There is someone in my office who is pursuing licensure and has the necessary technical skills to be a good engineer. Where he falls short is in his ethics. He has a "Mafia Contractor" mentality and thinks that profit takes precedence over safe design. I hope that he doesn't ask me to give him a...
HVACctrl,
I've worked with quite a few people who didn't bother to try to share their knowledge. Most of them were otherwise good people but were trapped in jobs where the employer wanted every single project as well as every single employee's hours to show up on the weekly timesheet as a...
Sharing of problem solving information is not always known or recognized by company leadership. In such situations, those who spent the time to solve the problem look like they took more time to work on a project than those who reuse the information to work on similar projects at later dates...
My current employer was repeated hired by various clients to investigate potential building rennovation solutions. We would issue reports with our recommendations, paid for by the clients. The clients would continuously ask for more detail, so the reports would grow significantly. On many of...
I always wanted to be an engineer from my earliest days. And everything that I have experienced and what I see happening in the world of technology confirms that my choice of the Mechanical discipline was the right one. I do not and never have wished to be anything else.
A friend of mine was hiking on his weekend and happened to walk past the underneath of a railroad bridge. He glanced at the bridge and happened to notice some deterioration. Curiosity made him look a little bit more at it. He concluded from his observations that the bridge was in danger of...
bradpa77,
It is not only the engineering world that displays the traits that you described, it is the entire working world with every type of job included. Don't get too discouraged and learn to work within the boundaries that are available to you. Somehow, in spite of the defects in most work...
I would suggest that you take a look at the particular MS programs that the various schools offer. Some schools seem to be more theoretical while others seem to be less. Try to figure out which approach would be best for you should you decide to pursue the MS.
The managers aren't the ones at my workplace that get to go to all the dangerous parts of NYC like they send me to (unescorted). They get to sit at their desks in a comfortable office while I'm alone in a combat zone. Yes, their jobs are difficult, but they sometimes utilize WW2 Soviet Army...
I wish I had done it immediately after I got my B.S. Now its 22 years later and I work for an employer who will only contribute $1k/yr for it, only if they so desire. But there are also other methods of acquiring knowledge (courses & seminars from professional societies, etc.).
Most engineers in the USA are not consultants and therefore aren't required to have a PE. And, many of the PEs in the USA have licenses only as a credential. From a purely legal perspective, probable only 10% of USA engineers need to be licensed, rather than the 22% who are.
I don't think that we've lost anything due to computers or any other form of automation technology. The bad engineers will always be bad and the good engineers will always be good. Its not hard to tell one from the other and computers have nothing to do with this.
DaveViking,
I've been inside maximum security prisons several times while engaged in engineering work on behalf of my employer. After you've been inside for just a few hours, you won't think that crime pays. You'll probably cry on the way home like I did. And I'm not a liberal.
None of this should surprise anyone. Colleges in the USA are businesses first and educators second, if at all. Their goal is to maximize the number of students because this is how they make money. They do this by dumbing down the entry requirements and the curriculum. As a society, we've decided...