Guest0527211403
Mechanical
- Apr 24, 2004
- 1,125
For a backgrounder, see my post thread732-255928
More background info:
I graduated with my BSME last April, and I'm at around 8 months into my first post-graduate engineering position. Prior to that, I sustained myself through university as a CAD designer/drafter, with the career plan that I would mature into a qualified design engineer.
Fast forward to the present. The bids we were working on a few months ago both came through and ended up in the company's largest contracts to date. Very good news for all of us.
Now that we are into the contracts, I'm now in a position where all I do is write reports that go back to the client. This is due in part to the fact that all of the other engineers come from a non-english speaking background, and I'm one of the few at the company who has demonstrated the ability to write technical documents.
I do like the experience that I'm getting, as it's exposing me to a new side of engineering that is outside of the regular "nuts and bolts" type work that I was focused on as a student. In terms of management, I'm learning quite a lot about dealing with people on a variety of levels, be it professionally or personally.
However, the work that I'm presently doing for 40+ hours a week is completely outside of the "design and development" activities here. I'm spending most of my time interpreting the reports of the other engineers and churning them out in proper english. I'm not being given any opportunities to develop my own designs. This is largely due to the fact that I'm overloaded with writing tasks and (I'm told) that learning the finer details of the work that we do is "not an effective use of my time".
In a recent planning meeting, it was made clear that my role for the forseeable future is one of report writing only. I'm shut out of concept and design meetings because I have "other tasks". When I try to communicate with and learn from the other staff who are involved in the design, the language barrier between us makes it very difficult for them to transfer the technical knowledge necessary to make me a better engineer.
So now I'm finding myself in an awkward position. As a recent grad, I know that I have a lot to learn about the technical aspects of the work that we do, and that the only way to really gain this knowledge is to be involved in the design cycle. I have full intentions of becoming a P.Eng, so I'm worried that what I'm doing now is not putting me on the right track. I've tried to raise these concerns with my supervising engineer (who is also the company owner), and he refuses to talk to me about the matter, citing the fact that I have other work to be doing.
Has anyone been in a similar position before? I'm still waiting for my boss to give me a chance to sit down with him and discuss. Until then, I'd like to get some fresh perspectives on the situation.
Thanks in advance
More background info:
I graduated with my BSME last April, and I'm at around 8 months into my first post-graduate engineering position. Prior to that, I sustained myself through university as a CAD designer/drafter, with the career plan that I would mature into a qualified design engineer.
Fast forward to the present. The bids we were working on a few months ago both came through and ended up in the company's largest contracts to date. Very good news for all of us.
Now that we are into the contracts, I'm now in a position where all I do is write reports that go back to the client. This is due in part to the fact that all of the other engineers come from a non-english speaking background, and I'm one of the few at the company who has demonstrated the ability to write technical documents.
I do like the experience that I'm getting, as it's exposing me to a new side of engineering that is outside of the regular "nuts and bolts" type work that I was focused on as a student. In terms of management, I'm learning quite a lot about dealing with people on a variety of levels, be it professionally or personally.
However, the work that I'm presently doing for 40+ hours a week is completely outside of the "design and development" activities here. I'm spending most of my time interpreting the reports of the other engineers and churning them out in proper english. I'm not being given any opportunities to develop my own designs. This is largely due to the fact that I'm overloaded with writing tasks and (I'm told) that learning the finer details of the work that we do is "not an effective use of my time".
In a recent planning meeting, it was made clear that my role for the forseeable future is one of report writing only. I'm shut out of concept and design meetings because I have "other tasks". When I try to communicate with and learn from the other staff who are involved in the design, the language barrier between us makes it very difficult for them to transfer the technical knowledge necessary to make me a better engineer.
So now I'm finding myself in an awkward position. As a recent grad, I know that I have a lot to learn about the technical aspects of the work that we do, and that the only way to really gain this knowledge is to be involved in the design cycle. I have full intentions of becoming a P.Eng, so I'm worried that what I'm doing now is not putting me on the right track. I've tried to raise these concerns with my supervising engineer (who is also the company owner), and he refuses to talk to me about the matter, citing the fact that I have other work to be doing.
Has anyone been in a similar position before? I'm still waiting for my boss to give me a chance to sit down with him and discuss. Until then, I'd like to get some fresh perspectives on the situation.
Thanks in advance
