Jamie Raught

CprE 494

10/18/19

General Education Reflection

Although the engineering specific classes in our curriculum are critical to our future careers in

engineering, in some ways the general education classes we take are just as important. While we

gain the technical knowledge and problem solving skills in our major courses, we get a much

broader perspective for our careers from the general education courses.

During the first few years of engineering courses, the focus was definitely on problem solving. It

isn’t until later in the program or during work experience that you start applying your knowledge

to real world problems. Housing and Consumer Issues helped make me more aware of the

problems that consumers can face with a wide variety of products in the marketplace. Many of

the scenarios we studied in that course could have been very different if the engineers involved

in creating the products had kept the consumers in mind throughout their work. Having gained

this perspective, I know I will do my best to keep the bigger picture in mind for the work I do in

my engineering career.

Another general education course that contained relevant material for me was surprisingly

microeconomics. This class taught me the basics of supply and demand, resource allocation, and

opportunity costs. Out of these main lessons, I think that the concept of opportunity costs has

been the most widely applicable to my career decisions so far. I have learned to take into

consideration the potential of an opportunity, instead of just the present value. An example of
this is thinking about the opportunities for growth or promotion at a job, instead of just the

starting salary.

Every engineering project has some form of requirements, design, development, testing, and

documentation. While some of these aspects are a lot less fun than others, they are all extremely

important to the successful execution of a project. This is a subtle theme I noticed in Music

Appreciation. We learned to look at compositions as a whole, and as individual components such

as theme and melody. A lot of times, a melody can overshadow some of the other elements in a

piece of music, but it wouldn’t be the same music without the other elements. In the same way,

design and development work can take the lead in an engineering project, but that project will

not be successfully completed without proper requirements, testing, and documentation.

Diversity is another major consideration in engineering. The best engineering teams consist of

members with diverse skill sets and backgrounds, which allow them to solve any number of

problems as they present themselves. My course in World Religion explored a variety of

different religions and cultures throughout the globe, and gave me a better appreciation and

understanding for the cultural diversity of my peers and colleagues.

Engineering is about more than just problem solving. There are stories behind the problems to be

solved, and more things to keep in mind during the process than just formulas and technical

knowledge. Understanding the importance of different roles on a team, and appreciating the

unique experience and perspective each of your teammates has, are equally critical to a

successful career in engineering.