Is it too soon to ask for a new project?

[bradpa77]

I've been doing the same thing here for a little over a year now.

I have been doing FEA stress analyses on turbine blades. It was interesting at first and I was learning a lot but now it's just become very monotonous and repetitive. It's very routine now and I don't think I've really learned anything new for about a half year now.

The funny thing is that I had to push pretty hard to get to this stage. Before this project I was primarily doing Pro/E work. I wanted to get more into the analysis portion of design work and this turbine blade stress analysis project is what they gave me.

Is it too soon to ask for a change again? I really need a change bad. I have no motivation. I'm angry that I'm not learning new skills. I want to be a well balanced engineer and I feel like I'm not progressing or expanding my knowledge base at all.

Would it be unreasonable to approach my boss and nicely ask for some different work even though I pretty much begged for this current project only a year ago? I know the project I'm working on now needs to be completed, but the end seems to be no-where in sight. I imagine that I would need to work for another year on it before I finished all the FEA we need to finish. I would be willing to continue working on this current project on the side, but I really need some new material.

It's getting to the point where I'm considering other job opportunities. There's actually an internal job opening that was just posted that would really take me to another realm of the company altogether. I would learn a lot of new stuff there I'm sure. Maybe I should pursue that.

Anyone have any input for me? I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks.

 

[swertel]

Asking for a new project, sure. Asking for a transfer to another position/title, probably not so sure.

There are some engineers in this world who love the ability to become such an expert at one particular facit of a design. I happen to know one who analyzes the connection between the landing gear and the airframe. That's all he does. That's all he's ever done for the past 10 years, and he loves it. Personally, I'm more of a generalist engineer rather than a specialist. I like looking at the whole picture to see how it plays out together, then delegate some tasks to the specialists when necessary.

Perhaps defining your preferred style to your supervisor during your next review will lead you into a position more suitable for you. In the meantime, if you are happy with your company and generally happy with your job and its career potential, then buckle down for the long haul. Several aspects of engineer are routine and mundane. You have to take the good with the bad.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[ctopher]

IMO, you should always ask for more training and responsibility. It shows you care about your job and the company and a lot of managers look for employees that show initiative.
Look for anything around the company that will help learning new skills and let your boss know too.
Good luck.

Chris
SolidWorks 07 3.0/PDMWorks 07
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 04-21-07)

 

[NCDesign]

Don't overlook actually completing the project at hand. I think you'll realize that it takes some different skills to take the project through to completion than to get it started. Also, in my opinion there is great satisfaction in bringing a project to completion.

That being said it is perfectly reasonable to ask for a little variety. Some additional/different tasks that you could fit into your current project's down time.

 

[GregLocock]

I also find learning about new things far more interesting than completing projects. Oddly my employers do not agree, so the quid pro quo in my career has been that I do get to learn interesting stuff, but I also have to grind through to the end of the analysis and write the reports and help sort out the production problems.

So far as I am aware it would be impossible to have fully explored the design of turbine blades using FEA in six months.

Cheers

Greg Locock

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

 

[bradpa77]

Thanks for the help everyone.

I decided on what I'm going to do.

I'm going to finish the project I'm on. I figured out a way to make it more interesting to me .... lots and lots of alcohol. Just kidding. Actually, I decided to make it more interesting by doing the analysis in ANSYS workbench instead of the traditional ANSYS module. We have been doing it in traditional ANSYS because some of the features we use are not included in the workbench version yet. I found out that you can use any of the traditional features in workbench by including the APDL command lines as items in the solution tree of the model. I'm hoping to be able to make the process more automated by doing this. That should cut the grunt work down a ton (after a lot of upfront work first of course). That will be a big learning experience for me, it will be beneficial to the company, it will help me complete the project sooner, and it will give me more downtime to hopefully squeeze in some more smaller projects.

So I'm now feeling rejuvinated in my daily routine. Problem solved. .... for now.

Thanks again for all your input. It was a big help.

 

[vpl]

bradpa

It sounds like you have hit on a win-win solution (sorry about the hackneyed phrase, but it fits).

You can continue to learn new things, your company benefits from both the improved ANSYS modeling and getting the project done sooner (which usually amounts to more $$$). And an added benefit, you will show your boss that you have the ability to stick to a project (and even improve on it) rather than bailing. This will help with future assignments (of increasing importance) because the boss will learn he can count on you.

Patricia Lougheed

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