Task 3: The Importance of communication skills for engineers

 Quote: 

“I contend that we (engineers) are undervalued because of our widespread inability to explain what we do to the general public (and why it is so important). It is one of the hardest goals to accomplish, to be able to boil down difficult concepts into a short and easily understood presentation or elevator pitch.” 

Marybeth Miceli, President, Miceli Infrastructure Consulting, USA (2011)

Explanation: 

In the eye of the general public who have little to no knowledge on engineering, we (engineers) are usually stereotyped to be doing the same thing as one another, for example, all engineers will more or less know how to operate a generator, or how an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) works, etc. However, when you ask a Mechanical Engineer if they know how certain electrical and electronics work, most would probably not know much and vice versa with Electrical Engineers. Also, it is challenging to explain to general public of what we do in basic layman terms as compared to with fellow engineers. Hence, we are often given less credits in what we are doing.