Help/ Advice needed for mid career engineer 1

[philzone1234]

Hello,
15 years experience. I have a bachelor of science Mechanical Engineering. Worked for huge companies and small companies. Laid off twice over career(once this year) and starting to get worried I will be laid off soon again. Highest I've earned is 68K a year, latest job only pays 65K. I have been a manufacturing engineer, systems engineer, and mechanical design engineer. I know ProEngineer,Solidworks,Inventor, and AutoCAD. I have background in electro-mechanical systems,sheetmetal, plastics,BOM creation, configuration management, and prototyping.
I keep trying to find that "sweet spot" at companies but they always tend to give me secondary duties "i,e, ECO processing, parts numbering, grunt work, agency testing".
You get all these extra duties and your pay stays the same.Meanwhile you get good at alot of things you dont really want to brag about on your resume.
Are good mechanical engineering jobs hard to find or do I have a skill set problem? If I really want to do things I love do I just need to be an independant contractor and choose only what I am willing to work on? Everywhere I've been there seems to be some kind of political power structure game going on where only certain people are allowed to do certain things and once you are slated or "cast" to do one thing there is no getting out of it(even when you were hired to do something else). I feel like its now or never and I want to be successful and happy.

Thanks

 

[zcp]

Options.....

1) go for the smaller company (wear many hats)
2) start a company (lot of work, need to fulfill a need)
3) look into consulting (can specialize or focus in an area)

Do you have your PE? You could do all three...

Another thought is maybe you should play up a certain skillset to land a job just doing that. The tendency is to display all of your different skills to get the job, but too often the jack of all trades guy ends up doing the eco's.

ZCP

http://www.phoenix-engineer.com

 

[Waidesworld]

In my current company, I was hired because of my ISO background but once I was in the door a couple of years I was moved in to Business Development because of my ability to get along with customers. Unfortunately this year, the QM was laid off, so yeah, the buck landed back on these shoulders. At the same time the boss tried to engage me in my same commitment to Bus. Dev. I simply told him that Quality would have to take a back seat and they accepted it. While I am still unofficially the Quality Manager, more people have been stepped up to the plate to help me i.e. I write ECO's but don't process them now. I keep an eye on the ISO stuff but nothing like when I had the position.
So if you don't want the grunt work, use the "other duties as required" as an ending sentence on your experience. I know my resume downplays ISO as I don't want that position in my next job.

drawn to design, designed to draw

 

[KENAT]

I got my current position basically just because I had experience using a specific CAD package in a place that had decent documentation standards. That was about it. Essentially it was more of a Designer/Drafter position than Engineering.

However, within a month there, the Engineering director was wanting to poach me from 'Design Services' for what they considered real engineering tasks.

However, various changes in structure some related to the market have seen me stay more in the design role but with frequent forays into more serious engineering.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

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

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

 

[purdue87]

"......Meanwhile you get good at alot of things you dont really want to brag about on your resume."

sorry, but i think at this point i would brag.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[MartinSr00]

I'm an ME and have worked in industrial (16 years), aerospace (2 years)and municipal (18 years). In industrial companies, they don't have batallions of people, so you can be a very big fish in a small sea. In my aerospace experience, they did have batallions of people, and you need to both pay dues, and get a chance at a job that allows you to pay those dues. In municipal service, they seem so hungry for technical advice that your dues are paid on arrival, but they have oodles of beauracratic intertia. In small-company industrial, you do your own ECO's on your own jobs. In aerospace, they may have an ECO department. In municipal, they don't know what an ECO is.

As for bragging on your resume, my dear mother told me once, "If you don't brag about yourself now and then, who will?". Your resume is to get yourself an interview. Your interview is to get yourself hired. In the end, you have to prove you're worth the money.

I've never had a job where I finally did pretty much what they said I would when I interviewed. Often, the difference was for the better but sometimes not. Often, the problem is, the interviewer is just as clueless about the future as you or I are.

So what does this have to do with you? Don't know, but maybe you can find some value somewhere. For me, mechanical engineering is a great profession, and I would be loath to abandon it.

 

[cksh]

Philzone, Your career is almost identical to mine. So much so I thought I might have written it.

I have always tried to avoid getting labeled. Unfortunately it never gets any easier. I got myself labeled as a design engineer and I spent two years looking for a new job (was employed the whole time). Not that it was a bad job, or could not have kept me employed for the next 10-20, it just wasn't for me. It took me two years just because I was so picky by that point. Everyone had a different job title, but the job functions never change. More of the same stuff just labeled differently.

Unfortunately, when you have been involved with so many different areas it can be both a good thing and bad.

Good, I have always had a job and can jump ship to different fields quite easily. Everything is new to me, so I am never bored. And I can keep ahead of a down market.

Bad, I don't have that 10 to 15 years in one field, or with one product, that makes me an expert.

There are some things you need to consider. You are obviously not happy, just as I wasn't. But your description is spot on with just about every DE job I have come across. Other fields can probably say the same. So, just as me, you are not looking for that in a career. I think you need to do what I did and change your job search tactics.

At 15 years you need to either:

1.find that niche, and at your current salary it would be easy to change fields. And you have plenty of time left in your career. Maybe an MS degree? Some other field you haven't tried?

2. Start working towards management, sales, research, whatever you think you can contribute the most to or would be interested in.

3. Do what I did. Start working towards a team leader position, product/project manager, program manager etc. You have 15 years in as an engineer so make it work for you.

If you are like me than you are probably at that "do I really want to do this the rest of my career" point in your life. For me personally, I was really sick of drawings, so little to no CAD work was a must for my next job.

I still feel that way sometimes, but this looks great on my resume, and I can always fall back on the DE part of my career.