Jack Ma: Story of Alibaba E-Commerce and Online Retail by GineersNow GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 013, Jac | Page 24

6 Skills Young Engineers Must Have
You should probably consider this if you want to stand out and be the kickass young engineer you want to be.
Nowadays, taking engineering seems to be a norm
that many young people consider in order to keep
up with the society’s demands of rapid changes,
innovations and advancements in technology. Many
specialized engineering courses are also introduced
and the population of people taking career paths
in engineering fields gradually grows. Competition
is getting tougher, especially to young engineers
who are newly grads. Several countries produce
millions of engineers where most end up in non-
engineering fields or obliged to settle in entry levels
they don’t deserve. Even if you’re an engineering
graduate, you may not be competent enough.
But don’t lose hope just yet. Here is a checklist for
you to stand out and become a kickass engineer
you want to be.
1 AUTOCAD SKILLS
We are in the age that engineering design
is not confined on 2D blueprints or sketches
alone. Designs of components, structures and
architectural plans now heavily depends on 3D
CAD designs especially for intricate objects in
manufacturing. The ability to design with Auto CAD
is really a must for engineering and architecture
people in these fields. Having proficient CAD
skills certainly gives you an advantage over other
candidates.
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E-Commerce, Online Distribution and Management • March 2017
If your institution does not offer learning to use
CAD software, there are crash courses offered in
other technical schools for a certain number of
sessions. There are CAD software programs and
tutorials online so you can study it yourself too.
2 BASIC PROGRAMMING / IT SKILLS
At this point, hard sciences are now converging
with the digital world to be more efficient and
productive. There are now industries that depends
on heavy database management and automated
components in industrial plants (Computer-
integrated manufacturing). Learning how to use
programming languages and algorithms is also
a plus. Even if you’re a computer engineering
major, not all programming languages are
taught in school. There are also crash courses
for this such as learning SQL, Mathlab, COBOL,
C#, .NET, Python, Java or Ruby. Online tutorials
and downloadable software programs are also
available if you plan to self-study.
3 COMMUNICATION SKILLS
As an engineer, our science and mathematical
knowledge or technical skills are given. But
presenting and relaying it effectively is another
aspect. Being a persuasive presenter gives us
opportunities to be an exceptional engineer.