We get occasional requests from people outside the IET who are interested in "becoming an Engineer" or making a move to engineering from a completely different sector.

My usual guidance is to have a look at the resources about what careers are available in engineering, links to schools or graduate resources and try to narrow down what they want to do or look through case studies of those in the industry.  If they know what inspired them in the first place, or have a particular field I also recommend they consider finding out more through the IET's factfiles, events and IET.tv.  And of course look through job descriptions for qualifications if they know more specifically what they want to do.  

I'm also honest that they are likely to need to retrain, unless they already have engineering or technical qualifications, and the level of this may depend on the type of work they want to do.

I also direct people here to ask their questions but appreciate that they might be overwhelmed to do so.  So I thought I would start with a generic post to see if our amazing engineers and technicians have any words of wisdom for how to break into engineering - and if you do, or if indeed you came from a different sector, then I would encourage you to share ideas on this thread to inspire others ...