What Makes a Good Engineer?

The chopping block question in a good engineering interview.
How would you answer? 😱

During the interview process for my mechanical engineering position, I was faced with a question that I still think about often.

Q: If a customer insists that you do something a certain way, but you know there’s a better way, what do you do?

The answer comes down to this. What do I value more: my opinion, perceived know-how, and experience, or the customer’s satisfaction? (After all, who is the one paying me to help them?)

A: Do what the customer says, as long as it does not violate regulations or pose a safety risk.

If this isn’t your answer, it may be worth rethinking how you’re approaching your work, and who you’re letting yourself become on the inside…

Speaking from personal experience, sometimes we engineers have a tendency to push our ideas too hard.
(By all means, offer your suggestions, but don’t drive them in like a nail.)
When that happens, people stop wanting to work with us.

And that’s the kind of engineer that this interview question is designed to weed out.

How have I done with this in my career, so far?

The company I work for cared enough about this to ask during my interview, and it’s something I think about it regularly on the job. My tendency can still be be to push my opinion too strongly, but I’m always trying to improve.

In the end, the customer’s satisfaction in the final product and the experience of working together, alongside safety and regulatory compliance, should always take priority over my own opinion.

How do you handle this situation in your line of work?

Make sure to check out this post on my Linkedin page, to see the wealth of comments & input from the engineering community! You won’t regret the time spent.