When it comes to preparing for engineering careers, graduates often tend to focus too much on technical knowledge. However, engineering is far more than just working with numbers and machines or solving technical issues. Here are five key skills that engineering employers particularly look out for in graduate engineers.

1. Teamwork and Collaboration

Teamwork and the ability to collaborate and work with others is the lifeblood of the engineering profession. Engineers rarely work alone. From the moment you join the employer, you will be assigned to a team – often made up of others from multiple disciplines and levels of experience.

Your daily work usually involves troubleshooting problems, tackling a specific engineering task, or developing new solutions all as part of your assigned team. Knowing how to tap on each others’ strengths, build relationships among your team, divide up tasks, and coordinate with each other will be key to success. 

To develop these abilities, actively engage in group projects during your studies or join student societies where you have to work in teams. Focus on improving your interpersonal skills, including resolving conflicts, providing constructive feedback, and supporting team members in achieving shared objectives. 

      2. Problem-Solving Skills

A major part of an engineer’s job is solving problems and developing new solutions. There will always be a demand to keep making things work better, faster or stronger, and it will be up to you to deliver.

Problem-solving is more than just troubleshooting issues as they arise. After all, the best-engineered solutions and processes are the ones which don’t throw up frequent problems at all! As an engineer, must be able to anticipate potential problems before they occur and adjust for them beforehand. This requires developing a thorough understanding of your area of focus as well as how all the various component parts and processes fit together. 

By developing your problem-solving skills, you give rise to another desired skill: innovation. Engineering employers are constantly looking for candidates who can push for the application of innovative new ideas, technology, or practices in their area of focus.  

To develop problem-solving skills, work on your resourcefulness – that is, knowing where to look or whom to talk to in order to find potential solutions to unfamiliar problems. Practicing a systemic approach helps too. Learn to break large problems down into smaller, manageable components; analyse each part thoroughly, and then identify possible solutions and their implementation.   

      3. Problem-Solving Skills

Effective communication is key to success in engineering. Engineers spend far more time talking to people than you may expect. Whether that’s conveying updates to other teams within the organisation, training incoming staff on processes, or liaising with clients; every engineering solution is only as good as the people or users who are interacting with it.

Practice conveying complex information to others in simple, easy-to-understand terms, whether spoken or in writing. Not everybody you speak to in the workplace will understand technical jargon, so you will need to be good at conveying your thoughts clearly and simply.

You aren’t expected to wow others with your command of the language or your writing and presentation skills. What matter most is knowing how to get your point across to your listeners, even if that means trying multiple times until they get it. This is a habit you can cultivate while you’re still in your studies, so keep working on it even if you may feel like talking to others isn’t your greatest strength! Practice makes perfect, after all.  

      4. Attention to Detail

As an engineer, precision is a non-negotiable attribute. Attention to detail can make a huge difference between a successfully-implemented solution or a very costly mistake for your employer.  

To nurture this skill, begin by practicing accuracy in all aspects of your coursework, projects, and assignments. Get in the habit of paying special attention to details, or double-checking your calculations, measurements, and data.

This isn’t just on you, though. Get others to help double check or peer review your work whenever possible. A second set of eyes might just spot something you missed. Speak to more experienced engineers on the job and enlist them in helping you identify specific areas to pay special attention to as well.

Failing to pay attention to the finer details in the engineering industry can have commercial and social consequences. You could cost your company to lose a lot of money or even put somebody’s life at risk. Make sure you don’t approach the work half-heartedly.

      5. Adaptability and Resilience

Successful engineers are able to adapt quickly to unfamiliar situations. They must also be able to continually persevere and pick themselves up again after a setback. It is, after all, unlikely that you will get the right solution or implementation the first time. Being adaptable and resilient enough to keep coming up with new ideas or finding new approaches is key to getting things done.

You may have to work in high-pressure environments too. Some engineers have to be on-call 24 hours a day. Others work in facilities where everything moves at breakneck speed. Or you may be away from home and removed from civilisation for long periods of time. Being resilient enough to keep a cool head and a disciplined approach in such situations is essential. 

While still in your studies, be on the lookout for chances to push yourself out of our comfort zone or expose yourself to unfamiliar environments or ideas. Learning to get better at processing and grasping the unfamiliar, or challenging yourself to adapt to settings you aren’t typically accustomed to – these are how you develop your resilience over time.