Final Blog

As a mechanical engineer it is very important to be able to communicate technical data with others. Mechanical Engineers work in all forms of industry and have to communicate with everyone from high up management to product assembly workers. Depending on which field you focus in, your technical communication needs differ.

I would like to enter the process safety/ fire safety field once I graduate. Many positions in this field are consulting and teaching based. In this field, public speaking is very important. When consulting, one must inform customers of flaws and ways to solve them diplomatically. In the teaching aspect, you are responsible for training others to avoid disasters. Public speaking skill is essential to communicate efficiently with the various customers and students you interact with. To obtain the necessary skills, it would be beneficial to take a course on public speaking offered by most universities.

Report writing skills are also very important because they are one of the main ways to communicate technical data with others. Reports will be the method of communication amongst members of the community. In the safety field, reports are also created to explain the findings of incident investigations. These are used to find new ways to avoid disasters in the future. It is important not to alienate people when writing a report. If that is done, suggestions in the report are less likely to be considered. Report writing skills come from practice and technical communications classes. These are just two of many different kinds of communication skill necessary to succeed in the field.