You know you want to be an engineer. You know you want to work in a Fortune 500 company, or maybe an adventurous startup. You know you want to help solve interesting problems and make a difference in people’s lives. What you might not know is how best to do that.
Will your future boss care whether you took an optional fabrication workshop? Will that global manufacturing seminar impress anyone? Is a technical writing course a waste of time?
This past summer, we explored the question, “What should engineering students know?” with several of our experts. We asked engineering managers, university and college department heads, and our own senior education manager.
Most of our experts say that today’s engineers need to understand the bigger picture. Engineers need to sell their solutions in an interconnected world. The best of them understand the big picture.
Here’s a summary of our interviews in one place. Follow the links to read more about the ones that most interest you:
- Joe Graney, director of engineering at Santa Cruz Bikes. A lot of people dream of working for this visionary mountain bike company, but Graney says not everybody is cut out for it. He’s looking for someone who innovates, communicate ideas, keeps it all organized, and works their CAD tools.
- Hillary Davis, senior recruiter, and Stephanie Trevino, operations manager, at Stryker Medical. say that that they look for candidates with a history of teamwork, a foreign language, good communication skills, and an understanding of business—on top of a basic engineering education.
- John Mannisto, director of technology at Whirlpool. Want to work at a company that’s a household name? Mannisto says it’s helpful to understand industry standard tools, CAE, model-based system engineering, and when to speak up, with confidence.
- Alister Fraser, senior education program manager for North America. Fraser, who draws from PTC’s experience with our 27,000 customers, says that if you understand the changes and challenges companies are facing these days (a period he calls “the third industrial revolution”), you can better prepare for your future career. Those challenges? Digitization, globalization, regulation, and more.
- Gerald Fine, Ph.D., director of EPIC at Boston University. Fine acknowledges that when students go out in the job market unprepared, it may be that the university curriculum is at fault. He’s involved in a new program, EPIC, that supplements the engineering education with hands-on experience. At EPIC, student learn to invent, manufacture, and sell products in well-equipped facilities.
- Gary Lamit, head of Mechanical Engineering at De Anza College. Lamit has been teaching for decades and chairs a program that regularly places students in jobs at companies throughout Silicon Valley—like Apple Computer, Tesla Motors, and Hewlett-Packard. Like Fine at Boston University, Lamit focuses on what the school’s can do better to prepare students. His strategies? Think of CAD as more than just a tool, stay connected with industry, and take advantage of online courses for students with specialized interests.
Here’s one thought to get you started, why not get involved in academic programs that help young people pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills. Here’s some of the programs PTC is involved in:
John Stuart of PTC explains more…
