Raine, AddedFriday, December 4, 2015 at 11:08 AM becoming a successful engineer Are there any specific skills you need to be a successful engineer? If so, what are they? I really want to be a software engineer but I'm not sure if I have some of the things that they want in a person's personality. Related to Engineering Skills, Software Reset Sort By Default Xiaoyun Yang , Naval Reactors; LooseLeaf Answered Friday, December 4, 2015 at 11:08 AM Raine, Great question. The software industry evolves rapidly and requires constant learning of new tools and software engineering concepts (Moore's law). A passion for learning new things is definitely not a good trait to have if you want to keep up-to-date with the latest technology. Software engineers need to be resourceful and know when to leverage an existing technology stack and when it's necessary to create something new. A really nice thing about software engineering is that if you have a good idea, you can implement it right away with no up-front cost, which implies that if you have the initiative, confidence, and perseverance, you can turn an idea into reality without anyone's permission or help. Software engineers operate under a lot of autonomy so being self-motivated is really important. This is contrasted by the other type of engineering (nuclear and system engineering) that I'm also involved with, which requires a tremendous amount of teamwork and engineering management to get things done right. -Xiaoyun