If you’re a fresh graduate embarking on your career path or looking to make a mid-career switch into the industry, here are some essential skills that are a must-have to guarantee promising performance in an engineering company in Singapore.
1. Leadership
Technical leadership is a desired skill in the manufacturing environment. While many engineering roles are heavily project-based, requiring you to work in a multi-functional team, you may get the opportunity to lead teams and manage projects end-to-end.
Especially if you are applying for more senior roles, expect to manage client visits as well as provide leadership in troubleshooting. Depending on your experience, you may also be required to conduct training and assessment activities for the junior members of your team and guide them through their roles and responsibilities.
With in-demand production needs at stake, it is also important to bring efficiency in everything you do to enable a smooth project timeline. A good leader must handle adversities confidently to ensure a project continues as per deadline, while also taking into account delayed completions and incurred project costs. By expressing that you’re more than capable of overseeing the team’s progress, your future employer will no doubt see your suitability for the role.
2. Critical thinking
In an era of information overload for engineers, it can be hard to not overanalyse the complex technical data presented to you. When faced with a problem to solve, it is crucial to have an analytical mindset that delivers a high level of professionalism.
Having critical thinking skills ensures that you can think on your feet and be proactive in mediating situations. There may be times your co-workers will need you to identify the problem and come up with a feasible solution based on the relevant data. On your own, consider what may or may not work and present actionable results. Critical thinking ultimately determines the quality of what you can bring to the table in the future of engineering.
As you build on your knowledge, critical thinking will gradually be something you’ll get more well-versed in as you advance through your engineering career, especially when you are open-minded to suggestions.
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3. Being receptive to feedback
With the challenges and opportunities that the engineering industry presents, there’s always room for you to develop into an all-rounder.
If you are applying for an engineering job with no prior experience, you may be attached to a mentor or a senior staff. This gives you more opportunity to grow and gain invaluable insights from seasoned engineers with expertise working not only in Singapore but in global engineering companies as well.
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Depending on your job responsibilities, you may also be required to liaise with external parties like clients and vendors. If you are conceptualising and prototyping solutions, there may be feedback from the various stakeholders involved to consider once the design is proposed. From there, you get to learn how to best refine and improve the product according to your clients’ needs. This allows you to understand market expectations and industry standards — and in the process, you will become better prepared for more engineering projects moving forward.
