Present with Confidence: Why Engineers Need Technical Communication Skills

You’re not an English student, a marketing expert, or a public relations professional; you’re an engineer. So why are technical communication skills necessary to advancing your career?

These skills are important because being a great engineer is more than just creating the best design, or developing the finest structures, machines, and manufacturing processes.

To truly be the most effective engineer possible, having the ability to effectively communicate your projects to a broad range of audiences is a necessity.

If you’re wondering how to ensure that you have the indispensable skills that are needed to impress any audience, Illinois Institute of Technology’s new executive certificate in Data, Information, and Technical Communication may be exactly what you’re looking for.

Designed for working professionals or graduate students who are looking to amplify their skill set and marketability, this certificate will ensure that you learn these skills and become more marketable across the wide range of highly competitive engineering fields.

Particularly in higher-level and managerial engineering positions, the sheer volume of writing is reason enough to prioritize technical communication skills. A 2008 study by Jon Leydens that was published in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication found that up-and-coming engineers spend roughly 30 percent of their workday writing, and that workload increases to between 70 percent and 95 percent for engineers in senior management.

Whether it’s conveying technical terms to non-engineers, resolving engineering issues, protecting the safety of your team, or ensuring effective collaboration, knowing what tools to use, how to structure a presentation with the proper data and visuals, and making sure any technical writing is both precise and concise are all crucial skills that are taught in the certificate program.

Worried about interrupting your academic or professional career? Worry not: the executive certificate is fully online and asynchronous to ensure that working professionals and graduate students can complete their education whenever it fits into their schedule.

In just nine months, you’ll have the skills necessary to make sure that your technical writing gets noticed for all the right reasons.

Interested in learning more? Check out Illinois Tech’s Data, Information, and Technical Communication certificate or sign up online.