At this time, you cannot be an engineer simply because you have not had enough training.
So you train yourself by reading all kinds of trade magazines, that way you learn the most common words and phrases used by engineers. But each branch of engineering has even more words, so it's constant learning !
===== School :
It takes several years to gain the mathematical competence first, and you do that in high school and in college.
The best engineers have a lot of hands-on experience. That means you get things that are broken or don't work, take them apart. You look at how they are put together, the shapes of the parts, and try to figure out what does what. As the thing does not work, don't worry about making it work, and don't worry about breaking any part while disassembling the thing. There are plenty of things being thrown in the trash everywhere, the supply is endless.
When you take things apart, you are training your brain to see the three-dimensional complexities of the device. Our world is a three-spatial-dimension world, and the time dimension is involved when things move.
Electricity and electronics are different from most mechanical devices, the "reality" of electricity is hidden from obvious view, and that is why your cousin is having so much of a challenge learning. Everything in his junior and senior classes in electrical engineering is mathematical, and the laboratories give very few and limited ways to visualize the results of those calculations. He figures that if the course work is difficult for him, that it must be equally or more difficult for you. But he forgets that not everyone wants to be an electrical engineer.
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It is very satisfying to make something that isn't working, to work again. So you try to puzzle things out.
I suggest you look at the print magazine SERVO. It's a magazine for people whose hobby is robots and mechatronics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SERVO_Magaz...
SERVO Magazine
Website :
http://www.servomagazine.com/
Whether engineering or physics, it is not about being smart, it is about how hard you are willing to work at something that you have talent.
By the way there is a shortage of well trained engineers in developed countries. Any company or group, if they are any good and look to the future cannot ignore any talent pool if they want to grow and succeed. Also, there are companies where a third of the engineers and the chief engineer is a female.
Do not be put off by negative comments, show them what you can do. In the end any top notch employer is looking for hard workers willing to pitch in to get the job done.
Can girls be physicists? Absolutely.
My sister is a physicist. While their are fewer women in physics than in some other jobs (slowly changing) you shouldn't be worried about that. Or you could go with mechanical engineering.
Unfortunately the way the world is now you will likely face sexual discrimination in any job. Train for and do the job that you love. Be great at it. Stand up for yourself, and seek out others who will help you. I think you will find there is an entire community of female engineers out there.
Go become a Mechanical Engineer, do cybernetics work. If you let a few sexist people stand in your way you will never achieve anything.
Engineering is hard, but physics is MUCH harder. Only do physics if you are really, really good at mathematics. Why are you not taking Further Mathematics at A level? Isn't this equired by your prospective university?
You can certainly be an engineer, the key is that you have to enjoy engineering. What kind of gadgets and so forth have you built? Engineering does not need smarts so much as enthusiasm. Design and build a couple of circuits! If you don't want to construct them, at least simulate them on SPICE.
You have the grades, the guts and the determination, you can do whatever you want.
I am going to do my A levels and I love science so the subjects I chose are Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and English. BUT.. There are certain circumstances that lead me to be still undecided about my future.
Like I said before I do want to pursue a career in science because I love technology, gadgets and all that. I really wanted to be a mechatronic engineer or work in any cybernetics field and yeah physics is my favourite but.. There are so few women in engineering and I read stories that their being looked down, called names and discriminated.. And I have a cousin who is a very good student even more than I am and he is doing electrical electronics engineering and he said I won't be ever able to do it and it is really hard. He told me, I am not that smart enough to do any sort of engineering...
So my next alternative is physicist. And after reading all the description I think it is fun and really interesting. But are there more women in the physicist proffesion than in engineering? Is it the same with discrimintation just like the engineering industry?
