I really want to be an engineer, how can I be one?

Dear future engineer,

I am so proud of you for dreaming of your future. Do not listen to what others say or think about you. Believe in yourself and you will be the best version of you.

I do not know what the future holds for you, but I do hope that you continue to dream and strive to make your dreams come true. Believe in yourself and your abilities.

Don’t listen to those who tell you that you can’t do something. Go and show they are wrong.

A long time ago a female leader told me that I would never become a plant manager at the company. I was disappointed and used that as fuel to demonstrate to her that she was wrong. Six months later I was a plant manager at one of our sites.

To become an engineer it is not as much as being smart as being disciplined. Often consistency and discipline gets you what you aspire to be – just watch the athletes, they practice and practice and practice to be successful.

Being an engineer is all about being able to design and build things that function well. Think of something you’d like to make. It might be a toy for a younger sibling, a napkin holder for your dinner table, or a birdhouse for outside your window. Then, go online to explore existing designs and modify these to make your own unique design. Be sure to read about safety precautions so you don’t hurt yourself. You may be most successful if you can find someone who already has the tools. But, in the end, you will have designed and constructed something you can be proud of – you will already be an engineer!

Engineers are more practical than smart. We need to know a certain amount of math & physics, but problem-solving is more important. A big part is figuring out how to do things better, so wondering why designers made the choice they made or thinking about how you would have done it are important skills for an engineer.

Learning from mistakes is another strength. If we never fail, that means that we’re not pushing the envelope in how to do things better. We need a lot of engineers working on solving our climate crisis. I work for a company that’s trying to reduce the energy and environmental impact of heating & cooling buildings. Others are working on cleaning water, producing renewable energy, etc. Curiosity and wanting to make things better are key to being a good engineer.

Good luck with your future!

If you are willing to work hard, you can be an engineer. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re not smart enough or good enough. Set a goal for yourself and take action to achieve it. Always strive to be the best you can be. It’s also been proven that the “smartest” people aren’t always the most successful. The most successful people are those who are willing to put the effort in to achieve their goals regardless of how “smart” they are.

Wow, this really hits home for me. My mom told me when I was in the first grade that the school wanted to hold me back because I was below reading level for my grade. She told them absolutely not, they could not hold me back and that she would work with me. Reading and language arts never came easy for me but Math and Science were my strong suits, so I always put my best efforts there. Now don’t get me wrong, I did my best in every subject but those two subjects intrigued me the most.

Throughout your life you may hear things like “you’re not smart enough” or “you need to do better, if you want to do that,” but you have to block those negative people out of your mind. You can achieve anything you put your mind to IF you are willing to put in the work to achieve it. Nothing is ever handed to you, so make sure you work for it and towards it.

One of my biggest motivations came in high school, when I had an incident with my English teacher. She gave us a standardized test and afterwards posted everyone’s scores on the blackboard, but not by name thankfully. My score was the lowest and she made a huge gap between my score and the person who scored above me. I knew deep down she was targeting me directly because for one I was the only African-American in her College Prep English Class. She told us that if we did not do well in her class by the end of the year that she would not recommend us for College Prep next year. I was determined to prove her wrong. At the end of the year, she sat us down individually and told us if we were promoted or not. I found out later that the girl who scored the highest on that standardized test wasn’t recommended to stay in College Prep, even though she scored highest on the test she didn’t maintain her grades throughout the year, she didn’t put in the necessary work to move forward.

Thankfully, I was promoted to continue on in College Prep English for the remainder of high school and I continue to do well. I was in College Prep for all of my core classes, so why would English be any different just because the test said so and definitely not because a teacher had their own personal issues.

When selecting my engineering field, I initially was aiming for Civil or Industrial Engineering because my dad studied both and received Associated Degrees in them. But one day, while having a conversation with a friend of my family, I told them what I was planning on studying in college. Their response was "good, most Women study those fields," and that his son was going to school to be an Electrical Engineer. Being the stubborn person that I am when I register for my college classes, I had to select a field of study and I selected Electrical Engineering. Fast forward 23 years later and I have both my BS in Electrical Engineering and my MBA in Technology Management.

At 12 I knew little about engineering, only what my dad told me and the books he kept around the house; but I had no idea the impact the engineering had/has on the world. So, you already have an advantage, you have the internet and EngineerGirl to help you find which path in engineering that interests you the most.

Also, don’t put too much value in the negative things your friends say or the negative things you hear. By the time I went to college those friends who stayed at home or didn’t go to college had all kinds of negative things to say to make me feel bad about my decisions but your journey in life is your journey to walk and no one else’s. Enjoy your journey.

Be flexible, as you go through your Middle School and High School years, your visions may modify some. That is okay.

Travel down those side roads to help determine what you are truly passionate about. Loving what you do is half the battle in a career. It gives you inspiration when you have those difficult or depressing events in life and career.

Research and be innovative in discovering your engineering path. Join robotics and computer clubs. Find like minded youth and form your own club or join a club. Talk to individuals in the industry you would like to be in. Be Bold!

Love yourself! Move forward! Let the haters hate!

If people are saying you can't become an engineer because you are not smart enough and you are 12 years old, ignore them. They do not know what they are talking about. You have yet to reach a level where people can say such things. If you were 22 and in college and flunking out of classes, that may be a different scenario, but then again, even in such a state, I find there are outside factors, not intelligence at work, that is causing failing grades. Also, those comments about you not being good enough are rude, and I would distance myself from such negative energy.

What you can do now is make sure you connect with positive people who are working hard towards their dreams. Try to find a mentor who will encourage you from your neighborhood or school district that is an engineer. Also, it is impressive that you even have engineering on your mind at a young age. Get involved in local robotics clubs to gain skills and take science and math classes or try to get into a summer camp for engineering or computer science. There are many scholarships for girls wanting to explore a STEM career, so take advantage of that while you are still young. Such activities will help your application to engineering universities and scholarships.

Start small and build. Ignore negativity. Find a local mentor to meet with once a month who is an engineer and a positive role model.

First - Those kids at school have no idea what it takes to be an engineer or whether it is for you, so start out by ignoring their advice on this.

Second - Here are clues that I think would be useful in deciding if engineering is for you:
    Do you like math?
    Do you like to build things?
    Do you like to try to figure out how things work?

If you answer yes, I'm betting that engineering is a good choice to think about.

So now what should you do? I suggest taking as much math as you can. Don't listen to other kids about classes being too hard or boring. They don't know what will be hard or boring to you. Only you will know that. Also, just because it is difficult, doesn't mean it is off limits. When you enjoy something you will find that you may be willing to work extra hard to master it. Everything doesn't have to be easy to be enjoyable. You may find that mastering something difficult will give you enormous pleasure even if you are not the best in the class.

Don't be afraid to try something even if your friends say it isn't cool. Maybe join a computer or robotics club at school, if they are available, even if none of your friends do. This may give you a whole new set of additional friends who share this part of your interests. They are not replacements for your current friends - they are additions and we all know that having lots of different friends with lots of different interests is a good thing.

If your school or other community group has a career day, go and see whether there are engineers there and ask them questions about what they love about their jobs and how they got to where they are. There are so many different types of engineering that you may learn about a specialty that you never even imagined. Be curious and open to new ideas and possibilities!

Oh dear, please don’t let others discourage you from any dream you have now or for your future! You asking about what you can do to become an engineer sounds pretty smart to me!

At 12 years old, continue to focus on learning your basics, math especially! Repetition, seek tutoring so you don’t fall behind (if you’re struggling), find a mentor, learn to have fun with Math and Science (don’t avoid it…find a way to get through it)!

As you get older, some things become clearer and easier, I promise, and if you struggle in one area, it’s not the end of the world. Staying focused on your studies and having a goal are very important. There is no magic formula to becoming an engineer, but studying hard, pushing yourself to learn “the hard stuff,” and giving yourself some slack when you don’t get an “A” in every class are all good practices to learn early.

I think you are on the right track – I’m already impressed by you (at just 12 years old!) planning for your future engineering career. I will be cheering you on through every step…stay the course and you’ll make it!

Anyone who wants to be an engineer can be one. Do not let others determine your path.

What you can do now is take as many math classes as you can. If you need a tutor, ask your school. Find math games to play, and problem solving type puzzles – even jigsaw puzzles. Not all engineers are math wizards, but it will help train your brain.

There are a number of different fun science kits that can be purchased, or found online as an app. Play with these and have fun. Sign up for summer science camps if you can.

Find working engineers that you could shadow for a day, or intern with over a summer. This will give you valuable insight. There are a number of different types of engineers, so shadow different ones (some examples are mechanical, electrical, chemical, aerospace, civil, industrial). Get to know your strengths, and see which engineering discipline in which you might be the best fit.

Engineering is a tough discipline, but as long as you really want it, you will achieve it.

To be successful as an engineer, you don’t have to be the smartest in your class, but you do have to be one of the most determined. Engineering takes a lot of tenacity to stick with a problem and work through it methodically, even after you deal with roadblocks and other issues along the way. As long as you have the desire to make something work/find out why something is broken and fix it (and be decent in math and one of the science fields 😊), you will be a great future engineer!

There’s this misconception that engineers are naturally super smart people (the way we’re portrayed in movies as people who can build/fix/code anything definitely doesn’t help), but the truth is that just about anyone passionate about solving problems can learn to do the job. That’s what college or on-the-job training is for – to teach you the skills and technical knowledge that you’ll need to be a successful engineer. Don’t let those kids at school make you believe you’re not smart enough to follow your interests! You can do it!

What you can do now is sign up for a free newsletter from the Society of Women Engineers geared toward introducing K-8th grade students to different careers in engineering and the plethora of paths to becoming an engineer. Think about what kind of engineering work you might enjoy most – something working with your hands? Or a physical science that ties in an interest in physics/chemistry/biology? Or do you prefer to solve problems using a computer coding language? There are even some engineers who do none of those on a daily basis who are experts at creating entire systems for writing detailed documents, tracking data, improving manufacturing processes, communicating important info, etc.

Also feel free to get in touch with any of us through our profiles on EngineerGirl if you have questions specific to our paths or jobs! And EngineerGirl has an amazing page where you can find fun activities to learn new things, find engineering workshops/day camps/events near you, and read all the different ways you can prepare for an engineering career too - Explore Possibilities.