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Tnuctip posted:Becoming an engineer v0.1 So true, I'm just getting to step 3 now.
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Oct 10, 2017 03:18
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Hmmmmm I have a job and a degree but I don't know what I'm interested in.... So loving burnt out from dealing with 'petty poo poo' for the last 6 months. (Compared to my last job/project, my new one sucks. Responsibility without authority or however that saying goes.) I was talking to one of the recent college hires (early 20s) and they've really kind of let him fall by the way side. (Not giving him meaningful work.) I offered to try helping him but he seems content to be getting decent pay and good benefits without a whole lot of responsibility. (While it sounds good in theory I am more worried how this will impact his resume in the long run.) Oh well, offer refused, not my problem... better get that PE and I can finally get the gently caress out.... But where to live and work? That is the real question.... (Wherever you can find a job, really.) Then keep working while inflation chips away at your hard earned savings.... Buy a house, get your identify stolen, get married, have your wife divorce you, retire at age 70, fall down break your hip, wind up in some retirement home.... All important milestones... Senor P. fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Oct 10, 2017 |
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Oct 10, 2017 04:13
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Tnuctip posted:Becoming an engineer v0.1 I'm at 4: have 10 years of experience, and now wonder do I want to to the management thing or stay technical.
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Oct 10, 2017 12:50
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Senor P. posted:Hmmmmm I have a job and a degree but I don't know what I'm interested in.... I just got my PE this april, and i am in the process of moving to step 3. Funnily enough for a guy in metal casting, when i sat for the ME thermal fluids section there was not a single question about casting.  Dont give up! All of your bosses and managers will tell you "people in industry dont care about PEs", which is code for they dont want to pay you more. Moving industries is tough, but hopefully i can find something technical, not a flat career path, and wont think im broken because i was in casting. Sometimes i think ill find a unicorn first.
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Oct 10, 2017 16:49
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Agile Sumo posted:So true, I'm just getting to step 3 now. yeah about 5 years ago today I finally went from step 1 to step 2. God going from 1 to 2 was paaaaaainful. And 2 sucked for the first three years, but it's gotten better since. Now I feel like I can move to step 3, but getting my PE would be even better for that.
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Oct 10, 2017 18:07
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On your 5th year you should be on your third job or you're getting hosed salary-wise
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Oct 11, 2017 00:08
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osker posted:On your 5th year you should be on your third job or you're getting hosed salary-wise Probably. My issue was that I didn't learn useful skills until the past couple years, and now I'm refining them. Three years focused on the regulatory side of nuclear modifications...so incredibly useless.
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Oct 11, 2017 18:47
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Pander posted:Probably. That's the importance of the small vs large firms like someone mentioned. I work for a dumbass huge company and being a graduate coming into it must be soul crushing since you are essentially warehoused in a cubicle for 2 years and don't have much pressure or trial by fire
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Oct 11, 2017 19:38
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osker posted:pressure or trial by fire I work for a "small" company and was sent to a customer in another country less than a month after I was hired. Long story short, decision process to send me was: "Who's the least important person here?" I look up "Oh yeah, totalnewbie. Plus, it's his customer. That's perfect." I spent the entire trip saying exactly nothing and letting our quality engineer handle everything; he was much more qualified to deal with the issue, but they insisted an engineer had to be there, so I was there. In the end, it was fine and was an incredibly stupid thing for anyone to go there for, I see now. But at the time, it was terrifying.
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Oct 11, 2017 20:15
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osker posted:That's the importance of the small vs large firms like someone mentioned. I work for a dumbass huge company and being a graduate coming into it must be soul crushing since you are essentially warehoused in a cubicle for 2 years and don't have much pressure or trial by fire It was a small firm. They just had big clients.
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Oct 11, 2017 23:03
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totalnewbie posted:I spent the entire trip saying exactly nothing and letting our quality engineer handle everything; he was much more qualified to deal with the issue, but they insisted an engineer had to be there, so I was there. They generally want an engineer or other vendor representative so we can keep equipment warranties and do not run into issues. (A lot of vendor equipment has a wording typically saying something along the lines of any kind of maintenence not done in accordance with what is described by the vendor then The warranty or performance gurantee will be void. In some cases that can also include not using vendor personnel or vendor trained personnel will void the warranty.) For something like a compressor, this may make sense. But for things like a small centrifugal pump or a valve, the plant owner should be able to repair it with their own technicians and spare parts sourced from the vendor. Then again for other things ('R' stamp vessel repair, 'VR' stamp valve repair) they may not have the qualification and cannot do it and contact the OEM to make their life easier. Anyway, overseas work can be very hit or miss. Personally, I would like to do it again. If you can stay out of the country and do not have too many expenses back home you can make good money. If you don't make much and have to pay for your own room and board, it may not be worth it financially.
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Oct 12, 2017 04:32
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I'm not really that kind of engineer. It was only a 2-day trip and really amounted to us saying, repeatedly, that the customer shouldn't do the thing they were doing. And then demonstrating that the thing they were doing was actually causing the problem they were doing the thing as a countermeasure against in the first place. In the end, they stopped doing the thing and the problem stopped. Magical.
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Oct 12, 2017 14:35
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osker posted:That's the importance of the small vs large firms like someone mentioned. I work for a dumbass huge company and being a graduate coming into it must be soul crushing since you are essentially warehoused in a cubicle for 2 years and don't have much pressure or trial by fire See, my experience was the opposite. I started working for honeywell and they stuck me right into design work on a small block in a very big project. I executed that well and move onto owning larger and larger portions pretty quickly. Within a year I was flying to the customer and presenting material directly during reviews. I've had a pretty good go of it so far. The stuff I worked on as a fresh out has flown in space (uh, 7 years afterward). Only LEO but still much further out than the ISS.
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Oct 12, 2017 15:00
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Now I'm worried about my job prospects... anyone want to weigh in so I can get a second opinion on my career track so far? New Canadian civil engineer graduated 2016, working basically for the same company for 2.5 years now. (did a coop term with him for a year) and worried I might have stuck myself in a rut. My job title is bridge inspector, which has no design work just making sure that the contractors repairing or building a bridge do so in accordance with the design engineer's firm plans and provincial standards. Day to day no highly technical decisions, just interpreting drawings, specifications and making small field decisions like the order of operations so the contractor doesn't have to backtrack something. This does qualify for P.Eng experience so that's why I've been here so long and the company is basically my boss, a co worker, and me, with some coop students in the summer. Should I be trying to  or stick it out to get my P.Eng and do whatever?
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Oct 12, 2017 15:01
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Chillyrabbit posted:Now I'm worried about my job prospects... anyone want to weigh in so I can get a second opinion on my career track so far? So it sounds like 1) Your day to day job is more rooted in regulatory space than engineering space. 2) You have a path forward to a PE. 3) You kind of like your job? You never mentioned hating it anyway, which usually comes out if you do, so I'm gonna bet you at the very least don't get up each morning dreading your upcoming day. The question I'd have is "what do you want to do?" If you really wanted to design stuff, I'd say start putting out feelers for a new job. You'll have to start somewhere when it comes to design. Even with a PE, if you've had no real world experience designing stuff you'll be playing catch up if you want to enter that realm. If you're okay with what you're doing right now, there should still be a lot of avenues for advancement that don't necessitate design experience. I don't really see the need to change things up if you enjoy your work and keep your technical skills reasonably honed (reading/interpreting/marking up drawings, doing the math as needed to verify calcs, etc). Maybe I'm a bit of a "no news is good news" kind of guy, but my belief is that if you feel you're adequately preparing for the PE and don't mind your job, you're doing alright. 2.5 years is familiarization, 5-10 years is a rut.
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Oct 12, 2017 16:58
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Pander posted:So it sounds like Thanks for the objective look at my situation, its nice to get a 3rd party to see it and make sure I'm not being blinded by just having a job, and I guess my age shows when I think 2.5 years feels like forever. I'll probably put out some feelers for a different job , just to keep my job hunting skills up and if anything interesting pops up jump on it. But practically the only thing that I don't like about my current job is the variety of weird locations I go to. I do get extra pay for traveling but might be willing to trade that for a new job. I'm unfortunately just a serial worrier  so I worry a lot, but I think this gives me some comfort that all is not lost and I'm trapped forever. It's hard to gauge my situation when apparently I should have jumped companies like 3 times to get pay raises and promotions, since that's the wave of the future.
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Oct 12, 2017 22:59
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Chillyrabbit posted:But practically the only thing that I don't like about my current job is the variety of weird locations I go to. I do get extra pay for traveling but might be willing to trade that for a new job. quote:when apparently I should have jumped companies like 3 times to get pay raises and promotions, since that's the wave of the future.
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Oct 13, 2017 04:24
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paternity suitor fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Mar 15, 2021 |
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Oct 15, 2017 19:48
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Oodles posted:I'm at 4: have 10 years of experience, and now wonder do I want to to the management thing or stay technical. I’m there; I’ve been lucky enough to spend the past 10 years doing entirely design work. I have products and projects I’m responsible for technically, but the decision I’ve kept kicking down the road is finally rearing it’s head. Keep doing what I like, or get more pay, more advancement opportunities and less work by going the management route?
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Oct 15, 2017 21:02
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For me I just look around and ask myself if I would want to be any of the people who are managers. I've seen very happy engineers be turned into miserable people and for what? $20k more a year? Nah.
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Oct 15, 2017 22:45
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paternity suitor posted:For me I just look around and ask myself if I would want to be any of the people who are managers. I've seen very happy engineers be turned into miserable people and for what? $20k more a year? Nah. If you want to move up as technical director on large prestigious projects they usually like to see you have done a stint as line management so that you understand that side of the business. Being an individual contributor is fine but some people want to do more.
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Oct 16, 2017 00:29
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movax posted:I’m there; I’ve been lucky enough to spend the past 10 years doing entirely design work. I have products and projects I’m responsible for technically, but the decision I’ve kept kicking down the road is finally rearing it’s head. I just made the decision to go management after 9 years in a complete design role. I manage the the folks I used to work with...which has been interesting. I have 2 new hires which helps with the transition. I only had 1 level left on the engineering track and was getting a bit burnt out doing the same thing for 9 years (even though I was in charge of all the best projects). So I decided to try something new, make a little bit more money (although the top engineering level and the manager level start at about the same pay with manager topping a bit higher), and a bigger bonus potential (15% vs 10%). It has been good for me so far but mostly I am just trying to bank money and push closer to not having to really work, or go back to consulting only part time and remote. I feel pretty good with where I am at with my old age of 31. Hopefully it will keep moving in the right direction.
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Oct 16, 2017 02:37
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I’m trying to get a couple of chats with directors in my organisation to see how they got where they did. I’ve also been working with a career coach to find out what I enjoy about my current job. We’ve also done the Insights personality profile, and I’m a Green/Yellow Helper. So trying to figure out how to expand on what I enjoy. I’m quite fortunate in the role I’m in I get exposed to varied work, and senior people. So I need to As the career coach says “build my brand” which I can’t stand. I’m also trying to find suitable training courses which would help me develop. I’m ok on the technical front, but my commercial skills are lacking and I also need to work on my presentation skills. I’m ok with technical presentations, but need to work on presenting to management, being succinct.
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Oct 19, 2017 13:08
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So.... what's the best website for just general application of jobs? Looking around it seems like the ones I frequent, tend to forward you to the employer's website. (Where you're forced to make a profile, each and every time...) Is there an easier way to get back into Job Hunting?
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Oct 23, 2017 05:04
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Senor P. posted:So.... what's the best website for just general application of jobs? Indeed and LinkedIn both have contact through us methods but really you will mostly be stuck making profiles. Get autocomplete going and maybe a password generator to speed it up.
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Oct 24, 2017 02:40
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This is highly specific, but when I was looking at a particular city, I was led to a local job board that had a surprising number of engineering positions listed that was much better than Indeed or Monster. A lot of the jobs still led to employer's websites, but there was less spam to wade through. I'd look for a city specific site to see if it has anything to offer. (https://www.milwaukeejobs.com/ for, well, Milwaukee) Uthor fucked around with this message at 11:54 on Oct 24, 2017 |
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Oct 24, 2017 11:40
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Senor P. posted:So.... Be good enough at what you do that jobs hunt for you.
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Oct 24, 2017 14:12
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Uthor posted:This is highly specific, but when I was looking at a particular city, I was led to a local job board that had a surprising number of engineering positions listed that was much better than Indeed or Monster. A lot of the jobs still led to employer's websites, but there was less spam to wade through. I'd look for a city specific site to see if it has anything to offer. I found the same thing last time I was looking - for example https://siliconshire.org/ for the Eugene, OR area.
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Oct 24, 2017 17:25
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Noctone posted:Be good enough at what you do that jobs hunt for you. That's how I got my current job. Unfortunately, I worked for a tiny company in a small town, so the only places hunting me were in the same small location. I'd really like to move. 
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Oct 24, 2017 18:42
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Senor P. posted:So.... what's the best website for just general application of jobs? *cold sweat starts developing on suddenly-clammy skin* good luck.
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Oct 24, 2017 23:41
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I'm in my 2nd year of Mechanical Engineering. Most of our lecturers are terrible and make no sense. We're doing Fourier series and the guy teaching it is worthless. How hosed am I for my Engineering degree? Will I be able to pass if I just get the recommended book for this module and teach myself by studying it at the library religiously? Is it even possible to learn well enough from a book to understand this stuff? It's really stressful, because it absolutely ruins motivation to even turn up to these 2 hour lectures when I walk out feeling like the only thing I've gained is a tick on my attendance. Most of us are relying on Khan Academy to learn stuff like Laplace Transforms and Fourier, but it feels like an absolute joke that we need to resort to a free online resource because our paid-for lecturers aren't good at their jobs.
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Oct 26, 2017 09:44
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The best part of my uni degree was when I found the past papers from previous years in the library. I don’t think I gained much from lectures as I did from tutorials. You also sound keener than me, doing extra learning. I was to busy chasing girls, getting pissed and failing exams in 2nd Year.
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Oct 26, 2017 12:12
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Oodles posted:The best part of my uni degree was when I found the past papers from previous years in the library. I'm 25 and have repeated first year already, I don't have the luxury of chasing girls, cause if I gently caress up again, I'm out for good with a poo poo tonne of debt for nada that being said, I still chase girls when I can 
Qubee fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Oct 26, 2017 |
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Oct 26, 2017 12:15
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Go to your professor and say you need help. There absolutely is a grad student doing help sessions who will usually be happy to spend time with you if you are earnestly trying. I was lucky as I found a help session led by a retired physics professor who had nothing else to do but spend a hour explaining, again, how to do a calculation or solve a problem.
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Oct 26, 2017 13:22
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Murgos posted:Go to your professor and say you need help. There absolutely is a grad student doing help sessions who will usually be happy to spend time with you if you are earnestly trying. Yeah somebody there will give a poo poo enough to help if you're earnestly trying to learn. Having said that, in my line of work I've never used laplace/fourier transforms (mostly electrical, but also some mechancial/structural). If you think you might, learn it good. If not, just work your rear end off to pass the class and then you don't need to worry about it all that much.
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Oct 27, 2017 05:00
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Pander posted:Yeah somebody there will give a poo poo enough to help if you're earnestly trying to learn. This is the biggest thing that blows my mind about university. Once I graduate, how much of this poo poo will actually be used in day to day engineering? I feel like the entire point of this degree is just to prove to employers that I have what it takes to understand tough poo poo and work hard. Once I graduate, will the company I end up working for just teach me what they want me to do, or will I be sat in an office doing differential equations all day and working out stresses on a beam?
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Oct 27, 2017 05:21
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ime 70% of what you learn you can promptly forget about, 25% you need to at least remember the basic concept, and then only 5% do you both need to understand the concept and remember the details of how to apply it.
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Oct 27, 2017 05:49
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I used nothing that I learned in my graduate job in Oil. They wanted the ability problem solve and be logical and methodical in my approach. Whom I kidding, they just wanted someone who could copy and paste the last time we did this job.
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Oct 27, 2017 06:06
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Q8ee posted:This is the biggest thing that blows my mind about university. Once I graduate, how much of this poo poo will actually be used in day to day engineering? I feel like the entire point of this degree is just to prove to employers that I have what it takes to understand tough poo poo and work hard. Once I graduate, will the company I end up working for just teach me what they want me to do, or will I be sat in an office doing differential equations all day and working out stresses on a beam? Think of an engineering degree as learning how to learn, more than anything else. When you graduate, your employer will expect you to have some very cursory understanding of whatever it is you're doing, but you'll have to learn 95% on the job, and it will be nothing like school. Even if you were the best most autistic student of all time, and you actually learned everything in all of your classes, most of it doesn't apply to a real job anyway (thank god). If you like the labs, they're the closest thing to real engineering you're gonna get at school IMO. Here is a thing, it needs to do xyz, now sit down and make it or analyze it. Class is bullshit. No one is ever going to lecture at you about something for an hour at a real job.
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Oct 27, 2017 12:22
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Being able to self teach, Skill I learned as an undergrad while having professors, is also great later in life. I've picked up a ton of non engineering this way and transitioned to software engineer.
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Oct 27, 2017 13:26
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