Class Reflection: Week 5

On week 5, our class discussed the topic of engineering in the professional setting and the natural tension that can arise in the field. For example, who or to what does engineering serve? Unlike doctors who serve health or lawyers who serve those seeking justice. Another tension we discussed was the tension between engineering and business. It appears that about 60% of engineers transfer into a managerial role. I found this to be very interesting because I am not sure how prepared engineers are for this task, based on the required education curricula. It seems to me that this is another reason why the education curricula needs to include business courses, especially on how to manage people.

The class later discussed professional societies, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), National Society of Professional Engineers, and the Society of Human Resources Management.

We compared the code of ethics for the societies mentioned above. For instance the code of ethics for NSPE was very detailed about their rules along with high standards compared to the other two societies. The code of ethics for IEEE was very brief- almost can consider these to be 10 suggestions. Finally, SHRM's code of ethics included a language that was more in tune to the inside to the organization and seperated their core principles by sections, although it did not do a well job at defining them. I think it was very interesting examining these societies and learning more about SHRM because this was something that I was not exposed to in my time at the School of Labor and Employment Relations. I also think it was a good opportunity for my class to examine the societies of engineering because this encourage them to learn about other societies that are in line with their future employers, thus helping them to understand who they are serving.