• Question: If a person was to go into your job, what kind of personality/characteristics should they have?

    Asked by Abi to Jamie, Kristen, Sheun, Simon, Will on 16 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: William Scott-Jackson

      William Scott-Jackson answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      To jump into my shoes, first of all that person needs to be self-motivated and self-disciplined. They need to be able to keep pushing out the work without a boss or supervisor always breathing down your neck.

      Next you need to be very scientifically minded. What I mean is that you need to able to analyse your results without bias and always be critical of your work. You need to keep in mind that as human beings we are prone to make mistakes and we have personal biases that can skew how we interpret our results and our work. It’s just as much about being a good scientist as it is a good engineer.

    • Photo: Kristen Salzer-Frost

      Kristen Salzer-Frost answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      It really helps to be interested in solving problems, and in the science and technology that we use to solve those problems. If you are interested in what you are doing doesn’t feel like hard work 🙂

    • Photo: Sheun Oshinbolu

      Sheun Oshinbolu answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      They would need to be determined, hard-working and have a fascination about science and engineering. As EngD I have to do my work without someone telling my or supervising me so thats where determination is needed. It’s ultimately the ability to be able to get up everyday even when things are not going so well. Hard-work is needed because not everything works first time. Being fascinated is the ultimate driver, it keeps me going, hungry for more information and have the desire to push the boundaries of science.

    • Photo: Simon Marchant

      Simon Marchant answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      There are lots of teams in engineering, and the best teams have lots of different types of people in them, so I reckon that you can have any kind of personality to go into engineering – the only thing totally necessary should be that you want to do it! 🙂 honestly, I’ve met so many engineers with such different personalities that personally I can’t see that any characteristic is vital!

    • Photo: Jamie Johnston

      Jamie Johnston answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      They should be motivated and probably have a good sense of humour (it helps with stressful situations).

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