Which engineering jobs work with people the most?

Working in a Network Operations Center (NOC) would be a good job for someone that is an extrovert. You have a team of people you work with on a daily basis, but also work with a lot of different people over the phone.

In general, engineers solve problems and in order to that you need some form of interaction with internal or external customers in order to understand the problem. Engineers in research and development probably spend long hours alone in research but they still need to collaborate with other researchers and present their findings. Engineers in planning, design and operations work in teams and get to interact with many people.

I have to disagree with the statement that “engineering is a great career for people who don’t want to be around others,” because in engineering you are always communicating with other people. In any field engineers communicate a lot with regards to their work. Collaboration with the team members you are working with will make any job easier and much more enjoyable. For the type of engineering to avoid, I think do not avoid any, because engineering is a great job, just choose what you love, what you are passionate about and you enjoy learning. In engineering, every day you learn and discover new things. As others say, “Do what you love and you won’t feel that you are working every single day.”

You may think about engineering as an art, you may communicate who you are through your solutions or creations. As such, look at what you like to do. Do you like to get your hands dirty and use tools? You may be looking at jobs related to robotics/electronics and or mechanics. Or if you like to type on a computer and create programs that will provide solutions that you will see working in a more virtual way, you may think about computer engineering.

Many engineers are introverts, and that is fine, their brilliant minds are manifested in their work. The key however, is to allow yourself to communicate with others like yourself to share those great ideas. Engineering is a career of collaboration. There are complex issues that will require several brilliant minds to get together and discuss them and find the optimal solution, so as you progress in your career you will see that communicating with minds like yours will become easier and easier, just allow yourself to take the first step.

Remember to identify what you would like to do, you can always give it a try and change your mind if it’s not what you envisioned. Good Luck!

I am also an extrovert. My current job in sustainability is very people-oriented. But in most of my engineering jobs, I have been engaging with people. The people who did not want to engage just did not talk. They did not ask to be on committees or participated in professional groups or even just do not speak up at staff meetings. Often when you speak up you get assigned a new task and opportunity. But those new opportunities helped me grow professionally.

For technical individuals who love to interact with people, they might consider a sales engineering role! A sales engineer needs to have extensive technical knowledge of the product and/or process they are selling while also feeling comfortable speaking in front of people, answering questions, and negotiating. Keep in mind, sales engineers work in a team and individually.

The engineering field is actually a very interactive field. Communication is the most important part of engineering. Nowadays it is an interdisciplinary field. When you design or develop any product, you have to communicate with many people from different departments of engineering.

I am a mechanical engineer. When I design something, first I communicate my ideas or listen to customer's ideas or requirements and discuss possible solutions with each other. After finalising one or two concepts, it proceeds for prototype making. There I need to communicate with my design team. After the product is ready, it goes to analysis, so we need to interact with CAE engineers. If the product passes all the analysis criteria, it proceed for manufacturing. So we need to co-ordinate with manufacturing team. Electrical engineers, programming engineers are also in loop. After manufacturing and testing of the product is over, we have to coordinate with marketing team/stakeholders.

So, in my opinion, engineering is mostly very interactive and social field where you really need to connect with many engineers from different backgrounds and disciplines. The only step where you need focus and concentration is designing a concept or doing some research for your product.

I think that it is a myth that engineers work alone. In any job that I have had, it is critical to collaborate with others. Project Managers are always working with many members of the project team. As an IT Architect, I constantly collaborate with others to gather many ideas and create innovative designs. I would encourage anyone going into the engineering or IT field to work on their personal interaction skills – they will be lifelong skills that are integral to a successful career.

It is true that some engineering positions are able to work on deep problems by themselves, but this is definitely not required. There are various things that affect how much you work with others. Three of them are time in service, positions you choose, and your personality. Sometimes early in your career as you are learning the product and the business, you may work with a small team and your manager. As you learn, you will likely take on projects with greater scope and work with more people. You may also take on more of a systems engineering role, in any discipline, and then you will work with many other engineers to bring a system together. Mechanical, electrical, computer, and industrial engineers would all offer a lot of opportunity to work with others. I am also very outgoing and I often stepped out of my formal role early in my career to bring people together and drive decisions. If you have an outgoing personality and strong engineering skills, this will be a great advantage!

As an extrovert and someone who enjoys helping people work together, I have found great job satisfaction in leading an engineering team as a Scrum Master, Project Engineer, or Technical Program Manager. In these roles I am tasked with coming up with ways of organizing, delegating, and coordinating within the engineering team in a way that works for the different personalities and skill sets on the team. I am also responsible for maintaining a healthy team culture and I get to do this through team building activities, arranging and delivering technical and non-technical training, and leading regular retrospectives where I can encourage respectful communication styles. My favorite thing to teach the engineering teams that I lead is to “debate the subject, not the individual,” because this concept promotes psychological safety and a safe environment is a requirement for sharing creativity.

It’s important to acknowledge that it’s a stereotype that engineers are all nerdy introverts who prefer to be anti-social hermits. I have known so many extroverted engineers and in fact, sometimes they can make some of the best ones because they aren’t socially awkward and aren’t afraid to reach out and collaborate and connect others. Extroverted engineers can make great managers and supervisors – as these types of positions suit individuals who thrive on socialization with others! Managers can spend good portions of their days going from meeting to meeting doing important work such as collaborating and discussing engineering challenges across departments or functions. At my company, the positions that would be suited for an extroverted engineer would include descriptive words such as: group lead, supervisor, manager, project lead, department lead, director, chief engineer, fellow, etc. I want to also share that you can be an extroverted engineer and remain technically focused as well – that would be the chief engineer or fellow role that I listed. There is certainly an abundance of positions that extroverted engineers would thrive in! A position to avoid would be research-types of positions as those can lead to long hours doing testing and analyzing data in a lab setting. Other than that, from my experience, many positions can be adapted to suit the individual’s comfort level with socialization. I consider myself an introvert, so I figured I would share that in the context of all of my advice above.

I have found engineering to be a combination of introverts and extroverts. Remember an introvert is just more comfortable in certain settings, but don't assume a shy person does not like to be around people. In engineering, like any other profession, there will be all types. Be yourself, respect others and you will do great. The business models are different at different companies, so I would hate to tell an extrovert to head down a certain path and have her miss out on a great opportunity. Engineers work in teams, so you should never be isolated. If you ever feel that way, talk to your manager to work it out. It takes all types!