Types of Engineers in Malaysia

For those engineering students about to graduate, have you ever wondered what type of Engineers are there and which role suits you the most and you want to apply once you enter the working world?

Here are some examples that comes in mind. 

(*This might apply to civil engineering, electrical & mechanical, not sure about chemical, computer, IT, aerospace engineering etc.)

To make it general and easier to understand, let’s take an example of a project of 'Building a house.'


*p/s: This should be read with a pinch of salt.😼

What your Job title is	What you actually are
Project Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Monitor the project schedule, when the house is going to be build, when the item to build the house should arrive, 2.      Chase design engineers for design/drawings to submit to customers, 3.      Entertain customers when they come for meetings,       Record minutes of meeting of the said meeting,       Order food for that particular meeting. 4.      Keep track on the financial aspect of the project – if customer pays RM100K for the house, best to make the cost of building the house way lesser, better if can squish more money from customer for variation orders, means if the customer wants to add more windows, charge more!        Heck if they want to add another screws, charge more!! Basically you MANAGE stuffs.
QA/QC Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Check on item needed to build a house,         eg. check if the door knobs working, the plug points OK, if they’re not, send back to customer for replacement/refund etc. 2.      Also check on what other people is doing. Check whether the brick man’s laying enough brick, the wiremen wire stuff correctly and the measurement of the house is correct according to drawing, and if they’re not right, ask them to do it correctly. 3.      If all of these quality are not satisfactory, conduct a comprehensive meeting asking why they are not meeting the quality standard, and dig deep until everyone admit their mistake. 4.      Do yearly audit. Basically HATED by many.
Design Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Design (or rather draw - not much of designing new stuffs, most of the time copying previos project’s design/drawings) of the house layout, house foundation, house wiring and other drawings. 2.      If the house design is new, they should study new solutions and come out with new design.        Should know product specs and all the international/local regulations and design standards. 3.      Prepare list of material needed to buy the house, how many kilos of cement, how many tonnes of brick, how much tiles, lighting equipment, to, cosmetics stuffs like house furniture, paint for the whole house, to spare stuffs, spare fans, spare air-cond, spare awnings etc.        If they overbuy or wrongly bought and item, QC will audit the hell out of them. PM will make noise of how they mess with the project’s budget. 4.      Although they design the built of the house, they might not know how to repair/service the house themselves. Unless they’ve been to training. Perfect in Excel skills, and other softwares, because, they sit in front of the computer like 70% of their time. Basically a glorified draughter, Also the scapegoat.
Service Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Service a house that already been occupied if there are problems, or needing to install new equipment or upgrade all equipment. 2.      THE person who do hands on and servicing on the item that designed by design engineer, checked by the QCs and managed by the PM. 3.      Knows all the technical thing about the house way better than the engineers who design it. Basically the MAIN man, if there’s a miscalculation somewhere, they die first.
Testing Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Do testing after the house is built, whether the lights working, the faucets functioning, doors not squeaking, toilet bowl’s flushing etc, before testing it again with customer and ready to live in. 2.      Might have same level of knowledge as service engineer, since they do hands on. 3.      But didn’t involve in repairing the house, after they are completed. Basically testers (internal). Risk of dying not as high as the service engineer.
Product Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Have a detail knowledge about a specific product. Eg. Product engineer for toilet stuffs will know detail spec on wash basin, bath tub, shower head, toilet bowl etc. 2.      Do marketing for all these products, training to customers, new product launch, etc. 3.      Answer customer queries on those products. 4.      Develop product catalogs 5.      Carry those heavy catalogs to marketing events. Basically a Cuckoo/Coway/Avon promoter.
Sales Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Sell windows, doors, toilet bowls, kitchen cabinet, whatever stuffs that makes a house. 2.      Persuade(force/blackmail) clients to build their house with you. 3.      Know some technical specs of the products just enough to sell them. 4.      Have great negotiation skills. 5.    $$$$$ oriented 6. Probably also the MAIN man, because if he didn't get a job, everybody else won't have a job. Basically a Car salesmen, a prince charming and TALKS A LOT.
Draughter	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Help engineers draw stuffs. 2.      Have mad AutoCAD skills, can finish a drawing 3 times faster than engineers.
Interns	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Print stuffs 2.      Google stuffs 3.      Make a report of how they print stuffs and google stuffs. Basically office boy/girl.
Engineering Students	Basically babies. NOT AN ENGINEER IN ANY WAY OR FORM.