Anyone else fall into this trap? 11

[Lion06]

I have been at my company for almost 2 years. I have recently been given projects of my own to run. I do all the design and detailing, coordination with architect, etc.....
I used to be given specific tasks and have to design stuff -connections, flexible wind connecions, shearwalls, foundations, etc. I was very efficient and good at that. Now that I am being afforded more responsibility, I find myself not wanting to do all this extra leg work (read non-engineering work). I understand that coordination with architectural drawings and making sure my column baseplate will fit inside their wall is important, it just isn't as important to me. I know it is part of the job, it just doesn't seem like engineering to me and I really don't get enjoyment out of it.
While I am doing a good job and being relatively efficient, I'm definitely not as efficient as I was (or would like to be) when I was just doing design.
Has anyone else experienced this? How have you handled it? Do you have any advice to get me back on track?

 

[PEinc]

Engineering requires attention to details - all of the details. You can design the best base plate ever but if, in the field, it does not fit into the constructed space, someone will look like an idiot. If you've done your homework, that idiot will be someone else, not you.

 

[UcfSE]

I was there once too.

As I took on more responsibility, I found it challenging to work with the other disciplines and understand their problems and needs as well as mine and try to come to a solution that solves the problem instead of only my portion of it. That might mean making a base plate fit and work, instead of just work, or providing framing that works with mechanical duct requirements where an inch can make the difference instead of just throwing a beam in there. Look at it as a learning experience instead of drudgery, or as training to understanding what you're doing well enough to write/grade the test instead of take it.

 

[msquared48]

StructuralEIT:

Being in Washington, I assumed you had to pass your Civil PE test before you could take your Structural exam. If that is true, passing the Civil portion would still make you a PE, just not an SE. Or are things different where you live?

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[JKStruct]

StructuralEIT -

I've been following your correspondence on here for quite some time. Although I don't feel like I personally have the experience to state the following, I will anyway: I think you're probably wise beyond your years.

I'm not that far ahead of you, and I've had similar thoughts. I'm being given more and more responsibility with every job. We're a small office, and, to be honest, they need to me to step up to the plate. Actually, I love it, and I don't think it's necessarily a trap -- I think it's more of a right-of-passage.

CSD72 said it the best... it's easier to gain a sense of engineering accomplishment after you perform tasks handed down to you by someone who "laid the tracks." Say your office just hired a new engineer, fresh out of school. With your newly-found managerial responsibility, don't you feel like you could delegate some engineering work on your project to him/her? Would you have your new engineer help with some modeling tasks, diaphragm analysis, foundation design, etc? You might answer his questions, and sometimes redo some of the work just to make sure it's correct. That takes time. All the while, you spend more of the time on the phone with the architect. You're probably the one who has to respond to RFI's or attend VE meetings. It's not grinding out calculations... it feels less like structural engineering in the sense that you don't have a discrete problem that you can resolve through calcs. But it's something that you have grown into. It's a right of passage. Remember when you were that "new engineer?"

My boss who has 40 years experience once told me to "be prepared once get further into [my] career... only 20% of what we do is structural design (i.e. calculations, modeling, etc.), and the rest is absorbed by managerial tasks on the project.". It might seem like an exaggeration, but I think there's validity to the statement.

Perhaps ironically, the brunt of engineering design and calculation often falls onto the most inexperienced of engineers (under proper supervision, of course) -- it helps them grow the most, and leaves managerial tasks to those who have been around long enough to be able to handle those situations.

My $0.02.

 

[hokie66]

StructuralEIT,

I think it is all about challenging yourself to become more proficient at what you do. A structural engineer has to stay involved in all the "specific tasks", "designing stuff", etc. But perhaps the most important skill you can develop is to be a good concept designer. When you can take a project all the way through from seeing the architect's sketch plans, developing your own concept design, working through all the stages of project development, then participating in the construction stage, then you can truly call yourself an accomplished structural engineer, not just a designer. And the ability to manage a project in this manner doesn't mean you have to become "management" as such.

 

[rcooper]

It sounds like you are having trouble checking your own work. As you get more and more senior, you will have to check other people's work. When I was the design team leader for 12 engineers, and the person appointed by the company to check their work, I could spend a day checking a valve schedule against a pipe schedule and P&ID to make sure everything was going to fit correctly. There could be a thousand valves, and I wanted to be happy that every single one of them was going to be delivered correctly and not delay the construction.

I am not a structural engineer, but your concerns about the column base plate fitting in the architect's walls and not being interested in it is worrying. Engineering is about coming up with problems and incompatablities and finding solutions to these problems within your constraints. As long as you have a different set of constraints for each project, the work is fresh. Wanting to ignore the constraints is trying to get away from the creative side of engineering, and just being a number cruncher. I can't think of anything worse than being a number cruncher for my 45 years professional life.

 

[csd72]

rcooper makes a good point, you will eventually get sick of doing the calculations.

 

[Plasmech]

Being able to pass on the "busywork" torch along to someone else is something that I would think almost always takes a lot more than 2 years to happen, and often times it may never happen.

Are you 2 years out of the university?

-Plasmech

Mechanical Engineer, Plastics Industry

 

[Lion06]

mike-
I only have 2 years of experience, I need 2 more years to take the PE. Here in PA (Philadelphia), we don't need to take the Civil PE, we can take the Structural I. That is what I plan to take.

rcooper-
I don't have any problem checking my work. The biggest problem I have with all of the coordination is that you don't need to be an engineer to determine what size anything will fit in the wall. You just have to be an engineer to size it. That was just one example in a sea of things. Again, I am not complaining. I am just at a point where I do still enjoy doing calcs. I certainly don't want to do that forever, but right now I enjoy it. The whole point of the post was to find out if others have gone through a similar experience (which it seems like most have), and get some advice for people who have been there (which, again, I have).

Plasmech-
Correct, I am 2 years out of school (and currently in a grad program).

 

[msquared48]

I also agree with rcooper in that I find it hard to get motivated to do mundane calculations anymore. Gets to be like a dentist drilling teeth - boring.

I do like diversity.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[rtmote]

Engineering also teamwork. I have done all the jobs I've hated doing and thought it would define my life. I spent two years doing nothing but connection designs of wall plate brackets to seismic design.......I could sleep now for remembering...

Wake up!There is always a bigger picture.

I specialised for many years as foundation specialist for pumps, recips and turbines and also design of structures to explosions.

Now many years on, I don't do designs, I manage the team. As an engineer, you do drift out of specialism but you are armed with confidence, perception and the smarts. If don't want to manage people and projects then you have to make an extra effort to retain your technical blinkers. I wouldn't be able to recognise myself if I take myself ten years back.

Otherwise everything is another detail and a stepping stone in experience to something completely different.

Robert Mote

http://www.motagg.com

 

[PEinc]

StructuralEIT, where do you work and where are you doing your grad work? I'm in the Phila. area also.

 

[bf109g]

For what it's worth -

The first three months of my first job were spent issuing drawings, logging in/filing drawings as they returned from the shop and making blueprints. Then I was allowed to make drawing changes in addition to the other stuff. It was at least a year before I actually started designing new gizmos - on vellum. The only computer we had in engineering was a Sperry/Univac with the 5Mb platters. (Had a mouse get in there once - not pretty.) I felt the same way as StructuralEIT - all that sacrifice to get an engineering degree, for this?

My first job certainly taught me humility which I think has served me well in my career. You need to pay your dues in any field before you get to where you want to be.

 

[Lion06]

PEInc - If you have a more private way to contact you, I'll let you know. I'm not super keen about posting information about my employer or my university on here.

 

[PEinc]

StructuralEIT, check my last response to thread255-215262. The attachment has some info. Or, Google Peirce Engineering, Inc.

 

[PEinVA]

PEDARRIN2,
I wish all consultants thought like you. Most MEP firms could care less if a beam is in there way. They figure its made of steel or concrete, why wouldn't they be able to just cut it in the field? Oh, we can't just cut huge openings by columns in a conrete building, but come on this stuff is hard! No joke, serious comments from MEP firms.

If only the world of coordination worked as simply as you do it for your clients. Usually coordination falls to the SER because in the end, his stuff goes in first, and when other people's stuff doesn't fit, it is somehow his fault, regardless if the beam/column/wall,etc. is supporting the building.


StructuralEIT,
I'm in the same boat as you. I graduated in May 2006 and have been doing structural design for almost 2 years now. I find it such a struggle to look at every little detail and frustratingly un-detailed architectural section to confirm I've coordinated everything. I'm still amazed at my boss' ability to do this as relatively quickly as he does. I feel like it just sort of comes with experience, like many others have said before.

It is exciting to do this stuff, and actually get into the details. I think it is a welcome break from the often monotonous world of structural design.

That's how I see it down here in DC.

RC
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke

 

[Ron]

JAE's message is right on track.

I once worked for a large international firm in a relatively high technical position. Our CEO came to our branch office to give one of those corporate "pep talks" and stated that "technical people need to get with the administrative program, particularly the older ones who think they don't have to follow the rules. Technical people can easily be replaced". This was a firm that had, for many years, touted equivalent technical and management career paths. That was obviously changing at a rapid pace. Being one of those who greatly enjoys the technical challenges over management challenges, I opted to resign, since I disagreed vehemently with his premise and philosophy. I do not regret that decision in the least.

At this stage in your career, you need to experience a variety of exposures; whether technical, management, or client interaction. You might find that it is sometimes more challenging to solve a client's global engineering problem than it is to solve a technical problem in the confined scope of the analytical design.

Engineering is not always a numerical solution. It can take many forms and have many methods of solution. Your engineering education taught you not only the numerical problem solving techniques, but in the process you learned to think. Clients will pay dearly for that learned thought process, properly applied to solving their problems, with or without a numerical solution.