Its been exactly three years since my last post on this blog, Engineering Revision. During that interval I finished up my PhD degree, and have spent a considerable amount of time sharing engineering knowledge in the college classroom. Teaching is a challenge that I truly enjoy, and I hope to continue improving my ability to share critical concepts in a concise and meaningful manner.
The podcast I started three years ago with Chris Gammell, The Engineering Commons, continues to chug along as well, although Chris is no longer co-hosting the show. However, I have three new co-hosts with whom to discuss the day-to-day joys and tribulations of an engineering career. It’s a thrill to share interesting conversations about the engineering profession with Adam, Brian, and Carmen, as well as our frequent guest experts.
My purpose in rebooting this blog is to start sorting out ideas for a book about the engineering profession. In particular, I want to provide practical advice for high school students (and their parents) who are considering engineering careers. I’m increasingly fascinated by the small incidents of happenstance that lead people into successful engineering careers, as well as the inability of most engineers to explain exactly how they add value to their respective organizations. I’m also concerned that the current emphasis on increasing the number STEM graduates is going to result in a boatload of unemployed engineers over the next five years. I’ll have to look it up, but I think the statistics are that 50% of engineering graduates are no longer working in engineering (or never worked in engineering) just five years after graduation. Will this only get worse with an increasing number of engineers in the workplace? And is an engineering degree to remain a job ticket, or will it become more of a philosophical degree; a lens through which to view and interpret the world?
So for a while, I want to make comments about books and articles that I’m reading (or more accurately, that I’ve been intending to read). I’ve accumulated a sizable collection of source material over the past three years; some of which I’ve actually read multiple times, but much that I have yet to crack open. As I’ve not yet found anyone summarizing such content, or attempting to pull these ideas together in a single location, I’m going to give it a shot.
My apologies if you’re shocked at seeing a new post from this site suddenly pop up in your feed reader after all this time. I’ll try to be more frequent in my future updates!