I hope to give you some insight into real work engineering and manufacturing. Understanding the manufacturing life cycle is the first and most important concept to grasp. An under appreciated skill is to understand how your responsibilities and actions interweave into the rest of the team and company.

The better team members are aligned, the more effective the team is as a whole. Working hands on side by side with technicians, developing hardware & software solutions with other engineers, and presenting challenges & plans to upper management is a unique quality that will set you a part from others. See some of them listed in the diagram to the left.