“I never doubted this career for a second in my life. Because he gave me everything a person could wish for: fulfillment, excitement, adventure, happiness, variety, a sense of achievement, recognition and prosperity.”
Ekkehard D. Schulz introduces his book “55 Reasons to Become an Engineer” with this declaration of love for the engineering profession. Schulz, himself an engineer and chairman of the board of ThyssenKrupp AG until 2011, passionately promotes his guild and young technical talent. We have selected ten examples of reasons and summarized them.
Because engineers… 1 …are artists
Since Leonardo da Vinci we have known that engineering is closely linked to the arts. The Italian painter not only created the famous “Mona Lisa”, but also numerous cranes for building houses, bridges and ships and sketched flying machines that are similar to today's helicopters. When engineers work, creativity, playfulness and inventiveness combine with the laws of chemistry, physics, mathematics and mechanics. And it is not uncommon for technical drawings and construction sketches to look like small works of art.
2 …always find a job
Over 60,000 engineering positions are currently unfilled. Anyone who studies engineering today can practically count on a job guarantee. Because Germany is one of the most successful nations in Europe when it comes to industry, research and development. Around 1,500 world market leaders do business here. Sometimes it is also worth taking a look at the “hidden champions”, i.e. medium-sized companies that are world leaders in a niche, almost unnoticed.
3 …have the best chances with women
Engineers and technicians are loners who are alien to life and love sports, cars and checked shirts. So much for the cliché. A survey by the opinion research institute Ipsos speaks a different story. Here, women chose the engineer as number 5 on their partner wish list, just behind doctors, teachers, architects and lawyers. Because: Engineers are hands-on, pragmatic, can hammer a nail into the wall and puzzle and tinker until the washing machine runs again. Of course, female engineers also have the best chances with men ;)
4 ...are popular in Hollywood
The world of film and television is full of inventors. Star Trek chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott repaired the warp drive even under adverse conditions, Weapons Master Q tuned James Bond’s watch or Aston Martin with all sorts of technical finesse and MacGyver needed nothing more than a paper clip to defuse a bomb. Most of the time they are “the good guys”, but sometimes they are evil (Dr. Octopus in Spiderman) or crazy (John Forbes Nash in A Beautiful Mind).
5 …feel the eroticism of everyday life
Engineers have a different view of the world: for them, the small problems are just as interesting as the big ones, perhaps even more so. Many of our everyday objects were invented precisely because of this motivation. Everyday problems such as burnt toast or the inconvenience of heating provided the incentive for the invention of the fully automatic toaster (Charles Strite, 1919) and the kettle (Arthur Leslie Large, 1922). Philippe Guy E. Woog took on two “problems”: in 1954 he invented the electric toothbrush and in 1991 the vibrator.
6 …are at home in many professional fields
There is hardly any profession that is as versatile as that of an engineer. The most well-known are probably disciplines such as civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, industrial engineering and process engineering. But it is even more specific: Engineers are also in demand in professional fields such as waste management, biotechnology, controlling, aircraft construction, cybernetics, marketing, microsystems technology, urban planning, sales and viticulture.
7 …guide us through an unknown world
October 29, 1969 remains a memorable day to this day. Researchers from Los Angeles and Stanford were the first to succeed in networking computers with one another. Although it was over after three letters had been transferred and one of the computers crashed, the foundation for the Internet was still created. Over the past 45 years, engineers have expanded the World Wide Web into a mass media with over 300 million registered domains, billions of emails sent every day, and 400 million people using Facebook. And the development continues: in a few years we will probably ask ourselves what it was like back then when the coffee machine could not yet be operated via the Internet.
8 ...are pop stars
Without the invention of engineers, the world would sound very different today. The qualified audio engineer Stefan Ladage composed e.g. B. In 1997, the first individual telephone queue for a company. The most important music innovation of recent years, the MP3 format, also goes back to an engineer - Karlheinz Brandenburg. In 1994 he converted a WAV file into an MP3 file for the first time. And without the invention of the electrical engineer Bob Moog, the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Doors would probably not have been so successful. Moog developed the first commercially successful synthesizer in the 1960s.
9 ...can have incredible careers
Hardly any other subject is as open to social and professional advancement as engineering. In order to have an unusual career, you need above all interest, talent and the necessary grit.
Valentina Tereshkova – The daughter of a tractor driver and a textile worker worked for years in a spinning mill. She earned her engineering diploma at night school and decided to become a cosmonaut in 1961. She applied for a Soviet aviation program, was accepted, and on June 6, 1963 became the first woman to fly into space.
Artur Fischer – Fischer, son of a tailor, began his career as a simple locksmith. His numerous inventions made him successful and wealthy, including a flash unit for cameras (1949) and the plastic expansion dowel (1958), which is now used everywhere. Today, more than seven million of these Fischer dowels are produced every day at the main factory in Waldachtal-Tumlingen.
10 …are satisfied with their job
A survey by the Electrical, Electronic and Information Technology Association (VDE) shows that the engineering profession makes people happier than average. Why? The work is varied, fairly crisis-proof and offers good development opportunities. It is meaningful because you create - such as: B. in the case of a bridge - something visible and permanent that can be viewed years later.
Ekkehard D. Schulz
55 reasons to become an engineer, Murmann Publishers 2010, 253 pages, ISBN: 978-3-86774-105-7
Ten good reasons why you should become an engineer.
