Everyone's an engineer now.

[NotSure]

I served my time as a fitter and turner, ONC.
Then the drawing office HNC.
Then University BSc Mech Eng
Then MIMechE, AMICE

A couple of things.

1 There were only about 4 of us out of 200 that went through to MIMechE from a starting group of apprentices. But all those other apprentices recognised our "bit of paper" saying we were engineers.

2 There are engineers and there are engineers. Some are virtually hewers of wood and drawers of water (like me) BUT some are truly gifted and don't just apply engineering principles they deeply and fundamentally understand them, they are different. So even in engineering there is a very discrete strata of ability.

(my bold)

Of course, but you are still very much an engineer. You do not have to be Lionel Messi to call yourself a professional football player, but you do need to be able too feed your family and pay your mortgage, not just hack around every Sunday for fun.

[Spet0789]

Personally I think this is one of several reasons why the U.K. lags behind other European countries in manufacturing and technology.

I took a degree in engineering. When I applied to university, engineering was up there with Medicine in the required academic standards. There were at least 5 universities where you needn’t trouble to apply without a AAA prediction. Oxbridge, Imperial, Bristol, Bath, even Southampton. Not the case for any other degree course.

In Germany, Engineer is a highly respected title. The U.K. would benefit from restricting its use to Chartered Engineers.

Engineers do not fix gas boilers! They write code for fly-by-wire systems. They perform the finite-element analysis that ensures your car will protect you in a crash. They design the single-crystal titanium jet engine blades with tiny air channels that prevent them from melting in the HP stage of the engine. They develop foldable high definition screens for mobile phones with lower power consumption.

Until we treat Engineers with the respect that their highly skilled, academically-demanding profession demands and don’t confuse them with plumbers, we won’t have enough of them in this country.

Health care assistants are not neurosurgeons. Both are important but the skill gap between some so called engineers in this country and the real thing is as large.

Quality rant. Have a rec.
TUK020, BSc(Eng) Elec Eng, Imperial, MBA.
Inventor on 10 patent filings in Digital Radio & Mobile Telephony

Thanks! I enjoyed writing it. As you can perhaps tell from my examples, the part of my engineering degree I enjoyed most was mechanical. Electrical engineering too hard for me!

[UncleEbenezer]

Me Sir, me, ME! I like being a technician.

The title reflects the manual skill and dexterity I have which is missing from the hands and fingers of quite a few well-qualified proper engineers I know.

I think we usually call you a tradesman rather than either engineer or technician. Typically a tradesman is a standalone entity, as opposed to a cog in a big machine. The distinction between engineer and technician is the balance between working creatively and merely following processes.

Speaking as someone whose career was predominantly as an engineer, I've never had much skill in my hands, and have a lot of respect for those of you who do.

[scotia]

My school (Scottish, Comprehensive, Co-Educational in the early sixties) thought that an Engineering Degree was suitable for the weaker brethren - so I was steered off to Physics (or Natural Philosophy as we called it in Scottish Universities). A Physicist can do anything was the advice. There may have been something in that claim - the top student in my year went on to receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. I became an Engineer

[mc2fool]

How about the broadband "engineers" that are the first line of people BT/Talktalk/etc send out? Not the Openreach ones that test and try and fix the line, but the ones that come and look at your setup to make sure you haven't done anything daft and then end up just giving you a new router.

Broadband "engineer" = router & micro-filter swapper.

[nimnarb]

Gardener is now..................Horticultural Consultant.

Security Man/Bouncer...........Nocturnal Attitude Adjustment Technician

Newspaper delivery..............Media Distribution Officer

Dustbin Men/Collection.........Highway Environmental Hygienists

Dish Washer.......................Gastronomical Hygiene Engineer

Building Construction Help.....Mortar Logistics Engineer

Janitor.............................Chief Sanitation Engineer/Surface Technician

Bartender.........................Chief Beverage Officer

Receptionist..................... First Impressions Director

Dog Walker.......................Herder of Canines

Perfume Salesperson...........Alchemy Merchant

[DrFfybes]

An engineer is someone who uses a set of tool to solve a problem. Not to be confused with apprentices who learn how to use the tools, technicians who use the tools to follow protocols designed by engineers, or designers/inventors who make stuff up.

Once you learn those tools, which is best for a purpose, what the effects are on other aspects then it can be software, mechanical, electrical, genetic, social, highways, chemical, civil, etc. It doesn't really matter what field you are in, once you learn the tools and how to use them, you can then start solving problems.

Paul