Need to interview a Mechanical Engineer

[Sophie Carson]

I am a first-year Mechanical Engineering major at Cal Poly, and I need to interview a Mechanical Engineer for my Technical Writing class. If you have a few minutes and could answer these five questions, I would greatly appreciate it!

What are common genres in the field of mechanical engineering? Are some genres more important than others? If so, why? *(By genre, I mean a category of document with a shared format and purpose. i.e. memos, usability reports, etc.)

What kinds of communication skills are needed to be successful in the field?

What communication skills seem to be most challenging for people in the field? Do you know of any strategies to improve these communication skills?

How is the field of mechanical engineering changing? Are communication practices also changing?

What new trends in the field seem particularly exciting to you?​

Thank you in advance!

 

[berkeman]

Welcome to the PF, Sophie.

Unfortunately for your project, we do not allow interview-type threads at the PF. That is in the rules that you agreed to when you joined the PF. The reason is that many such threads ask for personal information, and are phishing attempts in disguise. Your thread start does not seem to be that on the face of it, but could turn into it if you PM'ed responders asking for verification of their degrees/qualifications.

Please feed this back to your instructor -- this should not be an assignment in their class. It is irresponsible, IMO, and so 10 years ago.

Instead, if you have questions about studying ME or applying for ME jobs, please free to post in our Academic Guidance or Career Guidance forums.

This thread is closed. Please send me a Private Message (PM) if you would like to discuss this further.