track.

These are just generalizations, of course.  The bottom line is that what subsea engineering positions do is very different from what software engineers do, both of which are different from what civil engineers do.  If you’re interested in one particular specialization of engineering, like subsea engineering, the best way to get an idea of the day to day work is to talk with someone in that field.