Engineer lists.

Not long ago, the World Chemical Engineering Council conducted a survey where they tried to ascertain, "How does chemical engineering education meet the requirements of employment?"

It's a very interesting read, but is unusually heavy with graphs. The WCEC questionnaire consisted of 12 questions which dealt with general information, personal data and generic attributes of young engineers, who started their professional career no longer than five years ago. WCEC had 2,158 persons from 63 countries that participated. The group used results from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, U.S., Mexico, China and Australia for statistical relevance.

The one thing noticeable is that the results don't vary much from country to country. The two main questions dealt with skills and abilities with respect to the quality of education and its relevance to work and evaluation of the quality of teaching at the university.

The two attributes which are rated as more important during education than for employment are appreciation of the potential of research and the ability to apply knowledge of basic science. For work, their relevance ranks 21st and 14th, respectively, WCEC says. A glance at the five most important attributes for employment are ability to work effectively as a member of a team; ability to analyze information; ability to communicate effectively; ability to gather information; and self learning ability. You can see the lull survey at chemengworld.org.

Bosch Rexroth has set up its own list on its website. After surveying customers, they came up with the top 10 ways to i.d. an engineer. You know you're an engineer if ... (10) In college, you thought Spring Break was a type of metal fatigue. (9) At home, you rearrange the dishwasher to maximize dirty dish density. (8) You stare at an orange juice container because it says 'concentrate.' (7) You know the direction the water swirls when you flush and have used this information to extrapolate your GPS coordinates. (6) You own a software program to design the furniture layout in your house. (5) You've tried to repair a $5 radio, and used $20 worth of solder to do it. (4) You have no life and can prove it mathematically. (3) During Thanksgiving dinner, you find yourself calculating the load-bearing capacity of Aunt Martha's chair. (2) You spent more on your calculator than you did on your wedding ring. And the number I way you know you're an engineer is if you've already calculated how much money you make per second.

Let's do chemists next. Send submissions for: You know you're a chemist if ... to my e-mail: [e-mail]. We'll publish the best.