Personal Attributes
Am I the right sort of person?
Most of the qualities of a good engineer are present in all of us! Motivation is an important part of achieving success, so if you really do want to be an engineer, then you have a good chance of making the grade. To be an good engineer, you need to be good at (i) visualizing and conceptualizing; (ii) solving problems; (iii) describing problems and their solutions to others.
Engineers are naturally inquisitive and analytical; they look at things, are able to understand the purpose of various features and can see how they work together to provide a functional entity. For example, an engineer drives over a bridge in a car: during his/her time on or near the bridge, the engineer will decide what type of bridge it is (suspension, arch, etc), what it is made of (metal, brick, stone), how old it is, and observe any interesting features.
Engineers like to be able to take things apart to see how they work (or fix them if they don't work). Of course, during the early stages of learning, we don't always succeed in reassembling the item, much to the consternation of the neighbour or dear old grandma whose alarm clock is reduced to a bag of bits and pieces.
If you hear yourself thinking "I could make (a better) one of those" or "I know how that works" or "I know what's wrong with that", then you are an engineer by nature. The best engineers are always looking at their own (or others) work and thinking about how they could have done it better or cheaper.
Mathematics: some candidates may be alarmed to hear that we would like you to be good at maths. But we don't expect you to be a whiz kid, just average ability is sufficient. If you describe yourself as a person who hates maths, then you may have to struggle to keep up, and will definitely need to shine in some other area to compensate.
Optimal Solutions: every problem has a multitude of solutions, and it's the engineer's job to choose an optimal solution for each problem in the project. Usually the cost of each solution has to be compared with its benefits. For example, a bridge. The Romans liked to build bridges that were strong and lasted a long time, but what good is a bridge that is 2000 years old? Can it withstand 21st century traffic? Is it in the right place? If not, then the Romans wasted some of their time and money, by making their bridge last longer than it really needed to!