Engineering Development 2

[CuriousElectron]

Greetings,
How important is it to have an engineering mentor or work in a group of technically competent engineers for mid level engineers development?

Thanks
EE

 

[GregLocock]

That depends on whether you are a self starter. If you are then it is great to have more experienced engineers to chat to, but not really essential.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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[mfgenggear]

my opinion very important, learn from them

 

[Jboggs]

All knowledge comes from experience. You can get your own experience over time (and hope you live through it), or use the experience of others, known as mentors. Your choice. Which one do you think is quicker?

Another tip - Consider your real world experience as just a continuation of your education. Your degree is really just your ticket to admission to the REAL school of hard knocks. Or as my father told me once: "Now that your academics are behind you your education can begin".

 

[GeoEnvGuy]

In my opinion the first 5 years learning from seniors is the best.

5-10 years learn from senior transitions to conferences, presentations and research.

10 plus the old guys got some good historical perspective but your mingling with academics about research and recent case studies.

 

[Compositepro]

"All knowledge comes from experience. You can get your own experience over time (and hope you live through it), or use the experience of others, known as mentors" (or books).

 

[mfgenggear]

by learning from the grey beards, or senior members will most likely prevent costly or bad mistakes.
there is no replacement for experience in any field, all jobs are difficult

 

[CWB1]

You can either learn from others' experience or make your own mistakes. The former is cheap, the later reflects badly upon you. Your choice. JMO but books are good for ideas and learning simple concepts, beyond that experience is critical. Academic research today is a joke, usually a tax writeoff at best so I wouldnt bother there. Growth throughout your career will always mean new mentors, so unless you want to limit yourself then yes, network and learn.

 

[Ron247]

There is no correct answer here. There are people who would qualify as a "mentor" because of seniority but may not be what you need. Face it, we all have different backgrounds and strengths.

Some key points:
[ul]
[li]Better than a good mentor is having more than one good mentor. Each good mentor is very valuable. All mentors are not equal in abilities with respect to different projects. I routinely would ask more than one person "when there was more than one person" and then I would sort through their comments and formulate my own based on a combination of theirs that made the most sense.[/li]
[li]Look at how you try to interact with your mentor. Being a "self-starter" was mentioned in one response. Starting a new design and going straight to the mentor is not as good in my opinion than first thinking out the new task and then going to your mentor for guidance. The first method makes you appear needy while the 2nd method is more of a self-starter mindset.[/li]
[li]Not all mentors communicate the same. Learn about how different personalities communicate and apply that to your interaction with a mentor. You may get more mileage out of their assistance[/li]
[/ul]

As far as me, I had very few mentors and of the ones I had, 2 were good at it and 2 were not. I did a lot of learn on my own.