Republic of the Philippines

NUEVA ECIJA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Cabanatuan City
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

DO GOOD ENGINEER MAKE A GOOD MANAGER?

ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

SUBMITTED BY:
ESTEFANIE MARIE D. TORRES
BCSE-3D

Do Good Engineer make a Good Manager?

"Most engineers become managers in their careers, and typically they are unprepared for
the transition," according to a paper that appeared in Engineering Management Journal in 2002.
Perhaps this view flows from an assumption that engineers prefer working with things
(materials) and the laws of physics rather than managing people with their complex mix of
emotions, passions, habits and some logic. Those who hold this perspective may not realize that
many engineers enter the profession to help people meet their basic needs for lodging, food
preparation, mobility, communication and health. Architectural engineers, food-processing
engineers, transportation engineers, biomedical engineers and many others simply wanted to
solve human problems technologically. Engineers can make good managers as long as they are
willing to continue enhancing their skill-set beyond academic study. On the job, an engineer can
develop "a broad understanding and a clear vision of various administrative, financial, and
psychological issues," regardless that some people feel an engineering education hinders such
learning, says Manufacturing Engineering Magazine.
So perhaps the question should not be does a good engineer make a good project
manager, but rather how can we help a good engineer become a good manager? Good systems
engineers have experience seeing the big picture and multitasking. Good detail design engineers
are well versed in managing details. These strengths can also be pitfalls. A systems engineer may
fall into the role of a hands-off manager by losing sight of the details, while detail design
engineers run the risk of becoming micromanagers. Both should aspire to become empowering
managers who have natural leadership skills and can balance a projects demands with their

teams abilities. Recognizing an engineers strengths and limitations should be the first step in
making the change from engineer to manager.
This seems to be backed up by some research that Google did. They gathered 10,000
observations to find out what made better manager in their organization. They found the
following eight attributes were the most important for a manager to be an outstanding manager.
They were, in order of priority:
1. Be a good coach and have regular one to ones, presenting solutions tailored to your
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

employees specific strengths.

Empower your team and don't micromanage.
Don't be a sissy: be productive and results-oriented.
Be a good communicator and listen to your team.
Help your employees with career development.
Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.
Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team.
Express interest in team members success and personal well-being.

The people skills, the emotional intelligence skills, the ability to relate and build really
strong, trusting relationships with people were MORE important than the technical skill of the
manager. Perhaps most important, however, is passion and the ability to lead. Let's start with
leadership, because "leadership is moving beyond management," as the Institution of
Engineering and Technology (IET) puts it.
In a 2007 Engineers & Technology paper, Robin McGill described some steps he took between
engineering and becoming chief executive at IET, an international society for the engineering
and technology community. He got through his first experience of supervising by "engaging
people and not being frightened to ask for help." The real challenge, he said, "was getting people
aligned, getting them to function at the highest possible level and getting them to identify with
the strategy we were following."

Ou Shian Waei, managing director of IBM Malaysia, recently told The Edge Daily: You
need to know where the company's and even the staff's weaknesses are you can't be shy and
defensive about that. It needs to be properly conveyed to the staff. You can then identify your
strengths and preserve as well as build them at the same time. It's all about trust, which
eventually leads to the formation of passion. With passion, opportunities could be found
whenever a problem occurs. This leads us to passion in problem solving. "The root of passion
comes from understanding," Waei said.
"You must have interest in the subject and want to explore it and that's where your
passion comes from exploring," Waei said. He added, "it's passion that drives people to
success."

REFERENCES:
Based presentation from NASAs 2006 PM Challenge by GEORGE N. ANDREW (a program
systems engineer on the NOAA GOES-R series weather satellites at Goddard Space Flight
Center.)
Can Good Engineers Make Good Managers? By Anonymous, February 5, 2008. Email:
fwhite0001@yahoo.com