5 Important Skills For An Engineer

​With the construction industry and associated professions thriving. We want to delve into the skills that set a successful engineer apart from the crowd. An engineer who possess the following five skills has the power to turn any building situation around. Read on to find out more!

1. Excellent Communication skills
The number one skill civil engineers should possess is, excellent communication skills. Construction sites are one of the most dangerous work spaces, therefore an engineer should leave little room for error and miscommunication on site to ensure work progresses smoothly. Although the professional involves a lot of technical language, civil engineers should have the ability to communicate issues, ideas and plans clearly to not only a team of industry professionals but those unfamiliar with the field.

2. Attention to Detail
This is most certainly an important skill for an engineer to have when assessing defects and offering solutions. Engineers must ensure during inspection that they have a high level of attention to ensure all defects are identified and nothing is forgotten that could lead to a more problematic issue for the client later in the project.

3. Time Management/Organisational Skills
With the construction industry thriving at the moment, engineers are in demand, which means they must be organised and have amazing time management skills to ensure they can manage all the projects they are involved in while maintaining a high standard of work. In addition to this engineers should ensure that they keep up to date with projects, that the project is progressing well and most importantly that the client is satisfied with works thus far. Just remember, in construction, time is money and you don’t want to waste the clients’ money by being unorganised and way off the estimated time and budget for the project.

4. Critical thinking
Engineering involves a combination of maths and science to determine the best long term solution for a building with an issue. Engineers must use their critical thinking to solve the issue at hand while also remaining inside budget, a certain time period and with as minimal as risk as possible. To factor all these in for every single project and pull each project off successfully takes a special kind of person!

5. Adaptability
There may be constraints placed on an engineer during their time on a project whether it be time, money, space or condition of the building to name a few. Therefore, an engineer must be ready to offer alternatives ways to achieve what the client desires. This skill is a test of both creativity and flexibility for the engineer and how well they know their profession to find a way around the issue that is effective, sustainable and satisfactory. An engineer’s ability to be adaptable will also prove valuable when an unforeseen issue  requires immediate action arises on site .