"Career as an Engineer"

Being an Engineer – A career that makes you proud
Whenever somebody asks me what I do, I always answer, “I am an engineer”. Engineering to me is exciting, challenging, creative, and most importantly, fun!

From the cars or underground trains that take you to work, to the airplanes that fly you across the world; from water supply to telecommunications; from buildings to tunnels and bridges; from cooking stoves to fuels and renewables, engineers play an indispensable role in all the things that make our daily lives more convenient and enjoyable. We simply could not manage life without engineers. Engineering is integrated into every aspect of our modern society.

Nurture the engineering way of thinking in all young people
I always feel that young people from all walks of life should receive engineering training to enhance their holistic personal development. They should be trained to look for solutions methodically and weigh the pros and cons of each ideas to arrive at the optimal solution. This, will also nurture a habit of striving for the continuous improvement of existing practices through innovative ideas, and implementing them effectively to achieve better solutions in an ever-evolving world. Such skills will certainly make a young person a more competent adult in whatever profession or role he or she chooses as a career.

“Design for Safety” for the betterment of mankind
Some say engineers save more lives than medics. If you think about what happened in the last century, for instance, many people died for lack of clean water. This and many other daily necessities are put right by engineers. From the Towngas perspective, the public relies on gas engineers and trusts them in delivering gas to every household in a safe and reliable fashion. By practicing “Design for Safety”, gas engineers eliminate risks at the design stage, thus helping to mitigate or even eliminate risks from the outset.

International recognition
Another important point is the need for international qualifications and recognition for competent engineers in mainland China. Take the gas industry as an example. Thus has grown rapidly in China in recent years, and will certainly continue to develop for decades to come. This opens up great opportunities for gas engineers here in Hong Kong, including those who have just started their careers in the industry. Young engineers in Hong Kong who have gone through structured training such as the Graduate Scheme “A” Training of the HKIE have the opportunity to learn from global best practices. Young engineers with exposure to the mainland culture are valuable assets to the gas market in China. Undoubtedly, such human capital exchanges will contribute to raising the competitiveness of the gas engineering workforce across the border.

Looking ahead, the engineering profession across all disciplines holds a very bright future for young engineers both in Hong Kong and in China for years to come. If I were younger and looking at my future career path, I would still choose to be an engineer.