An engineer, on the other hand, designed and manufactured the chromatograph. Engineers were also at the chemical factory earlier, when it was built, to help design the process and see that it was constructed properly. Even earlier, engineers were involved in developing the very chemicals that are being produced and in figuring out how to produce them economically. At the present time, one or several engineers are involved in making sure that the process is running as efficiently as it can. It may be an engineer, for instance, who receives the report from the technician and decides that the process must be changed.
This example illustrates how an engineer may set up the tools and equipment for a manufacturing process but leave that process in the hands of technicians to run and maintain. A technician's work can require a high level of sophistication; in some cases, a technician knows more about how to use a machine than the engineer who designed it. Then, too, sometimes the machine is so complex that an engineer is needed to run it. Some machines, especially ones that are newly invented, require complicated tests and analyses even before they perform the intended task.
Maintenance Work
Maintenance work is another way of illustrating the differences between engineers and technicians. Often engineers who are very knowledgeable about a certain type of equipment will know very little about how to maintain that equipment. Computer maintenance, for example, can require a sophisticated understanding of how electronics work and how to solder components together. But many computer engineers work only with blueprints or circuit diagrams and have never held a soldering gun in their hands. However, when a maintenance technician has performed all the tests or repairs he or she knows and a system still doesn't work, an engineering team can be called. A problem that can't easily be repaired may indicate a fundamental flaw in the equipments design, and the engineers will be best equipped to find it.
Training and Job Opportunities
In terms of training, many technicians are required to take only several months' worth of vocational courses after high school. Many companies, especially those involved in computers, telecommunications, or heavy equipment (airplanes or earthmovers) provide these training courses themselves. The engineer, of course, must have a college degree. There is a middle ground between the engineer who has a four-year degree and the technician with vocational training: a two- or four-year program called engineering technology. Briefly, the engineering technology curriculum provides for more mathematical and scientific training than vocational courses, but with an emphasis on practical knowledge that can be applied almost immediately after graduation.
Depending on the individual, an engineer can often move rapidly into management positions and continue climbing up the corporate ladder. Technicians, on the other hand, have more limited possibilities for promotion.
If you think you have a strong mechanical aptitude, would you prefer operating and maintaining equipment or designing and building equipment? Many people aren't sure. One way to find out is to obtain technical work before or during college. The military offers many opportunities for technicians work, and some of this experience can be transferred directly to a job in the private sector.
Job demand for both types of workers is high today. The engineer tends to have a set of skills that can be transferred from one type of technology to another, while the technicians training are usually specific to one type of machinery or instrumentation.
Engineers and the World
Engineers are the inventors and implementers of technology. It is common to hear that American society-indeed, the world-is becoming more technological. What does this mean?
In a major study published in 1988, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) considered this question. Until it was closed in the 1990s, OTA was a federal agency controlled by the U.S. Congress that examined political issues in a technological context. It regularly issued reports on new technologies in areas such as health care, communications, pollution control, or education. In the 1988 report entitled "Technology and the American Economic Transition," OTA looked at how Americans live and work. It found a complex set of networks, an interconnected web of businesses, economic activities, and people.
The point OTA is making in this example is that even when considering something like food purchased in a supermarket, the marks of technology are all around. Each network on which we depend for our well-being has technological elements. Engineers are actively involved in all of these elements.
The networks OTA analyzed are:
- food
- housing
- health
- transportation
- clothing and personal care
- education
- personal business and communication
- recreation and leisure
- defense
- government activities (besides defense)
