Possible Career Change to Quality Engineer

[donny2k3]

I have been contemplating a career change from HVAC engineering to quality engineering and I am looking for some advice. Right now I spend 20% of my time doing actual engineering work and about 80% of my time drafting. My original degree path was more geared toward manufacturing at the beginning but due to lack of desire for companies in my area to hire anybody straight out of college I had to take my current job. Four and a half years later I realize that I don’t really enjoy what I am doing and I spend 40+ hours a week doing it.

Does anybody have any advice to offer or a list or resources for someone who has been out of the manufacturing mindset since 2006?

Educational Background:
Associates in Engineering Science
Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering
Bachelors in Interdisciplinary Engineering and Management

I really appreciate any advice and guidance that members of the forum feel like throwing my way.

 

[redpicker]

The grass is always greener...

I don't know your situation or your likes/dislikes, so that you will have to figure out for yourself. I have had many different engineering jobs in the past 30 years, and one thing they all have in common is that less than 20% of the time was spent doing "actual engineering work". The remainder of the time is spent on what I term "clerk work", filing, drawing, data entry, typing, etc... The trick is to get enough reward from the 20% to make it worth putting up with the 80%.

Those jobs have included metallurgical engineering, quality engineering, as well as mechanical engineering duties. For me, the least attractive ones were the quality engineering. It really depends on what you find interesting and rewarding.

I believe that Engineering Schools should have a mandatory course in Career Development. Yes, it's a tough topic to teach college kids, but the better you understand how to develop your career, the better engineer you will be. It would have helped me a lot more than Einstein Relativity ever has, but I'd have to admit that the relativity was much more interesting to me than career development when I was 20 .


rp

 

[metengr]

Here is another perspective and there will be many others. The grass may be certainly be greener on the other side provided you know where to look and how green you desire!

If you prefer hands-on engineering I can assure you 80% will not be spent...

... on what I term "clerk work", filing, drawing, data entry, typing, etc...

in certain occupations within engineering. Look at industries where you have equipment manufacture and on the flip side construction and operation. I have been down this path for over 30 years and only changed jobs twice because at the end of the day I felt like I either learned something on the job and/or accomplished a project (and that does not include typing, filing and making coffee).

 

[KENAT]

Well I'd rather be drafting than 'Quality Engineering' but perhaps that's just me. Though if I was drafting 'HVAC' then quality engineering in a manufacturing environment might sound attractive, I don't know.

A lot depends on what you personally consider 'Engineering work'.

To some folks if you aren't doing complex analysis you aren't doing Engineering.

To others if you aren't designing stuff you aren't doing engineering.

To others if you aren't testing stuff you aren't doing engineering...

FYI one of the soft fora

http://www.eng-tips.com/threadcategory.cfm?lev2=88

might have been a better place for this question, although this is the relevant technical forum those others can be busier. Career questions sometimes get moved from 'technical fora' by management.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

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

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

 

[Guest102023]

I have observed a lot of entertainment and/or politics in the QA arena. You may be doing even less engineering there.

 

[shamino]

I have worked in both "engineering" (which like you say was also 80% drafting and 20% engineering) and QC, and I have to say that QC is much more stressful and demanding. However, I also find it much more stimulating and I have learned much more than I ever would doing simply solidworks drafts all day and the odd statics calcs anyway. (The annoying thing about our eng department is we generally just use FEA to do all the real engineering for us)

However I have found that having a good understanding of drafting has been a huge asset for me in the QC department. Mainly this is because I am aware of all the mistakes we routinely make in drafting (such as not reving up our drawings and calcs, not adding proper reivion tables, etc). I can correct these immediately and refuse to accept any issued drafts, which means that by the time the AI comes in, we won't get any grief from him because of it.

Do I consider quality control "engineering"? Well, not in the sense that I am a designer. However, I am in and out of the ASME code at least once a day, and this includes doing calculations and applying basic rules of science, etc. But it is also more than that, it is also ensuring that people in all departments (shop, engineering, purchasing, etc) are doing they're job properly. So I really get a good holistic understanding of how the shop works, which again helps to make me an asset rather than just being a cad monkey.

In the end, my education gives me a huge boost in this field and I feel that being here will make me a better designer if I choose to go back into that field. The stuff I learn here is the stuff that all our design engineers should know but won't get the same opportunity as me to learn, since they're stuck on solidworks all day.

 

[metalhoosier]

My experience as a past QA/QC engineer has shown me that quality engineers are typically the first out the door during an economic downturn.

Just my two Lincoln's,
MetalHoo