I was a biology major, but then I saw the kinds of hands-on work engineers get to do. You learn to think analytically, and you learn to problem-solve. With an engineering education, I could get a job in lots of different fields.

Creativity is no doubt one of the major building blocks of a good engineer. An engineer’s goal is to solve a problem or design a system that has never been built. The more creative you are, the more possible solutions you'll come up with. Communication is also key. It doesn’t matter how good your work is—if you can’t communicate it, it’s not going to be very useful.

B.S. in mechanical engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.