In my experience, most people aren't cut out to be engineers. You have one group that just doesn't get it at all. Those are the people who make the engineering jokes, call us dorks, nerds, whatever. It's just because they don't have the right kind of brain to understand it. It's not an insult, people all think differently, but for some reason a lot of people feel defensive about not understanding engineering.
Then there is the second group of people, who might like solving problems, but can't deal with the "mundane" issues because they can't see the bigger picture. Writing the system to control the radios on the space shuttle is not especially exciting, until you think about how you're part of the effort to take a man made object and launch it into outer space with people inside.
If you can't get excited about that because you think writing software is boring, or you'd rather be managing people, I can't help you. And if you feel engineers are too cocky, perhaps you should think about what we do. I'm cocky because I'm good at what I do, and the majority of the population can't do it. I see nothing wrong with a little well deserved confidence in what you do, especially when without your profession, we'd all still be living in caves.
Then there is the second group of people, who might like solving problems, but can't deal with the "mundane" issues because they can't see the bigger picture. Writing the system to control the radios on the space shuttle is not especially exciting, until you think about how you're part of the effort to take a man made object and launch it into outer space with people inside.
If you can't get excited about that because you think writing software is boring, or you'd rather be managing people, I can't help you. And if you feel engineers are too cocky, perhaps you should think about what we do. I'm cocky because I'm good at what I do, and the majority of the population can't do it. I see nothing wrong with a little well deserved confidence in what you do, especially when without your profession, we'd all still be living in caves.