Career Road Block

[purplemonkey]

Friends,

Currently I have been working for an employer (who will remain nameless) in the manufacturing industry for the past 2 years. As a mechanical graduate, I was delighted to score the job, although very low paying, due to the fact that it would give me significant design experience.

As time has progressed however I have realized this career choice has been more of a hindrance than a blessing. My work consists of the following:

1) Sheet metal design & layouts
2) Turn-around drawings
3) Drafting and detailing drawings
4) Simple cost analysis

There is no analytical spectrum to the job and no concern given with strength of materials, analysis of the designs or even the opportunity to conduct any analysis with any sort of guidance from senior engineers.

The job is very much suited for a college graduate as opposed to an engineering graduate, and I feel as if I had more technical knowledge coming out of university than I currently possess now.

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One benefit of the job however is that education is funded. This of course is another road block however (this time by my own doing). In university my marks dropped drastically in second year, and while I worked my butt off to pull them up in third and fourth years, my cumulative average was a C+, with a my last two year averages being B- and B respectively. Pursuing a masters degree seems impossible now since my academics are less than stellar.

----

It seems like getting out of my current job as fast as possible is the only way to make a positive step in my career and get into a company that can provide me with solid engineering experience. The trouble is that after being with this company for two and a half years, I have very little "actual engineering experience" to show for it. Getting an interview is difficult and when interviews do come, the common notion of my lack of experience with analysis of any sort is apparent.

I am not one to lie and say I know something I do not. I refuse to claim or take credit for work I have not done myself and I feel like I am truly at a career road block.

Either I stay at my current company till I get my P.Eng and hope at that time things will change, or I find another job (although the later is proving to be very difficult).

Any advice from fellow engineers would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Truly Frustrated

 

[ajack1]

Sorry jmw but you are wrong there the company does have something to lose.

The OP has already stated that he has done work in his own time and submitted it to his boss, who was not interested. If he had of been it would have involved either reviewing it himself and giving feed back or giving it to another engineer to do the same, this would cost the company time and money, so they would lose.

It could always be argued that the short term loss would be outweighed by the long term gain, but that always has to be balanced against other variables.

Bigtomhanks is spot on when he says “Your employment is based on a condition that you will perform work that the company chooses that you do to earn a profit, not based on what you want to do based on your personal interest.”

All any employee can do is convince those who make the decisions that they are hard working, diligent and the right person to push forward, or of course they have the option of leaving.

 

[jmw]

Point taken, but maybe worth a try?

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[KENAT]

Why does the boss have to explicitly assign you this work that you intend to do on your own time?

Why not pick up on that conversation over the water cooler about 'modifying XY widget like this might be really good but I don't think we have anyone to look at it/it's not a priority' or similar?

I've done it, though I have to warn you that it doesn't always work out.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[purplemonkey]

The issue lays in the fact that conversations like that do not happen over the water cooler or are not "over heard" so readily.

Further more, a suggestion that is over-heard and may be implemented in design often has a lot of other facets of the design and constraints of that design not explicitly stated during an informal conversation. It would be difficult to pick up work by ear shot and present ideas when your opinion is not asked for (this is especially true in my company).

I've decided to go through past EAR's (Engineering Analysis Reports) that are filed on our system. The engineers who wrote them have calculations that can be followed and I figure if I take home even a couple a week and review, then I will start learning some of the issues that were solved in the past and how those problems were analyzed and attacked successfully.

The reality is that I have a lot of ambition but not a lot of experience and I do have to buckle down no matter how tedious the remedial tasks are and just do them. At the very least, when it comes time for my formal evaluation, I will have gained some credibility to my name and have some sort of arguments as to why I should be given a chance to do more.

 

[KENAT]

Sounds like a reasonable first start.

At some point though, doing something directly productive on your own initiative may be beneficial - or of course if you have missed some critical constraints etc. like you imply above could backfire.

That's why I said it doesn't always work out - for instance my Papier-mâché nose cone for a certain expendable piece of military kit never caught on, despite my home made mock up.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[lacajun]

I worked with a non-degreed engineer the first several years of my career. He was a great guy! He always did his best and the company rewarded him for it.

I worked with a non-degreed maintenance hand that hadn't worked towards anything but a medical retirement in years and years and years. He was severely obese and tried to pawn his work off on anyone he could. He almost messed up a couple of my jobs horribly, which I didn't appreciate.

Management did nothing with him and knew his goal, i.e., medical retirement. I talked to him to let him know what he'd almost done to my projects and what my expectations were. In that discussion, I learned he'd essentially Retired In Place because he felt the company had overlooked, shafted, and abused him for not promoting him to an engineering position. He felt he had the requisite knowledge, ability, and drive for it. He had the first two and lacked the third one, obviously.

I believe that is what management saw as the defining difference between the two men. We all make agreements with employers to give them an honest day's work in exchange for their money and benefits. The agreement goes no further than that.

I am not accusing you of having no drive. I'm warning you to not come across that way to your supervisors and peers. They are looking and they do notice. Give them an honest day's work in exchange for their money and benefits.

Most engineers have a lot to learn about how a company operates, engineering, business practices, standards, etc. upon graduation.

Keep up the attitude and be your best each day. You'll feel better about yourself!

 

[purplemonkey]

KENAT - Thank you for the advice. I think there is opportunity yet for me to create my own work (even if it is on my own time). At this stage though, I don't feel very confident in my technical competence. While graduating from Mechanical Engineering has given me the fundamentals, I feel like I've lost a lot of that which I am now trying to desperately regain.

Lacajun - You are absolutely correct in your view point and I will be the first to say that I have already fallen into the "second" individuals category.

The issue was that I started with such a low pay grade that hardly justified the title and job I was doing and I was never bumped up to an appropriate pay grade when I was given actual design work. When I did get my promotion to Designer 2, it was as if my increase was given just keep me going in the job rather than being a valid reward for my efforts. The company is structured such that Engineering seems to be on a much lower (or tighter) pay grade than the rest of the departments housed within.

The salary combined with the lack of exciting work has really had its toll on my moral (and I think a lot of others within engineering as well).

I am however trying to change my attitude and give my best every day ever since starting this thread. It just seems like it is incredibly hard to stay optimistic and as a result, focused, under these working environments.

 

[lacajun]

I hear you. I worked for a company that didn't pay its engineers as much as others. It was one reason I left. My attitude suffered, too, and manifested itself with blunt statements about what I saw going on. I still produced but my attitude was in the toilet for a lot of reasons. It was time for me to leave. You'll know when you reach that point.

 

[MikeHalloran]

>>>You'll know when you reach that point. <<<

Your spouse will know first, just based on how bad your behavior is with him or her, before you are conscious that there is an issue.






Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[lacajun]

Mike, that sounds like the voice of experience. I don't have a spouse so I was probably late in knowing.