A Profession Is People

The articles linked below may only be connected in my head, bit they seem to me to be a themed set.

First, why do people become engineers? For some it’s a family thing, but for many of us it’s based on inspiration when we’re teens. I’ve mentioned before that the story of the Brooklyn Bridge, as told by David McCullough, was an influence on me. Here’s a list of sixteen books and movies that could push someone towards engineering: from PublicBooks.

Second, that list is unfortunately dominated by stories about white men. That leads to three pieces on gender and race – not in structural engineering, because there is limited literature on our profession, but about professionals in adjacent engineering and architecture fields. There is a good argument to be made about gender and race issues being pervasive in our society, but given a limited amount of time and attention, I tend to focus on the issues in engineering, where my efforts may have some influence.

Finally, once we’re talking about a reasonably level playing field, the next issue is how young engineers are dealt with by their bosses – by people like me. That leads to various discussion (again, the articles are about architects but the issues are similar for young engineers) in two pieces on labor practices and career development.