<p>When I first learned about engineering, it seemed like most engineers worked in groups. However, I have been reading posts that imply that engineers really don’t work together that often (if they work at all). What’s the right answer?</p>
<p>It heavily depends on which discipline of engineering and which type of company/lab/university you are referring to. Generally, engineers will be part of a larger group/team that they interface with regularly, but will have individualized tasks or duties to perform.</p>
<p>To echo gstein, it can vary a lot based on the specific job. Design jobs are primarily done on a computer, so while you may have a team and meetings, ultimately most of the actual work gets done by individuals working at their desk. Test and integration is almost entirely group work, as you need several people operating test equipment or the item under evaluation.</p>
<p>From personal experience, I had a job doing research on circulators where I might not really talk to anyone else in a given week, but I had another job doing optical system design and test that was almost entirely group work.</p>
<p>I’m a software engineer intern, but I can provide some input from my own experience.</p>
<p>There is definitely lot of collaboration between engineers through e-mail, meetings, and stopping by someone’s desk for a chat. However, the actual work you do is on your own - a component to a larger project, a small project, or a long-term large project.</p>
<p>In a sense you’re working with a group because of the communication between engineers on a common project, but not in the sense that everyone is in a computer lab or someone standing behind you as you program. I know a former engineer who worked in a small lab in a small group, but I’m guessing that’s rare. Most jobs are at cubicles.</p>
<p>When I was doing development work in a manufacturing setting I had a partner in another state doing the research portion and sending me samples to run through the system to see if they would fly or what he needed to tweak. We spoke almost daily for 2-3 years and never met.</p>
<p>At my internship, I work with other engineers in a group of 7. We each work on our specific piece but when we want clarification we ask for help. The project manager has a general knowledge of everything while each other engineer is specialized in a specific part of the project. Someone is always there to answer my questions.</p>