5 Most Important Virtues for an engineer

Having been an engineer (to be more specific, in the IT area) for more than 8 years now, I was struck by this question in the title line "What are the 5 most important virtues for an engineer?". Agreed, I have been bitten by the bug of seeing such styled questions (’x’ things to do when you are ‘y’) in almost every other blog out there. But really, this was a question that I have involuntarily or unknowingly asked myself and also asked my colleagues on numerous occasions.

Before we get into the 5 virtues, to me, an engineer-(be it a software engineer or a traditional engineer or anyone who qualifies to be called an engineer) is a problem solver, is a person who can think on his feet and who can add value to the people working with him at large.’

Here are the five most important virtues for an engineer and this could apply to any situation, whether you are interviewing for your first job, or are looking at change of jobs, or sitting for your performance appraisal etc

1. Openness and willingness to accept limitations
2. Honesty
3. Deciphering criticism in the right way
4. Thirst for learning and proactiveness
5. Willingness to take risks

Openness and willingness to accept limitations:

For example in interviews, I have seen this- the candidates, in an effort to project smartness i.e., not to show vulnerability, give wrong answers, but argue adamantly that they are right. They may be confident or want to exhibit confidence thinking that the interviewer is testing for his/her confidence level. But then, there is a fine line between ‘digging your own grave’ and ’smartness’. What it indicates is that the person in not interested to learn. For an experienced person, it could also reflect rigidness and lack of flexibility. This could in turn project an impression that the person is not keen to grow further. Here, one is reminded of Newton who once said, " I can see farther than the others because I am standing on the shoulders of giants" which is a very constructive attitude that projects your growth/confidence derived from you relationship with you peers. No wonder with such an attitude, Newton did wonders!

Honesty:

While honesty and openness might seen similar, there is a distinct difference between them. For example, if you are a software engineer, honesty is like "I introduced this bug when I was fixing this" as Luke puts it. You need to be honest first to yourself and to people whom you work with. You need not go out of the way, be an open book when it is not necessary, and get hit. But base honesty on your deep rooted instincts and personal work ethics and not on survival instincts. If honesty is based on survival instincts, then it probably will turn out to be more opportunistic than anything else.

Deciphering criticism in the right way:

Criticism is never something that is appreciated especially when it comes uninvited. It is our mind set that needs moderation when we encounter criticism. There is always something to learn on every occasion whenever you are bombarded with comments. While constructive criticism is something that we have been taught to use for the betterment of oneself, I think one should strive to take on the negative or destructive criticism in one’s stride and try to convince the critique. Convincing negative critics is not from ‘proving a point’ stance, but from a comfort level of dealing with the worst enemies openly and boldly. You need to understand that negative critics will always take a stance or a view point from which probably your project was not even conceived. For instance, if the project was supposed to work on windows and they say it doesn’t work on linux and that linux is open source etc etc. But what you need to tell them is that the focus or requirements doesn’t entitle compatibility in linux and hence not required now. While this instance might sound too miniscule, the point I am trying to make is that negative criticism is good because it always motivates you to strive for the best. This, I think is a totally radical way of looking at criticism irrespective of whether it is constructive or destructive (negative).

Thirst for learning and proactiveness:

On the periphery, thirst for learning and proactiveness can be supplementary virtues but really it is complementary. They feed upon each other and hence presented here as a single virtue. Every work day should contribute towards ascending the ladder of growth- be it in implicit ways or explicit measures. For an engineer especially, technology advancement happens at a rapid speed. One should keep himself abreast of the advancements in one’s area of work. You might think that you know what you need to know for your current task list or in your scope of work. But thirst to learn forms the basis of your career growth. Lets take an example and walk through this virtue. In software parlance, code cutters are available a dozen a dime. It is also well known that nobody is indispensable. Hence if you start your career as a trainee code cutter and that too in this resource surplus world, then you most probably will be one among the many out there. Knowing more than the other and being able to accomplish a little more than the other person is the only way to differentiate from the others. This means you will need to be on top of the latest methodologies and updates of the technology you are using/working on. Also, being an active member in online community centers around various technologies involved in your work place will be of significant impact in adding to your knowledge base. All this boils down to the virtue in question: ‘Thirst for learning and proactiveness’. If you don’t have the thirst and exhibit proactiveness in learning, then you will most likely fall behind in the race to success.

Willingness to take risks:

As clichéd as it might sound, this virtue could sometimes tilt the odds against your favor. Of course, if you have a track record of unsuccessful attempts, then you probably need to exercise caution. But if you look at it, willingness to take risks also pulls you out from being a ‘couch potato’ and instead pushing towards the direction that you probably would not have gone otherwise.

Willingness to take risks could be a situation where you are presented with a project and probably the project does not forecast any light at the end of the tunnel. But you are a small company and don’t have much revenue. In that case, you say that you will take it up as a challenge and try to finish the project. Now, this is risk taking but if you also look at it from catering to a larger customer base than this one customer from whom you got the requirements, then you are actually converting the challenge/risk into more attractive deal for the team and the company.

Except in companies which do projects on similar lines all the time, where they have options to reuse stuff they have done before (like reusing code or reusing devices, processes etc), risk taking can push the company to the next level. Of course, you cannot blindly take risk without assessing the situation from all corners. The example we discussed could be applicable for managers. For relatively junior engineers, who don’t have management responsibilities, risk taking could be volunteering to take up a severe troubleshooting necessity that has cropped up in the 11th hour or even taking up a very important module in the project (where the whole project could be something new to you). Ok, probably your manager wouldn’t let you take the toughest job because you don’t have much experience. But he will be pleased with you attitude, with your willingness to help the cause.

So there you go, I have tried to sum up the five important virtues for an engineer and have kept it relatively common for all types of readers. Please note that whether you are an engineer or not, it will appeal to all universally. If you are a person who earns a salary, then all the above will be equally applicable to you.