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DaveVikingPE

DaveVikingPE

Structural
Aug 9, 2001
1,008
US
I've been with the same company for nearly 13 years. I got an offer, with a 20% increase in pay from another company - a good company that I've interviewed with a couple of times in the past (6 years ago) and was turned down. I like my boss. I like *most* of my coworkers. I am having trouble breaking this news to my boss since I have this awful feeling that I'm pushing my dad in front of a moving car. Advice? Thanks!
 
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Sure.
HVAC (hate), Oil and Gas (hope to like better).

HVAC just seems mundane and not very exciting or overly important. Also, it is oversaturated with too many people- qualified or not. The money is not there and I no longer feel its worth the effort.

Ed

 
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I guess I can't find excitement in laying out ductwork, specifying a new condenser unit (one of about 20 that would do the job), etc...

Just boring stuff and not very sexy to me.

Ed

 
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I've gone through the resignation process 4 times now. the first three weren't that hard because I was a little sour on the company by the time I left.

This last one - 4 months ago - was much tougher because it was a good company, I had good bosses on both a departmental and project level, and I enjoyed working there. I actually informed my project boss and my department boss once I had a firm offer, and before I had decided to accept the offer. I had a face to face with both and neither was easy, but the meeting with my department boss was the hardest.

However, all that being said the new job was in my best interest and the only one who will really look out for my best interst is me.

I've never burned any bridges and in fact have been recruited by two of my former employers to come back.
 
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Congrats on your new job! If there is anything that engineers are not good at it is communicating bad news to a client or co-worker. I have noticed it among our profession more than that of many professional services.

The only way to do it is face to face and honestly, you will much better when it is over.

A barely related anectdote:

I had a job working for the Feds and it absolutely sucked . There were hundereds of engineers working in gigantic cube farms lorded over by ball-less sycophants at a ratio of something like 40% mgrs to 60% production engineers. I finally got a job in the real world and happily tendered my resignation to my boss. Then "they" brought me in and paid me lip service as to why I should stay and how much they liked me. This is all after I had been written up for being "disrespectful" in a meeting. Nothing bad mind you, I just asked someone far "more important" than me to: "Pipe down and listen to what I am telling you."

Well, on my last day I was packing up my stuff to leave at noon. I went to one of the community work stations that was attached to some scanning apparatus and set a burned CD into the player and set a phone receiver next to the computer speaker. . . I turned on the intercom that covered the entire floor (350 employees) and walked out the doors to the soundtrack of "Take This Job and Shove it" on a continual loop. I guess it was mid way through the 3rd time before they found the offending phone. Since that jack was not on any secretaries phone system there was no "line in-use" light for it anywhere. I guess it got quite a laugh and the gophering was rampant for that 8 minutes.

According to some friends I still have at those offices, I am a folk hero. They say people still talk about me in hushed voices and whenever someone stands up for themselves in a meeting or to a boss they have made my name into a tribute salute.
 
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Uh, I've been like that.

Example: I was a regular subject of discussion at corporate board meetings, as in, "Did you hear what he said to so_and_so?".

I can't say it's been good for my career.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
 
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Yeah, along those lines. I needed to get two of my old bosses to sign off for my experience so I could sit for the PE exam. Once I realized that I was going to need their signatures, I started to regret becoming a folk-legend.

I called them both and asked, and they both agreed and told me more than once that "The door is always open, if you want to come back." I was shocked to say the least after what I had pulled, but now after being a "boss" for a while I realize that some employees come with warts, but their value/abilities can waaaaay offset the occasional outburst. I doubt I would have got promoted if I came back.
 
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Folks,

Thanks for all your replies and such. Everything is useful. It's been difficult for me since, without revealing too much about myself, I work for, shall we say, a "company" where it's often said that's it's impossible to get fired (and the security in the public sector can't be beat).

However, I need the challenges and the opportunities this private sector job will offer me.

I've also kept things quiet in my office because I genuinely don't want people to think that I was in a hurry to leave. Quite the contrary. I will sort of quietly slip out and just "see everyone later..."

I'm not the smartest engineer on the block, but I have earned a reputation to make sure that a job gets finished. I have been told that I'd be hired back if things don't work out. I will, however, do everything within my power to make things work out.
 
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Congrats! So I guess things went well!

WHat do you mean by "see everyone later"? Are you just gonna be gone one day with only your supervisor knowing its coming (and maybe his supervisors as well)?

How much notice did you offer? How much are they taking you up on?

Ed

 
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"See everyone later" as in no fanfare or a fancy lunch, just me personally saying good-bye to people individually. Some people know it's coming but I haven't advertised it. The boss has known that I was going to make the decision for almost a month, now.
 
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Re RLM2000's story:

When I first started as a sponsored student one of the first things that happened to my site was that the instrumentation department was made redundant and their offices/workshops turned into a canteen. One of the electronics engineers confided in me (over several beers) that his last two weeks' work would be devoted to putting an alarm clock into his last piece of test-bed equipment. About 6 months later I was working in the engine test department when all work stopped to try to find an odd noise in one of the consoles. Everything was powered down but it kept on going. Eventually they stripped it out and found parts of an alarm clock on one of the boards, complete with its own power supply.
 
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Push Dad in front of the car! Grow a set walk in to the office and tell them: "Hey I got an offer and I have been offered a 20% increase" Give them a chance to counter the offer.
Regards,
Namdac
 
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Too late, I left with all the doors wide open should I need 'em.

Now, if I win the lottery, then I could do something like that...
 
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How has the move been so far?

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
 
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It's been smooth. I took my time doing it. Again, leaving the doors open.

I'm a packrat with books and other engineer's toys. So there's a lot of "stuff" at home that otherwise wouldn't be here.

I put all of my work in electronic form on 5 DVDs and gave them to my boss. Plus, I've got backups here at home - and I made it clear that I'm open for questions on anything - for free, even.

I start on Moday (6 Nov 06). I'm getting really fired up, too.
 
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Different "good" and not different "bad" I hope?

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
 
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I went to work for a British company earlier this year. Now "different" has a whole 'nother connotation in that regard. There ought to be a forum on this site for gringos working for Brits to vent in.

Different might be gross understatement.

rmw
 
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rmw ... [lol] I would love to hear more. Care to share some experiences (good or bad) in the Pub?

[cheers]
 
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