Mr A & Mr T
Two 'metalwork' teachers. Between them they changed the course of my life* and gave probably the best speech at careers day I've ever heard. It went something like this.

'Some of you will want to be MP's, some of you will want to be social workers, dancers, actors, bus drivers, pilots - whatever. What you do for and in the world pales into insignificance when you look at engineering.
If you shot all of the people in the above groups tomorrow, next week the world would still be working, the power would still be on, the water would still come from your taps, If you shot all of the engineers tomorrow, you'd all be screwed - think about that when you look down at those studying enginering - they are the ones keeping the world running.'

*Yeah, I went into engineering.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Tue 22 Mar 2011, 15:54, 16 replies)

How are you going to get into work if you shoot all the bus drivers and pilots?

( Amorous Badger NAKED BEA ARTHUR PHOTOS 4U, Tue 22 Mar 2011, 15:58, closed)

This is true...
As a hydraulic engineer, I fly all over the place - and I had to catch a bus in Sweden the other month...
( snee held his breath since, Tue 22 Mar 2011, 16:07, closed)

Engineers are shit
Capturing enemy buildings aside, they're completely useless.
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Tue 22 Mar 2011, 16:14, closed)

You have to build loads
they keep getting mown down like pussies.
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Thu 24 Mar 2011, 12:07, closed)

Engineers have saved more lives than doctors
Doesn't help get you laid at uni though.
(salvadorevincent, Tue 22 Mar 2011, 17:06, closed)

Net?
Taking into account weapons "engineering"?

I very nearly became an engineer but I decided that they were all so arrogant about it that I didn't want to be one.
( Ugi , it's a game of give and cake, Tue 22 Mar 2011, 17:19, closed)

How arrogant of you

(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Wed 23 Mar 2011, 9:26, closed)

:-)
Quite.
( Ugi , it's a game of give and cake, Wed 23 Mar 2011, 10:05, closed)

Gotta take
Harold Shipman into account too.
(salvadorevincent, Wed 23 Mar 2011, 12:26, closed)

Bollocks.
With no pilots you wouldn't have flight and without bus drivers no buses.
"Engineer" either means you have an engineering degree (the correct definition, in my opinion), or it means you deal with something generally classed as "engineering" -- which could be anything from replacing spark plugs to something verging on quantum physics -- so either you're not really needed unless your specific skill-set is lacking, and a pilot could probably pass your degree, or you're just a monkey who follows instructions well. Whichever way you look at it, engineers are as expendable as the rest of us.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Tue 22 Mar 2011, 19:27, closed)

So folk who are apprentice-trained and time-served in electrical/mechanical/multi-skilled engineering aren't really engineers?

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Wed 23 Mar 2011, 20:49, closed)

Depends what they do - but unless they've a sound theoretical background and actually design new stuff from first principles, then no, they're not.

More than likely they're technicians - and there's *nothing* wrong with being a technician.
(Payload, Wed 23 Mar 2011, 22:28, closed)

What about fitters, where do they stand in the engineer/not engineer debate.
They're the ones who take on more advanced tasks than the technicians.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Wed 23 Mar 2011, 22:44, closed)

Wasn't this theory discussed in one of the Hitchhiker books?
it's a while since i read them...

I'm sure, in one of the books, Arthur finds himself on a spaceship inhabited by hairdressers, middle-management, flower arrangers, politicians etc. They had been sent off, in advance of the 'other 2 ships' to another planet, and were awaiting the arrival of the doctors, engineers...

Or did i dream this?
( Another_tragic_case wished he hadn't eaten all the cake, Wed 23 Mar 2011, 8:43, closed)

no,
you did not dream
(haberman is singing in the changes, Wed 23 Mar 2011, 9:49, closed)

Reminds me of the story I should have posted for the stupid colleages QOTW.
I was discussing going to university with a bloke I work with, nad he was telling me that he was unsure what he wanted to study. I remembered him telling me about an engineering couse he had done at college, and suggested an engineering degree. He answered, "Yeah, I thought about that, but I can't think of any practicaol applications."
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Wed 23 Mar 2011, 10:06, closed)