Sacramento State

Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering

ENGR 1A-04 Fundamentals of Engineering

Homework #3 – Due 10/23/06

Chapter 6 of your text is Profiles of Engineers and Engineering Students. What the text does is to present brief biographies of engineering graduates so that you can get some first-hand accounts of what it is really like to be an engineer. Each engineer is asked to address three main areas:

  1. Why and how they became an engineer,
  2. What their current professional activities are,
  3. What their life is like outside of work.

This sort of a career biography may have an even greater impact when it comes to you as the result of a face-to-face interview. Over the next two weeks, you must do the following:

Identify a practicing engineer (who is not a member of your immediate family), who you can interview about his/her career. Ask for permission to take a picture of your interview subject and to use the picture in your report for this course. At minimum, you should seek answers from your subject to the following questions. (Be sure to take notes on the answers so you won’t forget what is said by the time you write your report.)

  1. Did someone influence you significantly in your career decision? How?
  2. How did you decide on a college for engineering study?
  3. How did you decide on your engineering major?
  4. What was your experience going through school?
  5. How did you find your first job?
  6. What is your current job? What do you do on a typical day at work?
  7. If you are currently working on something of particular interest, what is it? What challenges does it present?
  8. What is your career plan? How important is "life-long learning" in your plan?
  9. Are you a registered professional engineer? If so, why did you choose to become professionally registered?
  10. Do you have any time for fun? What do you do outside of work?
  11. Do you have any "sage" advice for a student just beginning engineering study?

You may want to ask one or two more questions of your own choosing to complete the interview.

It is strongly recommended that you use a word processor for the preparation of your report. Your report should introduce your interview subject using his/her picture, and then present your questions and his/her answers to them. Again, you should pay attention to the correct use of grammar and spelling.

Good luck with your interview!