Task 3: The Importance of communication skills for engineers

 “I contend that we (engineers) are undervalued because of our widespread

inability to explain what we do to the general public (and why it is so important).

It is one of the hardest goals to accomplish, to be able to boil down difficult

concepts into a short and easily understood presentation or elevator pitch.”

Marybeth Miceli, President, Miceli Infrastructure Consulting, USA (2011)



As discussed with my partner Quinian, we have come to an agreement that we agree to the above statement.

1) An Engineer is a problem solver and a critical thinker, they understand the various types of difficult concepts that affect the following industries such as [medicine, Infrastructure, Transport, Etc].

2) It is important for the general public to understand an engineer's work to attract/inspire the younger generations to join the industry and to attract more future investors to invest in the industry.

3)Engineers are unable to communicate their understanding and concepts as they are not able to simplify most engineering terms for the general public to understand easily.

4) Engineers' ideas, understanding, and concepts are very difficult to grasp which makes it even harder for the general public to understand and value our work.

5) Most of the general public will only like to hear the end results of any situation, this means that they do not bother/wish to hear about the steps(process) taken to achieve the result which is where engineers do most of their work.


Comments

  1. Lim Yi HanSeptember 1, 2023 at 12:23 PM

    I agree with you on the importance in the understanding of an engineer's work to inspire the younger generation to join this industry as the engineering industry is involved literally everywhere, and therefore consistent manpower and new blood joining the workforce will be able to make this industry competitive and appreciated. I agree the most with the last point as people outside of the engineering industry do not bother about the mechanics behind situation and things, they only want to see the outcome. Therefore, when we engineers are expected to explain our problems, the problems are downplayed by upper management and they expect the problem to be solved in a cost-efficient yet safe way. If we have the ability to keep our explaination concise and using the correct analogies, this problem would not exist and people will start to see the value of us engineers around.

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