So who's an engineer?
Turbo Mini Forums

"I'm accredited by a professional institution as an Incorporated Engineer and i can use the letter I.Eng after my name.

However, I know people who even consider me to be a technician because I am not chartered! I will be chartered one day when I get the time to do the necessary thesis. Probably when I retire!

Unfortunately, the term "engineer" is abused in the UK. In Europe it would be illegal to call yourself an Engineer without having profesional qualifications.

However, I'm not sure that I agree with this. I know Chartered Engineers who I would not trust to make a paper aeroplane. I also know brilliant engineers without a paper qualification to their name.

I also use the definition: An engineer knows how things work. An Engineer knows why things work."



I agree.
Keith Duckworth never became chartered and he was the most practical, most acedemic true Engineer I have ever met.

:) looks like I may not have thought this one through...
Interesting none-the-less.

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I agree the term engineer is over used in the UK, nearly twenty years ago when I first met Mrs K's parents they thought I was a mechanic due to being "an engineer" - we stil lget on.lol!

on the continent engineers are held in the same "class" as doctors and such like.

I'm a fully fledged BEng in automotive engineering design, a company director and I build engines - surely I must be an engineer.lol!

JK

If Carling made Mini engines
it would probably be like this one!

I did motorsport engineering at uni.

My work title is "Gun Mechanic" but im really what my company called an "Underwater engineer"

Offshore seismic survey this is!

Id like to say im an engineer but cant help but think ive stripped too many threads in my lifetime to be eligeable haha!

When I hear the word engineer, I think of someone who can design and fabricate "solutions" so to speak. I think theres a difference between designers and fabricatiors, but someone who can do both really well must be an engineer?!

When i hear engineer i think of someone who can operate a manual lathe and speaks about 10 thous lol

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Hey Rich i did the same degree at swansea, where did you do your?

1972 998 TURBO SLEEPER

today, i spent five hours calibrating and fiddleing with 3D scanners. General monkey who happens to work with engineers. Better fitting then engineer. I dont do design work, i tell the designers whats needed, draw a few pictures and give some measurements. Thats about it.

today, i spent five hours calibrating and fiddleing with 3D scanners. General monkey who happens to work with engineers. Better fitting then engineer. I dont do design work, i tell the designers whats needed, draw a few pictures and give some measurements. Thats about it.

As joe so accurately posted, a true can of worms indeed. I agree with the term being over used in this country. My job titile is service enginner, I work for a refrigeration and air condioning company where I served a 5 year apprenticeship but have electrical, mechanical and engineering qualifications at quite a high levels, although im not accreddited I would concider myself as an engineer.
Just my two pence worth, lol
Shane

I am a site engineer but agree with mike with what springs to mind when the phrase comes up.

Ross.

To add to the can of worms, for what it's worth......
I have a BEng (hons) in mechanical engineering and I also know which end of a lathe is which and use one regularly.

But I was an engineer long before I did the degree course, I did it at 35 years old part time, day release.

Previously I had an HNC (and a few other bits) but my employer considered me to be an "engineer" and paid me accordingly.

I had specifically been appointed because of my practical skills whereas most had to have degrees.

But then they had a change of opinion at the particular power station I was working at where the new boss told me (and two others) that at our grade we really should have degrees.

So off I went for three years (I skipped the first) on a day/evening release course and got the piece of paper.

What did it do for my job ????

Absolutely nothing.

For me personally ????

Apart from all the lost hours (which I mostly had to work back), just an introduction to PCs, coding generally, hence my ability to now persue Fuel Injection etc...

Would I do it again ????

No.

Would I recommend getting a degree (in engineering) ????

Absolutely yes - it can't be long before the type of EU legislation Paul refers to applies in the UK, and IMHO, long overdue.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

i have tightend a few nuts up

I did btec eng at college. Then spent 4 years in a garage as a "technician".
After that i went working on yachts as a "marine engineer"
Now i work on hoticutural machinery as a "horticutural engineer"

I figure its how well you can bodge things that makes you an engineer.

the term your looknig for Mike is engineering machinist,

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Ah...but to be able to bodge things to make them actually work & stay working requires experience. Something education doesn't teach you. :)

Then again...is it still called a bodge if you successfully sorted the problem?

Edit...damn good post dan187

Edited by Jason G on 29th Apr, 2010.

Well I am an engineer
Design
Production
Test
systems
etc etc etc

Own the day

Yep i'm also an Engineer. A Software Engineer.

Strangely enough, the course is titled Bachelor of Science so im technicaly not an engineer, but hey, it has it in the name of the course!

In France that's even worse.

Freshly out of school engineers take skilled technicians jobs because we have so much of them produced each year ...

The way I see it, in most of the jobs we have in Renault, engineers main noticeable skill is their superior commitment but sadly they have no technical challenges to deal with ...

I wouldn't be one of them because I like to use my brain to design stuff rather than to make people design stuff ...

Rusty by nature

Edited by Sprocket on 29th Apr, 2010.

On 29th Apr, 2010 Sprocket said:

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

I think that a line really needs to be drawn between 3 different apparent different titles here.

I would class people working in the assembly repair type of job sectors as Technicians.

I would put software designers and implimenters as IT technicians.

And I would put effectivly fabricators who are capable of designing appropriate products for an aplication and then producing them from raw materials as engineers.

I would probably class myself as a fabricator at the moment, I'm happy and comfortable designing things to make, however I would much rather use someone elses designes and fabricate and machine the product from that.

I'm one of these people that strongly belives that practical jobs deserve a practical qualification, hence why so many engineers are coming out og degree corses totally useless to most companies, as if you stick them in a workshop then couldn't tell a plasma cutter from a welder! I understand certain aspects of engineering are heavily theory based, however doing a corse in something like enginnering without touching a hammer for 3 years is just wrong!!

Rich