Engineers are essential for the economic success and continuing progress of our society. Engineering is a great career for some, perhaps you should consider it. They work on a lot of interesting stuff. On the downside, it can be difficult to break into the field, and it definitely isn’t a good choice for everyone. Here’s some of the basic facts.

Engineers do many different kinds of things. In this article I’m mostly talking about the designing and building kind, that might design a file server or build an electrical transmission line. Some primarily maintain pipelines or operate computer networks, or similar work. These are clearly important, but not our focus here.

Engineering includes many fields of specialization. Those who specialize in mechanics may design elevators or other complex machines. Electrical engineers may design computers and power systems. You can guess what nuclear ones do. I’m not going to try for a complete list, there are too many for that!

Are you curious about how machines are put together? Can you do complicated math work? Do you like science? If so, maybe you should consider engineering. It is sometimes called applied science. Technologist is another common label for practitioners of this field.

You will need to spend some time in school before you can be an engineer. There is a lot of material that you would need to learn. Bachelor’s degrees are almost always needed, and master’s degrees are often very useful to have, if not necessary.

Before the candidate can begin work, he or she may need to get licensed or credentialed. In many cases, they must pass a comprehensive exam on their field as part of this. Different specializations have different rules. To make matters worse, the rules are different in different countries, and sometimes even in different states of the United States.

New engineers generally start on basic assignments. They are often carefully monitored by others with more experience. As they learn and establish their reputations, they will move on to more challenging work. Eventually they will have to choose between alternative development directions.

Some will become engineering managers. This obviously requires people skills as well as technical skills. This kind of manager usually becomes less involved in the technology and more involved in helping others work with it.

Project management is another possible path. Project managers are not mainly managers of people, though the title makes it sound that way. They are charged with insuring that large technical projects are successful. Project managers need to know the technology. They also need to know how to organize and keep track of complex efforts.

Even though many engineers start out working for larger firms, it is common for them to branch out after awhile. Some may work independently. Others will start their own new firms.

Many will continue to focus on learning the technology and keeping up to date. This is essential in fields where lots of progress is happening; letting one’s skills become obsolete is a real risk in such areas.

We need to have lots of talented engineers to make progress and keep up with the competition. Innovation is often essential for economic growth. Engineers are among the key innovators in modern society.