• Question: do you want to be an engineer for the rest of your life?

    Asked by h123 to Alex, Claire, Kate, Marcus, Neil on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by ivymorgan.
    • Photo: Marcus Johns

      Marcus Johns answered on 19 Jun 2014:


      I definitely want to continue progressing down the career path that I’ve chosen, and if that means that I am an engineer for the rest of my life then so much the better!

      At the moment, I’m treading a fine line between being a scientist and an engineer but think that I would want to continue with being able to apply the science that I learn about to real life situations rather than trying things just for the sake of trying them.

      So yes, I do want to be in the field of engineering for the rest of my life. I may end up being an academic at a university rather than working for a private company, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be an engineer.

    • Photo: Claire Brockett

      Claire Brockett answered on 19 Jun 2014:


      Easy – yes, most definitely.
      I absolutely love the job I’m doing now, and if I get to do something similar for the rest of my life then I will be one happy lady (although I might retire at some point and tinker in the garden instead…)

    • Photo: Kate Niehaus

      Kate Niehaus answered on 19 Jun 2014:


      I’m happy with doing my D.Phil in engineering right now, and when I’m done, I’ll be looking at jobs that involve medical technology, but I’m pretty flexible about what type of role I would have in those sorts of companies. Within a medical technology company, I think that it’s important to understand the engineering side of things, but I also am interested in helping these discoveries get out to real people, so if I can best accomplish that through some other role, for instance as a product manager, then I would do that!

    • Photo: Alex Lyness

      Alex Lyness answered on 19 Jun 2014:


      Hey h123 and ivymorgan,

      I would be happy to be an engineer or be involved in engineering all of my life. I think everyones job should create or add value to others around them. I like to try and improve things all the time and not settle for things how they are, that’s why I’m so suited to being an engineer!

      I like that I get to work on such cutting edge research and that my contributions can be unique. Hopefully, with my experience and expertise, I might think of something a certain time during the development of a device which makes it better than what anyone else has thought of before. Hopefully!

      The only other job I would want to do would be to be on the TV or Radio presenting programmes about really clever engineers/engineering projects to inspire new generations of kids to consider careers in the field.

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