Engineering and Mechanical Skills

[Luke Skywalker]

I am very good [for my age] at math and science, but I've never been mechanically inclined. In fact, there have been instances where my un-handyness has been downright embarrassing, to the point where I don't want to talk about them here, lol. I certainly hope that this is just a result of my (gradually diminishing) absent mindedness, and not some severe handicap. I’ve gotten better at this recently, but I still find myself dumbfounded at classmates who can casually build circuits and catapults.

1. Would this hurt my prospects if I wanted to pursue an engineering career?
2. Does anybody have any tips on how to improve one’s “handiness”?

[Broomstick]

The more you work with your hands the more skillful they will become. Initially, it almost doesn't matter what you do, so long as you do it. Start with simple kits, easy to assemble objects, and so forth.

We all start clumsy. The "handy" people get to be handy by getting over the initial clumsiness while putting things together/fixing things/whatever.

[Gaidin]

As far as Number 1, any major engineering company, they have software simulations as well as their hardware tests.

[Lord Revan]

1. Would this hurt my prospects if I wanted to pursue an engineering career?
2. Does anybody have any tips on how to improve one’s “handiness”?

for 1 it really depends on what sub-set of engineering you're pursueing, the field I'm studing (poorly) atm doesn't need to that much "handiness" as others.
as for 2 do stuff, tinker and so forth

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

I can only talk about civil engineering, but in here it might diminish your prospects just slightly but not significantly enough to really be a big concern compared to other things, I think. Most of the people from my classes I know went into design/surveying/evaluation sort of work so the only tool really needed to be good with is a computer. However, construction companies (and probably others, but this is all I've seen personally) tend to have both hands-off and hands-on engineers who work in the thick of it with the crews, but the former outnumber the latter significantly and most of the latter come from Construction Management study, too, I think.

If you want to improve your hands-on skills and you have a summer free from internships or study, you might want to try getting a summer job on the hands-on end of your field. I'm not sure about job availability for most of the other sets of engineering or even most subsets of civil, but construction work tends to always need extra hands. If you can get it, it's pretty amazing how quickly going on the job with stuff forces you to learn how to do them even if you were completely hopeless before. If you can't get that, just try practicing on your own either by manuals or with the help of someone experienced.