Is it possible to get Pigeonholed in career as engineer 3

[hyenhyhint]

Hi,

I have visited the site many times and obtained valuable advice from the forums. This is my first time posting.

I graduated from college 6 years ago and lost my job last June. Since then I have been working odd jobs and looking for work. I have also been thinking about my long-term career path and engineering in general.

I enjoy product development, but I am concerned that the skills learned in one of these positions can only be applied to a particular industy. For instance if an engineer has 10,000 engineering hours designing large industrial gears I wouldn't think this person could take a position developing plastic injection molded parts because the employer is probably looking for someone with 10,000 engineering hours in plastic injections molded parts.

I am still learning how the world works, but I do know that you always need alternatives lined up.

1.Does a product development role significatly reduce your employment options as you gain more experience as an engineer?

2. Are there any areas of engineering to avoid because they can pigeonhole a person in midlife.

3. What area(s) of engineering could be applied across multiple industries? I was thinking project managment could possibly be one of those areas.

Thank you for your advice.

 

[GregLocock]

I've worked in PD for most of my life. I think you are worrying unneccessarily, PD is so integral to engineering that you can't really be pigeonhoed in it as such.

But you can get pigenholed in a particular role - for example for many years I found it hard ot move out of my specialisation. I eventually did by moving from a job as a Noise and Vibration development engineer, in automotive, to a mechanical design engineer in a completely different industry.

However as success stories goes that is not very helpful as I was back in my old job (same desk) within two years.

I have changed focus again more recently, and am in a different specialisation within PD.

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[ctopher]

I think that if you look only for one specific type of job, you're pigeonholed. Companies look for certain types of engineers with a certain amount of experience. They do not pigeonhole you, you may do it to yourself.
Check out this thread:
thread731-195603

Chris
SolidWorks 08, CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[MikeHalloran]

HR weenies are always looking for someone with the exact skillset of the person whom they just fired, or drove to quit in disgust, because they are too lazy or incompetent to actually figure out what skills a given job really requires.

So, you may have to do that job analysis on their behalf, and sell it to them... without actually calling them weenies or implying they are unskilled or unmotivated. That is, of course, a test of your soft skills.

Similarly, you have to dissect what you have done, to an atomic level, and extract from that your own knowledge, skills and abilities, to claim (and be ready to demonstrate).

For example, plastic molding engineers and large gear design engineers both must be able to:
- observe their products in use and notice things that are 'unusual' within that context.
- know how to take accurate measurements in a laboratory.
- know how to improvise 'good enough' measurements in the field.
- know how to do a 'reality check' on someone else's data.
- apply math in both directions, i.e. extracting useful parametric data from specific datasets, and using that parametric data to create/ improve/ develop better products.
- know how to read and write some human language, well enough to understand written directions, and to author directions comprehensible to someone else.
- know where to get knowledge they don't already have, and how to develop it themselves if need be.
- be able to produce a hand sketch to convey an idea, well enough to convey it accurately to someone who doesn't read your own language.
- be able to read a drawing, that may have text in some language other than your own.
- be able to quickly gain the confidence of both tradesmen and managers.
- be able to tell someone that (s)he is 'doing it wrong', without getting into a fight about it.
- be able to maintain a working relationship that's at least useful to you, with someone who is lying or mistaken.


... you can see where this is going, and surely come up with KSAs that are specific to you, but not to your experience in a specific job.

Note that all but the first are not specific to a particular industry or 'kind' of engineering.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[plasgears]

I have had good luck transferring to diverse engineering work. You can do this also:

Rocket motor case design > jet engine design > chem plant equipt design > field construction owner rep > plant engineering > sr editor plant eng magazine > safe cigarette filter with cigarette mfr pilot plant > stretch limo design with QS9000 documentation > industrial gearmotor design > automotive gearmotor design. Management is buried in many of these jobs.

A vivid organized portfolio with a box of samples facilitates the moves. I got the editorial job after showing my Toastmasters background and some unpublished material.

 

[DABwilldo]

Pidgeon holing is, from my point of view, a self imposed fate. You can do anything you want to in life. To make a major shift may require that you move backwards or away from where you are currently in life.(financially, geographically, etc)

I can only speak for my own experiences. I have a B.E. in Materials Engineering. I started my professional career as a tech support engineer for a company making X-ray Fluorescence equipment for chemical analysis. From there I transitioned to an automotive company's R&D facility working as a chemist using that same equipment. I decided to relocate to a different state, and wound up taking a job as a GC Chemist for a small environmental lab. Times got financially tight, so I went looking for better employment, and wound up as a plant metallurgist for another automotive company. Worked a short stint as an materials engineering manager for a medium sized manufacturing company. Discovered I hate managing people. I felt burned out on engineering, so I left, and went back to school for 9 months to learn hands-on welding. Worked as a skilled tradesman for a year, and started my own part-time fabrication and repair business. 6 months ago, I stumbled into a job working as a welding engineer for a local welding company; which is where I'm at today.

There is a connection in between all the links in this chain. At a couple points, I made decisions to break out of the path I'd been on, and I paid a price of one sort or another for those choices. Still, I thought long and hard before making each choice and I have no regrets.

Your ability to think, and solve problems, is what makes you a valuable employee. What you've done in the past is a (relatively)small part of your value. If you love product development, stay in that field. If you want to move to a different area, use your brain and figure out how to make it happen. If you want it bad enough, it'll happen. Consider the consequences of your choices beforehand, and you'll have no regrets later on.

 

[Japher]

I agree with DABwilldo (nice name by the way). Yeah, HR wennies are going to try and find a guy with the exact skill set they just lost, but if you can get yourself to the hiring manager they will understand your offering much better and be able to see that your skills are problem solving, creativity,and high level of thought, and that is what the position really needs. Most cases I would agree with this, unless the job descript says "hits the ground running", then they aren't messing around.

Pigeonholed is a common problem for people who lack motivation to get the skills they need for themselves. This requires some uncomfortable decisions and risk taking. However, almost every mentor I have had and quotes by CEOs I have seen on the matter, they all suggest you don't consider your career a straight line to the top. There will be horizontal moves, and sometimes backwards moves, to get the skills you need.

I have a BS in ChemE and started as technician in protein purification, moved into chemical and process enigneering for parenteral pharmaceuticals, then to validation for medical devices (boring!), and then to a plant supervisor and project manager for a pharmaceutical facility, and am now a process and design engineer for the biofuel and biochemical industry. What will I do next? I don't know, I get my MBA in December and am debating operations management.

 

[cksh]

I make an effort not to get labeled but it seems to be getting harder for me.

But I think it really depends on the company/industry.

For almost my enitre career I have been involved with Automotive in one way or another so I am already labeled as such. It is important to expand on what it is I do for a particular company. I don't need to tell them the product is for automotive. Instead I try to break it down. For example, I currently design junction boxes for vehicles. Instead of saying that you could break it down to say I package electronics, design injected molded parts, test components etc. Don't even mention cars.

I was a PD for almost 5 years working on gears, gear housings and other similar products. The pay was bad and I had always had an interest in plastic design. Luckily I found a company that was interested and although I had no xp with their product, or plastic design xp, I was able to relate my xp as an engineer during the interview to what they were looking for.

I did stay with electronics too long IMHO. Now in order to do something else I have to again be careful not to get myself labeled. I can take a pay cut to get back to mechanical. Or maybe focus more on the project management skills I have been accruing. If I am lucky I can move into a PD job that is interesting without the pay cut.

My near term goal is to get out of automotive. I have actually read job listings that stated no automotive engineers. Luckily at my core I am an engineer, second a product designer, if that makes sense. Now, I may not be able to move into a structural engineer position, but there are so many other products and disciplines I should be able to slide into.

 

[JLSeagull]

First about HR. They don't find people with the specified qualifications, the hiring person does. HR may send the supervisor a few resume's with the specified qualifications. Even that is unlikely.

Many engineers are looking for an advancement progression path toward senior management, perhaps even the top dog role. Such progression is aided with rapid and diverse position changes to expose one to several areas, learning the chain of command, all products from all plants as well as competence in running projects. It also helps to have an Ivy League education and such friends in high places.

OTOH, some of us are just engineers, satisfied at doing our jobs while watching as others progress in and out of our organizations.

 

[msquared48]

Is it possible to get Pigeonholed in career as engineer?

Darn skippy. Ask any Boeing engineer.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering