Do engineers spend more time communicating than students expect?
It cannot be answered the same way for every engineer. Engineering work can include requirements clarification, design discussions, progress sharing, explaining work to users, and exchanging information through documents or chat, in addition to design and implementation. Whether this feels like more communication than expected depends on a student's expectations as well as the field, role, and project.
Key points
- Coordination around requirements and design can be part of the work.
- Communication includes documents, email, and chat as well as meetings.
- The balance between technical work and interaction varies by role and project.
Things to check
- The amount of communication is not the same for every engineer.