Question: how old do you have to be to do a job like this?

Sylvain Jamais answered on 9 Nov 2016:

So there are several routes into an engineering career, depends on your personality and preference.

The well known way is to go to Uni to get minimum a BEng and from there you can get a graduate engineer role. So all going well you’d start work around age 22-23, but I would recommend doing a year in industry as part of your degree, early in it if possible, it helps understand why you need to know what you get taught.

You can also stay at Uni to get an MEng, even get all the way to a doctorate PhD or EngD and enter the world of work as a post graduate engineer.

Another way into engineering that is less well known but that I would recommend if you’re more hands on than academic is to do an apprenticeship. You can study while you work at your own pace, learning practical skills that university won’t teach you. This way you can start working as a technician at 16 and work your way to become an engineer studying a day a week or something like this.

You should talk to your teachers, go to career fairs and find out which way is for you. There are also many flavours of engineering so a good chance to find one that fits your skills.