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What Being an Engineer Means to Me

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I’m fairly certain by now you’ve seen or read one of our many blog posts related to Intel’s efforts to promote engineering education. 2012 is shaping up to be a great year and interest in our specialty intern programs has been fantastic! Sometimes though, it takes a senior leader – dedicated to his role in engineering – to truly drive the message home and *hopefully* help us inspire future generations. One of our Intel executive vice presidents, general manager of the Intel Architecture Group and our chief product officer, Dadi Perlmutter, posted a personal blog to our internal Intel blogging platform recently that we thought was worth sharing with you, our readers. This is a man who has a LOT going on in his day to day, but felt a genuine need to sit back, and spend a few minutes talking/writing about his personal views on the profession of engineers. I felt personally inspired by his message, and hopefully you will too! Happy Reading!

Many people think that being an engineer is a profession. I do not agree. For me being an engineer is a personality, a character and an aspiration—not a profession or a university title.

Many years ago, the U.S. army had a slogan, “Join the army and see the world.” For me, the calling was to be an engineer and change the world.

Engineers are hugely curious to know how things work, are passionate to make things better, and aspire to create completely new things—things no one has even dreamed of, but will make a huge impact on people all over the world.

We are delighted to create something wonderful that makes an impact. I recently saw a movie in which an engineer describes proudly the countless hours he saved for humans by designing and building a bridge that shortened the way for millions of people.

Just think how many lives we at Intel have touched by creating the best transistors, which make the best computer chips, which run the best software, which makes the most wonderful computing experiences—from data centers to notebooks, to phones, to tablets.

We create things that connect people, help them be more productive and enjoy the best or most entertaining experience.

But the joy does not stop there. An engineer will enjoy the admiration of fellow engineers by explaining the details of how something really works.

If you are a non-engineer, you probably remember smiling when an engineering friend of yours elaborated on the nitty-gritty details on something that you thought didn’t matter. And if you are an engineer, perhaps you can relate with me when I reflect upon the countless times I bothered my kids by explaining to them how things work and the science behind it to help them bring their projects to life.

For me, being an engineer is a calling. That is why I chose to be an engineer, and why I still think myself as an engineer. It is about inventing great and practical things many people around us may take for granted. It is about the personal satisfaction of solving big, complex, audacious problems.

It is about remembering with pride the endless days and nights deliberating what to do, how to solve a problem, how to find a bug and fix it, how to get a product eventually to work flawlessly and sell in huge volume all over the world.

As an engineer, there is no better place than here at Intel when we have this great calling:

“This decade we will create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth.”


To learn more about Dadi, check out his bio. And look at our specialty intern programs to see if they'd be a good match for you!