Top Personality Traits for Engineers
April 17, 2020
By: Lisandro Vazquez, PE
If you’re considering engineering as a career but aren’t sure if it’s a good fit, you may be wondering what types of people become engineers. What did they do to get to where they are now? How do you become a successful engineer?
For starters let’s have a look at what sorts of traits make for a successful engineer. Naturally, there are a myriad of personality traits which successful engineers possess, but the ones below are among the most impactful. Be sure to also check out Engineer Q&A’s “Becoming an Engineer” page for a comprehensive listing of related articles.
1. Curious
This is hands-down the #1 personality trait for successful engineers. Curiosity is the foundation for ALL sciences. Engineering is about creation, assembly, disassembly, transport, and maintenance of products & systems.
Consequently engineers must understand how objects, processes, or systems work at their most fundamental levels to foster better designs. Those who have an inherent interest in how the things around them work may find the world of engineering exciting.
If you like taking things apart to learn how they function; if you like to repair your own car, lawnmower, bicycle, computer etc.; if you’re fascinated with bridges, skyscrapers, chemistry and the machinery which supports them; then perhaps engineering is a pursuit worth considering.
2. Hard Work & Determination
As a technical profession engineering will demand a high level of input from you. Completing a four or five year degree filled with courses of Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics and Computer Science will challenge you in a variety of ways. You’ll need to rely on your skills of organization, scheduling, communicating, studying and networking to successfully earn your Bachelor’s Degree in an engineering field. And this is just the start!
If you haven’t fled this article in panic by now, you just might be engineer material. But hey… don’t sweat it. Sure, it’s difficult; but that’s part of what makes engineering interesting and satisfying. Speaking for myself, if it were super easy I’d be bored out of my mind in no time. It’s difficult, but definitely doable. The classes are not impossible; the work is not impossible; and, most projects are not impossible. They simply require your determination and commitment to see them to completion due to the complexity of many engineering tasks. For me, this is exciting. I love the challenge and I love the constant supply of puzzles to be solved.
3. Technical Aptitude
Fear not… being a genius is NOT a requirement for being a successful engineer. What IS required, however, is the ability to reason through a problem in a systematic way. And the tools you use in your systematic approach of problem solving are based on mathematics. So, if you hate math or you just aren’t very good at it… you may want to seriously reconsider being an engineer. Don’t get me wrong; this is not meant to dissuade you or “crush dreams.” If you aren’t the best at math, of course you can still be an engineer, but you are likely going to struggle.
Mathematics is the language of engineering. Equations are used to describe shapes, rates of change, temperature distributions, and all sorts of other important outputs.
Do you have to absolutely LOVE math? No. Do you have to be a math whiz? No. Take it from me, an engineer 😉 . Math is NOT my favorite subject. I am NOT a math whiz.
But… I understand its importance, I actually do enjoy it to a certain extent, and I am willing to work hard at learning the material to excel. Once you get past the mental block of viewing math as “abstract” and finally come to the realization that math is actually a “language” which can speak to others across the world regardless of cultural or language barriers, you may end up liking it quite a bit more than you do now.
4. Questioning Attitude
Ok, so this one sounds a bit like “curiosity” but stick with me on this one. There are some nuanced differences here which make “questioning attitude” its own top trait for successful engineers. Having a questioning attitude means that you do not simply accept simple answers.
For example, let’s take a look at a quick Q&A with a follow-up action between a new plumbing engineer and his or her senior engineer:
Question: “Why do I need to use a 2 inch diameter pipe for this part of the building?”
Answer: “Because you want to limit the flow velocity to less than 5 feet per second.”
Action (without questioning attitude): Update the pipe size to 2 inches and write down “less than 5 feet per second” in your notes for future projects. Then, keep on working.
???
“Ok… got it!”
This sort of action will probably keep you going as an engineer, but without further investigation or a passion for understanding beyond what is dictated to you it’ll be unlikely that you’ll succeed as an EXPERT in your field. Besides, there is so much more to that answer than what was given. See the revised action below for a demonstration on what a “questioning attitude” means:
Action (WITH questioning attitude):
- Ask, “Why do we want to limit pipe flow less than 5 feet per second (fps)? Do we always keep velocity at 5 fps? Are there times where we exceed this? Where is this ‘rule’ written? What reference or code requires or recommends this limit?”
- Go read the section(s) of applicable reference materials which discuss pipe flow velocity (for water in this case) and find the answers to your questions above. Even if your senior engineer has explained the answers to you, it is still in your best interest to read the source material yourself.
- Update the pipe size to 2 inches and write in your notes under which specific conditions you should limit pipe flow velocity to less than 5 fps as well as any other velocity limitations or recommendations you found in your reading.
Some good reads on water velocity in pipes:
Plumbing Engineering Design Handbook Volume 1:
“General Acoustical Design” – Water Pipes; Flow Velocity and Water Hammer
Plumbing Engineering Design Handbook Volume 2:
“Cold-Water Systems” – Introduction; Factors Affecting Sizing
ASHRAE Handbook – Fundamentals:
“Pipe Design” – Applications-Water Piping
The questioning attitude applies to situations like these and it definitely applies to responses such as “well, that’s just how we’ve always done it.” The continuing pursuit to learn the root causes for things and the reasons why things are done in certain ways will make you a better engineer, a better designer, and a better manager.
5. Passion for Knowledge
The innate desire to master your field and grow your understanding of the world fuels an engineer’s rise to the top of his or her division, company, locality, or field. Engineering is a diverse and complex domain where the limits truly are undefined. There is always something more—something new—to learn. A continual drive to grow your level of knowledge throughout your career will help propel you to successful designs and a successful career.
6. Pride of Workmanship
Pride of workmanship is pivotal for virtually all professions; however, with engineering it’s possible to lose sight of this invaluable trait because there really are so many different ways to design most engineering systems which will meet a certain minimum acceptable level of performance. Take HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning) engineering, for example. You can absolutely design an air-conditioning system with equipment and ductwork which will meet the minimum requirements set by the client for space environmental control and satisfy the minimum energy code requirements and still not have a good system.
Pride of workmanship means you think of not just the minimum requirements, but you think of how the owners and users of your equipment, process, or system will operate your engineering system.
If you redesign the HVAC duct layout, perhaps you can reduce the materials budget by 30%, perhaps you can use different fittings which reduce pressure losses in the ductwork, perhaps you can use different rectangular dimensions to provide more efficient airflow, or you could change the locations where small ducts connect to the main trunks.
All of these things may result in no additional cost to the owner (or perhaps a reduction in cost), and the end product will be a more efficient, quieter, and better performing system.
The continuous application of this desire to design something better instills pride in an engineer’s work. And this continuous pursuit of improvement pushes an engineer to learn more about his or her field—to master the field.
7. A Certain Amount of Humility
If you want to advance quickly you’ve got to be willing to accept that you don’t know it all. Even the best—or most experienced—engineers must admit that they have more to learn or that perhaps somebody else has a better idea. This is a key trait for being successful at engineering. Being able to honestly assess your own designs, in addition to being open to the input of others, is crucial. If you can do this you will discover designs by others which have certain aspects that may be superior to those you have employed. Rather than being bad news, this is oftentimes great news. You can study the approaches taken by others, deconstruct the designs, and learn the key attributes which make those systems/products exceptional. Then you can apply those to your own work. The longer you can keep your mind open to see the opportunities for learning from others, the more you will succeed in your own designs.
8. Attention to Detail
Engineering is a world of details. The little things really do add up. There are of course limits as to how “fine-grained” you need to get, but in complicated engineered systems the details truly do matter as they can make the difference between proper functionality or failure. Successful engineers must maintain a keen attentiveness to details without losing sight of the overall “big picture.”
9. Clear Communication
Successful engineers are generally good communicators. Keep in mind that engineering is never performed in a vacuum. There are clients, owners, users, team-members, financiers, regulators and a host of other stakeholders whose input must be factored into a successfully engineered system or product. Engineers must be able to accurately assess the needs for their design and must be able to communicate their intent in clear and concise ways. Although it lands as #9 here, the list isn’t really in order of importance. The reason why “clear communication” is mentioned last is because of its importance. I want this to be fresh on your mind when thinking about the top traits for successful engineers.
So what’s next?
Of the best traits for successful engineers discussed above you may have personally identified with many of them, but perhaps you still aren’t sure if the field of engineering will be something you can excel in. Here are a few additional things to consider for context:
- Are you curious about how things are made or why they are made in a certain way?
- Are you somebody who enjoys solving puzzles? They don’t necessarily need to be puzzle games (i.e. the ones made of cardboard). Puzzles can be difficult problems, or even riddles.
- Do you thrive on challenges? Do you like to create things or improve existing things to make them more efficient or effective?
- Do you enjoy math or science classes? If so, have you thought of why that is? What makes them enjoyable? What “level” of enjoyment would you apply to each of them?
- Do you feel good when you know the answer to a difficult problem? Do you thrive on being the “knowledge holder” of a group?
- Are you impressed by examples of efficient use of space or intricate assembly?
If you said yes to a number of the questions above, then engineering may be a good career to investigate. If you’re interested and ready to learn what comes next, check out the articles below from Engineer Q&A.
Thanks for reading!
What is it like to be an Engineer? (Series Intro)
17 Steps to Become an Engineer — From High School to Professional Engineer (PE)