A friend of mine, shot me with some questions regarding Engineer and his responsibility. It was part of his assignment I guess but the question were good. I have listed the questions and my answers below. Let me tell you before hand, I am an artistic engineer as opposed to technical.
1) What is an engineer?
For me, an Engineer is an innovator. Not a scientist, as scientists are highly experienced, dedicated to one thing people. Where as an Engineer, is a common personality, but with one aim, of developing or delivering a product or service, which is better than what is currently available. All the solutions however simple or complex they maybe are developed from basic fundamentals of engineering. It is widely known, 80% of the stuff engineers learn in universities is not directly used in the industry, but it is this basic fundamental education that moulds an Engineer to develop upon the ideas and principles to deliver a product / service. Hence, an Engineer is an innovator. Being an innovator, certain symptoms are synonymous with good Engineers, like creativity, quick thinking and sound reasoning skills, all of which are common traits exposed by innovators (and entrepreneur for that matter, who in basic sense are innovators of a service or business plan not seen before!)
2) What is the role of an engineer in an industrial company?
I have had an interest in energy sector and having done a placement with an energy company I will relate to Engineers within the Energy Industry. In the Energy sector Engineers play a very important role. Energy companies treat their assets in a merchant way, if there is money to be made make it ! And there is the local operators and station managers who would happily stress the plants to generate more revenue and pick up bonuses. Engineers interestingly play a few different roles here, they advise the top management on how the plant or assets are behaving, in simple words they put numbers into words, and help the management in making informed decisions with respect to when to set aside investment fund to set up maintenance, when to invest with respect to safety things and so on. Engineers at BP would be the best example, their negligence led to the worst disaster and nearly brought down the company, yet it was only Engineers who could and had to come up with a new plan to cap it. At the same time Engineers help and advise the lower management and particular site managers as to how they can increase the efficiencies and other process improvement to keep generating revenue thereby guaranteeing job security to workers! These two arguments, encompass various roles such as that of an investment, social security and public relations. This hopefully paints the importance of Engineers in Energy Industry.
3) What will be my responsibility towards my employer?
My most important responsibility as an engineer is to be a safe and qualified engineer. Health and safety at work and in process and adhering to them is my responsibility towards my employer. It is my responsibility to justify the cost I carry to my employer and constantly develop myself to be at par with colleagues across my employer industry. As an investment it is my responsibility to be up-to-date with information in the public domain and strive towards more work and in turn generating revenue for my employer.
Other responsibilities towards my employer are to be socially responsible when representing my employer actively or passively.
4) What is my responsibility to myself and my subordinates?
Again my utmost responsibility is with respect to Health and Safety. I am responsible for my safety and the safety of others, nothing I do should put me or my subordinates safety at risk. It is my responsibility to make sure I am setting myself definitive deliverables and achieving them at the end of year. Again developing myself and picking on skills on the job is my responsibility and it’s full seriousness can be felt whilst leveraging the skills and continuous professional development during appraisals. My duty towards sub-ordinates is to make sure, I act in the best interests of the team and give my 100%.
5) What is my responsibility towards society?
That’s a tough one. My responsibility as an Engineer towards society is to be a safe and responsible engineer. It is my responsibility to do my part of the corporate social responsibility my company has taken on. Involve myself with the local community and as Engineering offers various school leaving diploma’s and young courses, strive to promote them to the society so as more young people take note of these opportunities. It is an Engineer that designs / develops a product / service, it is my responsibility to make sure adequate importance is given to different parameters, e.g. cost, simplicity, necessary features etc. These parameters decide the final cost and may affect the social behaviour of a particular part of society. For e.g. any service or products an Engineer chooses in Energy industry can have an effect on the price of the energy which affects almost all the citizens of a country.
These were my answers and this is genuinely what I believe. Now, I would sign off with the legendary engineer – Dilbert !
Just Saying... 