• Question: What's the most frustrating thing about being an engineer?

    Asked by daviesl3 to Amit, Emily, Joanne, Martin, Paige on 18 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Paige Brown

      Paige Brown answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      As an engineer, you are almost always under pressure of time on a particular project. Sometimes, it is difficult to find the time to do a project as well as you think it should be done, and perfect all aspects of it, while sticking to the schedule.

    • Photo: Amit Pujari

      Amit Pujari answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      I would say managing time and multiple things simultaneously is one of the most difficult bits. But I suppose it is not particular to engineering only, it is the part of any professional and responsible job (role).

    • Photo: Emily Bullen

      Emily Bullen answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      I don’t often get frustrated as an engineer. I guess if I had to pick, it would be when I think something could be done to help or improve things, but I can’t do it because the managers might not agree with me.

    • Photo: Martin Wallace

      Martin Wallace answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      One of the most frustrating things about being an engineer is that you are often waiting for someone else before you can complete a task. Unlike projects at school and university, where you are responsible for completing all the tasks of a project, often there are many different people who are responsible for different jobs. Sometimes you have something that you know you really need to finish before you can start on the next stage, but you are waiting on someone else to finish their part first. This can be very frustrating and cause your project to run late.
      There are ways of dealing with this, like talking to the other person and working out if you need an additional person to help out or more time because they have been given too much work to do. The trick is to use communication as much as possible throughout your work so that you know if someone else is falling behind or if your part is running late – then people can plan effectively and help out where needed.

    • Photo: Joanne Davies

      Joanne Davies answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      One of the most frustrating things about being an engineer is inefficiency and waste in the work place.

      This can include waste materials, wasted labour and processes that are not as efficient as they should be.

      Something else that’s frustrating is the time we have to wait sometimes to get our devices to the patients because someone has to review our work that has already been tried, tested, proved and certified! 🙂

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