Advice to Aspiring Engineers
I get a lot of messages from young and aspiring engineers, usually along the lines of ‘how did you get started?’ or ‘what books and resources will teach me this?’. Rather than rush out a two line response to each message, I sat down and wrote something a bit more detailed.
Firstly, there is no shortcut. Engineering is problem solving. If there was a quick way to learn engineering, it wouldn’t be problem solving any more. Developing your engineering skills, in my opinion, is 90% problem solving skills and 10% specific technical knowledge. Many will disagree with me, having spent their careers learning all of the specific technical details of their chosen field – but I guarantee the best of them built that knowledge through problem solving – not books.
Background
I built my engineering career by making things. I started out whilst at school, designing robots for Robot Wars (Battlebots in Imperial) competitions and TV shows. I didn’t read a book on how to do this, or take a course. What allowed me to develop my skills was having specific problems to solve.
For instance, trying to develop a pneumatic cylinder, for an application, forces you to research how it works, the formula to calculate power, hoop stress, flow rates, friction models etc. I’m sure there is a book out there that would teach you everything you need to know about pneumatic cylinders, but the critical thing I feel that approach misses is the practical understanding of how to apply the knowledge. Learning a formula from a book is not the same as understanding what the constituent values represent and how they interact.
Over the years of learning and developing more complex robotics and competing in various events, I was able to demonstrate my work. I was given the opportunity to support several people in that world, and quickly their referrals in developing all sorts of products and machines. That quickly turned into a short freelance career before I started a business to help companies develop and manufacture ideas. I ran that business for almost 15 years, through many ups and downs, both independently and later as part of a group.
For the last 10 years or so I have been keeping my hands busy and my head in the game working on motorsport projects both for me and for various teams and manufacturers. As exciting as running a business is, you have to leave the engineering to the engineering team and focus on your own responsibilities. The motorsport projects allowed me to keep the other part of my brain doing interesting things.
Nowadays, Motorsport is my full time gig. The work grew over the years, developing several engine packages sold to manufacturers and teams as well as chassis and suspension components, drivetrain systems and some heavy involvement in a few full vehicle programs. I work on the projects and with the clients I find most interesting.
Resources
As you may have guessed, I don’t have a go-to list of resources to recommend. I highly recommend, to those looking to develop their skills in an area, that you focus on finding a project to pursue that will force you to learn the subject. Starting with a blank page is always daunting, but breaking a project down and identifying the problems to be solved will force you to find and really understand your own resources. You’re not confined to one author or data structure. You may find throughout a project you learn from hundreds of sources each specialised to the problem at hand. On the other side of a project like that, your practical understanding of the knowledge will far surpass weeks spent reading without relevant practical application.
Choosing a project is up to you. I can recommend ensuring it is interesting enough to you personally that you can see it through – don’t focus on what employers or the internet wants to see. There’s nothing wrong with taking on a big project, but break it up. If you want to jump straight into designing a full race car or engine I’m not going to say don’t do it. However, remember that a race car is made up of at least 5-10,000 components and a motorsport engine can quickly make up 1-2,000 of those. A project too big becomes daunting and gets stuck. Break it down, start with a keystone component or a part that interests you and build it up from there.
Personal opinion. Many people smarter than me will be able to read 5 books and truly understand the concepts, without the need to apply and experiment with them. I don’t do so well learning that way, and frankly - having interviewed hundreds of well-educated engineers and hired a fair few of them over the years; those with the fanciest degrees and expensive educations weren’t always the ones who had the best understanding of their subjects or how to apply them. I’ll clarify, this is not a slight on the top class engineering education available, nor those who have achieved great academic success – more a highlight of the power of hobbies and those engineers who apply their knowledge and advance their learning by experimenting in real life regardless of their education.
What I do is a very broad approach to engineering. I develop full systems, crossing what would sit over a much larger number of desks, within a manufacturer. I enjoy that approach to engineering. I like to have control of the wider system and often call on specialists to contribute very specific knowledge and/or detail where required. This is different to the expectation of an engineer in a larger manufacturer, where you may focus on a very specific area, system or even component, for your time within the business. An important part of developing your skills is deciding which approach/world suits you best and focussing you efforts accordingly.
That being said, I will mention a few excellent places to explore for knowledge and will happily add your recommendations to these:
Racecar Engineering Magazine – a real life old school printed magazine (I believe also available as a digital subscription, but I like the smell of a real magazine!) – fantastic highlight on current developments across all forms of motorsport. Real detailed journalism including technical features and equations in many places.
Race Engine Technology Magazine – Another real magazine full of real technical journalism covering power unit development across all forms of motorsport. Again including technical deep dives on specific systems, manufacturing methods, control strategies and a fair few formulas here too.
HPAcademy.com – If you’re going to invest in some resources to develop your motorsport knowledge, the courses from HP Academy are excellent. I first learnt to develop fully sealed and concentric twisted motorsport wiring harnesses with a HPA course 5 or so years ago.
Tuned In Podcast – Available on Spotify and all the usual podcast places. Presented by Andre and the team from HP Academy, they interview many of the great motorsport and automotive engineers. Andre’s questions are always super technical (He caught me out a fair few times!) and the conversations get into a depth that you can really learn something from.
RacingAspirations.com – If you’re trying to get your head around basic suspension mechanics the Racing Aspirations articles and calculators are a great place to start. I’ve recommended this to a lot of Formula Student teams and track day builders over the years.
CAD & Renders – I’m sure there are lots of great resources out there, but nothing will beat time. I have been working near daily in Solidworks for 20 years (Well in excess of 20,000 hours and maybe nearing 30,000) and I still find a new button or way of doing things every week. The trick to good CAD is detail, both from an engineering usability and a visually impressive approach.
Hiring and Internships
Am I hiring, do I offer internships, am I looking for an apprentice?
In short, no. When I moved into motorsport full time, I made a commitment to focus on the engineering and the work which I enjoy most, rather than building another big business. As a result, I have a lot on and I am not able to provide the time and attention to provide real value to an intern/apprentice etc.
To those asking how to break into the industry, I doubt there is a boilerplate approach that works. I certainly haven’t ever done anything conventionally!
The one thing common throughout my career and whenever I have hired engineers, has been expressing (and looking for) passion. Show off your work where you can, explain why and how you worked on projects, demonstrate why this is what you want to do. CVs get a lot less attention than you might think, find a way to make your application catch attention.
Support, Questions and Answers
I hope that’s helpful. I’m happy to answer questions on Instagram and by email where I can and will update this page with anything interesting asked/answered.