Aneisha, Greenville, NC (East Carolina University) asked Ana Luisa Mendoza, Northrop Grumman AddedSunday, June 21, 2015 at 5:11 PM Skills necessary in the engineering field Hello Ana, I came across your interview as I was researching a little on Systems Engineering and your profile really stood out to me because we seem to have tons in common (I wanted to be a dancer as well). I will have completed two degrees in December and I am interested in returning for engineering. I wanted to ask you what skills you find necessary for embarking a career in your field? I am a little intimidated as I am fairly new to this area but it is really interesting to me. I tend to psych myself out and think that I am not smart enough sometimes. I have met a few male engineers who have given me great insights, but I am more curious from a woman's perspective. Thank you so much! Related to Engineering Skills, Internships & Jobs, Special fields and Interdisciplinary Reset Sort By Default Ana Luisa Mendoza , Northrop Grumman Answered Sunday, June 21, 2015 at 5:11 PM Thanks for sending the question Aneish. I love being a system engineer mainly because I get to work on high level design and work on the conceptual make up of all the products we work on. So in reality, the first thing you need to tell yourself Is that “you can do it”. Believe deep inside of you that your are capable of doing anything you set your mind to and specially as a women, you have a tremendous skill (multitasking) which is one of our main strength. The skills that I consider you need as a system engineer are: Organization, Coordination, great communications skills as you are the main interface between teams, process oriented, thinking about the big picture, thinking about what is required for your system to meet all of its requirements, definitely thinking outside the box. In most cases, thinking outside the box is the most important quality because you will need to think about solutions to problems in a totally different way. Another key skill needed for this type of work environment is the ability to influence others since you will have to interface with customers with various personalities, being able to influence their decision making process to your advantage is very useful. Influencing your team is also something that I have found very useful, especially as a woman. Let me know if you have any more questions or need to talk some more.