Enhancing communication skills is essential for successful engineering careers.

A former university classmate and I recently met a tutor from my old college who made a passing comment along the lines of “of course, being an engineer, I never did well in English class.” My friend and I looked at each other and confessed we had both really enjoyed English as a subject and had done well at it. But, we had both known we would also really enjoy engineering as a career, so we rejected suggestions to study law, business management, or philosophy in favor of something far more satisfying and rewarding.

The stereotype that engineers can be geniuses with mechanical structures or electrical systems but are unable to convey ideas to others is all too common. At one level it is a piece of harmless fun, like saying that lawyers are shysters or accountants are dull, but if it seeps into the consciousness of the general public, or even worse, of the engineers themselves, it can be hugely damaging. The damage is done to the individual, whose career options can be limited by this belief, to the profession as a whole—often overlooked and not consulted on matters of national importance where they could make a valuable contribution— and ultimately to society at large.

I have found throughout my career that engineering is only partly about the number-crunching, metal-bashing, or grease-spreading that defines the stereotypical public image. Much more of my time is spent communicating with people, a common trait in all the heroes of refrigeration I have written about in this column. Thomas Midgley (May 2014), Lord Kelvin (June 2015), Milt Garland (Jan. 2016), and William Rankine (Dec. 2016) were experts at gathering information through chatting with people from all walks of life, listening carefully, and assimilating it with their other observations and prior conclusions. Then, having done the numbers thing, they were skilled at conveying their findings to colleagues, senior managers, possible customers, and the general public. In this process of gathering data, manipulating it, and then selling the conclusions, someone who struggles to communicate will not get off first base.

However, the world has changed in recent years. Communication is said to be easier than ever before, and a carefully chosen phrase or sound bite can flash across the world in minutes if it is launched in the correct way. This has several consequences, for better and for worse. Everybody has the capability to be a global communicator. This is a great opportunity, but it leads to major problem. More communication does not equal better communication. Particularly now, in the era of fake news and alternative facts, it is necessary to be much more discerning in the analysis of what we receive.

It has become much more difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, and when messages are distributed through the filter of broadcast media, equal weight and integrity can be granted to truth and fiction alike. Good engineering schools now offer classes in presentation skills, even in social media presence, but I have not yet come across an undergraduate class in discernment or a tutorial in listening skills. We are still left to figure these out for ourselves.

If I had to give one piece of advice to a school kid contemplating a career in engineering, it would be “read more.” Immerse yourself in literature and absorb the habits of good communication—the receiving and giving of information—in a way that emphasizes effective delivery of the message and confirmation that it has been received.