Definition of Senior Mechanical Engineer 12

[Azzazil]

Hello all,

recently, my company promoted couple of engineers to senior mechanical engineer positions.

I am working in the automotive industry for a small volume car manufacturer, and the people who got this promotions are like in company for 3 years, so this is first time in their life they got some real automotive experience since they didn't have any from previous companies they used to work (overall they have 6-7 years of experience but in different companies that were not related to automotive). I also had oportunity to check their work and I wouldn't say that they can be considered as seniors since I saw bad drawings without tolerances and proper annotated dimensions. What I noticed is also that plenty of my colleagues want to become senior engineers even if they don't have experience that would justify their job title, in hope that senior title will give them higher salary when they move to anoter company. What is happening here is that engineers are not maturing well and they are promoted to positions which they are not up to it, and I can just see after their work bad documentation and bad products.
Can this be effect of young gennerations like Millenials which are considered as generations that want fast advancing and consider that they don't hive time to spend in industry more than 10 years to become senior engineer?

In my opinion senior should be somebody who have at least 10 years of experience just in one industry, like automotive, aerospace, production, etc., that is capable to do his task on his own, and that is capable to share his knowlege and guide juniors in supporting thier tasks.

My question here is what do you think, what experience and knowledge is necessary for someone to become a senior mechanical engineer?

 

[Jboggs]

"I have met many who have been doing one thing poorly for 40+ years and others who had more experience after 2-3 years."
A friend told me about an interview he had. As the owner reviewed his resume my friend commented that he had 20 years experience. The owner said, "Well, to me it looks like you had one year's experience twenty times."

 

[rb1957]

geeze, I still have 99.9% of the cards they gave me 10 years ago ...

"how to define a senior engineer ?" ... "how do you define a length of string ?"

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[JohnRBaker]

geeze, I still have 99.9% of the cards they gave me 10 years ago ...

Yea, this is what it looked like as I was cleaning out my office when I retired 6 years ago:

January 2016 (Apple iPhone 6)

As you can see from my previous post showing all my business cards, the first card was the only one I had at my first employer where I worked 14 years as a machine designer and project engineer. The rest of those cards covered nearly 35 years with the same software company, which during that period there were several company/division name changes, address changes, sales, mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, etc, which required the issuing of new cards. When we were acquired by Siemens (2007), they provided us with Adobe Illustrator templates of the division's letterhead and business cards. So from that point on, I just printed my own cards at home as I needed them, on Avery business card stock.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[dik]

Not at all... he was good. I really didn't care who was earning what... I worked with SNC Lavalin for about a decade as a contract employee. There have been a few negative articles about the company, but the Winnipeg office was great with the exception of some corporate incidents I'm aware of:
[ul]
[li]An excellent employee drastically underpaid for the work she did, she was paid $15/hour. I was largely responsible for her becoming registered. She was a Mech engineer in China, but worked as a structual engineer in Canada. With the exception of some more difficult work, she was doing similar work to what I was doing.[/li]
[li]Another excellent junior engineer that had just become registered. He missed the annual salary increase. I asked the department head to give him my increase because I was concerned we might lose him. It was corporate and couldn't be done. We lost him.[/li]
[li]A Russian engineer that went over to provide work for the Russian olympics, had his job 'rolled up' while he was over there, with little compensation when he returned... again a corporate decision.[/li]
[/ul]I don't think I've ever worked in an office where all the engineers were exceptional (myself excluded). Even the lesser ones were good. Many of the Mech, Elect, Civil, and Struct guys would be on my list of the top half a dozen engineers (disciple) I've worked with, and that's been a bunch. That was the Winnipeg office... their other offices were not so great.

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[IRstuff]

Since management takes all the credit and usually having bigger salary than engineers due mantra that they are making tough decisions for benefit of the company?

That's, of course, the stereotype, which has to be taken with the grain of truth that might be buried in there. Nevertheless, some companies do tout having technical tracks that do reward technical SMEs with appropriate compensation and even LICP bonuses. But, what's an awesome compensation in some engineering companies pales in comparison to what people in the "tech" industry get. I know people in their twenties that are making more than me

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[dik]

Many that went into fields, other than engineering.

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[Gr8blu]

Azzazzil "Seniority" comes in many forms - not just with the specific niche in which someone is currently employed. Good engineers can bring what they have learned elsewhere to bear on a given project. Great engineers can not only do that, but can also ensure the technical aspects get translated for their less-technical counterparts. With that in mind, the consensus is that "senior" (or any other level) engineer requires a specific level of responsibility for a period of time - it is not directly related to a given industry. It may include both management time directing others and/or subject matter expertise, weighted according to the company issuing the title. (Other entities may well weight the details differently.)

Does "level" equate to salary? Sometimes. But so does subject matter expertise and practical management experience, regardless of the actual title. For example - I am currently listed by my company as a "regional" engineer. What does that entail? How does that work from a seniority perspective? Is it even comparable? (For the record, I could tell you ... but then I'd have to do something to you. )

Converting energy to motion for more than half a century

 

[Azzazil]

For the record, I could tell you ... but then I'd have to do something to you.

Fair enough, btw thanks for good good post and your opinion .

 

[Cobra17]

I go by señor

 

[thejonster]

See how titles relate to ability/skill in the CE realm, I've found this guide to be very helpful
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.asce.org/-/media/asce-images-and-files/career-and-growth/early-career-engineer/engineering-grades-brochure.pdf[/url]

 

[Azzazil]

thejonster - thanks for this this is exactly what I was looking for