Suppose you were trying to describe a "typical" engineer to someone. How would you characterize such a beast? Let's take this a little further – what stereotypical characteristics do you associated with different types of engineers?

In the real world, of course, engineers come in all shapes and sizes: short or tall, thin or handsomely built, long-haired or bald, shabby or well-dressed, male or female, and so on and so forth. Having said this, we all recognize Dilbert as being a stereotypical engineer, because we all tend to know someone just like him (you must have seen that video called The Knack ... but it's always worth seeing again, so I've added it to the end of this blog for your delectation and delight).

Anyway, for reasons that will become apparent in the fullness of time, I'm trying to piece together the salient characteristics we might all associate with different types of engineer. For example, suppose you were invited to a dinner party and – on the way there – you were told that there were going to be a bunch of engineers there. Let's say you were informed to expect an analog circuit designer, a PCB layout designer, an RF engineer, a DSP architect, an embedded software developer, and so forth.

What would you be looking for in each case? Something like the guy shown in the image to the left? Perhaps a pipe... a beard... a pocket protector... golfing pants...  a wooly pullover...  stooped shoulders... a nervous twitch?

Help me out here. I just started a discussion about this on my PCB Community. If you think of any characteristic(s) you associate with any particular type of engineer, can you bounce over there and add an entry to the discussion (of course you'll have to join the community first).

Below is a list of some of the different engineering disciplines/roles I can think of off the top of my head, but feel free to add more along with your thoughts as to the attributes and traits that distinguish them from the herd. (As I was composing this list, for example, I was chatting about it to a friend who said that he always visualized an RF designer with a pint of beer in his/her hand.) Actually, a picture is worth a thousand words, so if there's a photograph of someone on the Internet that you think has the "look" of a certain type of engineer, use http://bit.ly to generate a short URL pointing to that image/webpage and add it to your posting.

So here's my "starter list" of engineering disciplines/roles in alphabetical order: Analog Circuit Designer, Automotive Electronics Expert, Chip Designer, DSP Architect, Embedded Hardware Designer, ESL Guru, Embedded Software Developer, FPGA Designer, Industrial Control Engineer, Network Designer, PCB Layout Designer, Power Management Engineer, RF Designer, RTOS Developer, System Architect, Test and Measurement Engineer, Verification Expert, Video and Imaging Hero, Wireless Designer...

Meanwhile, while you're pondering this poser, here's the video I promised (if you've somehow managed to have missed seeing this before, you're in for a real treat):