once upon a time? “engineers” were a breed apart. These were (mostly) men who didn’t put their pants on one leg at a time… they sort of held their pants in front of them, and just JUMPED into them. It was an impressive undertaking to WANT to become an engineer, and to take the steps necessary to TRY to become one.
You had to be one of the best and brightest in school, all through high school. You were expected to take EVERY math class available, as well as physics and chemistry. At least 2 years of a foreign language… and had to score well on the SATs… all to TRY to get into a good college or university.
Once you got accepted INTO the engineering course? You did not just “take” the required courses and “get” your degree… oh no, not at a “real” college… they took IN, say, 400 engineering students into the program… then they intended to “weed out” the vast majority of the students.
if all the students were PASSING all the courses too well? they instituted WEED OUT courses. IE… the dean waved a magic wand, and EVERY engineering student SUDDENLY had to take a (very hard) 400 level course OUTSIDE their normal course work. It was just to get rid of the “whiners”. To get rid of the people who got “all A’s” in everything, but, couldnt learn something NEW and learn it quickly.
it was once the “special forces” of the educational world, to graduate as a real engineer.
I was a computer programmer back in the day, and i have 2 college degrees in mathematics and computer science. To get my second degree, i had to take some engineering classes.
in one of them? i was about sickened… the professor was lecturing on the various “types” of engineers… among the TYPES of engineers? there were the engineers that more or less specialized in the compiling of the data and writing the reports, called the “secretarial engineers”. There was one type that specialized in talking to the businessmen and making presentations, because businessmen had been complaining for years they couldnt “speak the language” of the engineers… there were engineers that “helped everyone”, ran for food and coffee, assisted, etc etc… (i called them gopher engineers, which made the professor mad)
after about 5 or 6 of the various “types” of engineers, during the lecture? I raised my hand, and asked:
“I dont mean to be RUDE, but… exactly which type of engineer ACTUALLY does the WORK on the project? We always got minimum wage flunkies and interns at my last job to do all THIS stuff…”
the professor said, and i quote:
“Oh. Thats the PROJECT ORIENTED engineer…”
so? back in the day… all the “wannabes” that couldnt do the “heavy lifting” on THE PROJECT, now get to have degrees, and call themselves engineers too, and claim to be important to the “project”. (which in my book? they aren’t terribly needed, but what do i know)
the company i worked for? we would “sniff out” the “impossible” programming jobs… the jobs that a “team” of PhD’s spent a year and a half doing a “feasibility study” and pronounced it “impossible”…
our favorite “trick”, was to take the money to do the “study” along with several other firms getting money to study the programming task? When the deadline came, and one by one all the other companies sent their presentation teams in to report on it? We simply walked in with the programming task “done” and DEMONSTRATED it…
my famous phrase when i was still working in the field?
“with enough black coffee and cigarettes… all things are possible.”