• Question: Are your families proud of your jobs in engineering?

    Asked by bambiecat to Alex, Claire, Kate, Marcus, Neil on 23 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Marcus Johns

      Marcus Johns answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      When I told my mum that I wanted to become a chemical engineer her first thought was that she didn’t think engineering was a suitable subject for me to study as I hadn’t ever shown any active interest in how mechanical things such as engines or watches worked. Fortunately, when I explained to her what it was about she quickly changed her mind!

      I think my parents are proud of me and the career path that I’ve chosen for myself. They may get a little confused when I try to explain to them exactly what my PhD is about or what I’ve been doing in the lab recently, but that’s part of the fun!

    • Photo: Alex Lyness

      Alex Lyness answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Hey bambiecat,

      My family are very proud. My two younger brothers are also engineers and they work in the construction industry.

      When the credit crunch hit the UK and jobs in construction died down my Brother took his skills and moved to Christchurch in New Zealand, to help rebuild the City after they suffered a bad earthquake.

      My Mum and Dad run a pub, they are very proud to have 3 sons who are now well-educated and can take their skills anywhere in the world and fix things.

      The world needs more engineers of all kinds (mechanical, construction, design, chemical, biological, etc.) as too few people are opting for ‘easier’ subjects at school rather than those in STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Maths) subjects.

      Hopefully this IAEGMOOH will inspire a few more kids (possibly from your class) to pursue a career in Engineering too!

      🙂

    • Photo: Kate Niehaus

      Kate Niehaus answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      My parents are pretty happy with what I’m up to, but I think they would probably think that if I was pursuing some other career, too!

    • Photo: Claire Brockett

      Claire Brockett answered on 24 Jun 2014:

      My family is very proud of my job. Although my husband does seem to like telling people I make orthopaedic shoes – he finds that quite funny for some reason. My niece is 6 years old now, and everyone says she’s going to grow up to be an engineer like her Auntie Claire 🙂 She is very interested in what I do!
      I do think, like Kate, my family would be proud of whatever I chose to do 🙂

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