Professional Development

[KeySol]

So, I work for a company that is not really a traditional engineering firm. We only have about 4 PE's and 3 EI's who do actual engineering work. My question to the group is how much Professional engineering development does your company want you to have? Not what is req'd by the licensing boards of your state but what your company wants you to get. I am trying to set a standard up for the engineers in my company as to what they can expect for the company to provide for them (mainly compensation and time off to go to class or seminars). Is there a standard in your company or does it depend on your position? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thankx

 

[GregLocock]

At other companies I have averaged between 4 and 10 days a year of training

Here. Not so much.

Cheers

Greg Locock

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

 

[PEinVA]

Days of training? in 2 years fresh out of school, I've gotten 2-3 days of traning total. My boss is stuck in ASD and figures we could learn LRFD on our own for steel design. LRFD is what I learned in college, but I've pretty much forgotten, as I've spent the last 2 years designing in ASD. We're also still using the older load combinations for concrete (1.4D+1.7L) which is allowed, but it is going to get more frustrating when we're forced to switch to AISC 13th Edition (IBC 2006) in the next 2 months here in the DC area.


What should I do?

RC
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke

 

[IRstuff]

It varies. Last company had a desire to maintain certification of systems engineers, and required about 10 days/yr of training.

Current company; less than 5 days/yr

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[Lion06]

I'm 2 years out of school and get quite a bit.
I'm going to a seminar in a couple months. I went to the NCSEA conference. I go to our local SEA meetings (about 5-6 times per year. We sometimes have ASCE webinars.

 

[Gymmeh]

I have gotten none in 1.5yrs.

My new job is sending 3 people to take classes onces a week, I think they are planing on me being one of the three.

 

[whyun]

Instead of limiting the voluntary professional development to so many hours a year, establish an annual budget for training.

Keep track of micro/macro seminars presented by your local SEA and attend those that are beneficial for the type of work you do. Invite vendors for their product seminars (often free sandwiches for everyone). For costly seminars, send one or two senior staff to attend and they can present in-house seminars for rest of the staff.

Professional development doesn't have to be anything formal. Informal discussions about do's and don't's, standard company procedures, etc all contribute to one's professional development.

Also, topics do not necessarily have to be technical. Business and risk management aspects in this industry can help many engineers step up to the next level.

 

[ivymike]

required 40hrs/yr. typically more like 120.

 

[Twoballcane]

In my company, we have so may people with a lot of knowledge, so the company encourages us to have “brown bag seminars”. Basically if you have some sort of specialty, process, idea … ect, you can present it (with slides, models, skits) during the lunch period (over a course of days if desired). I have done two of them already. One was how to use heat transfer software. Since then, I have inspired 3 other engineers to use it and now they are pretty good at it.

I have been to a manufacturing brown bag seminar where I learned their manufacturing process, equipment, what they have typically in stock, …ect. So now when I design, I have a better scope of what to do and not to do.


Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."

 

[marks1080]

I've been at this job for just about 3 months now. I've probably had 10 days of training already, and for the next year I am scheduled for 3 weeks or so of more training.

The company I work for has a 2 year training/development program for engineers, but from what I hear it takes 5 years in this department (field P&C) before you can expect to feel comfortable in most tasks.

 

[dougantholz]

Across many professions I see a once a year out of town multi-day seminar/conference plus a one per month in town seminar as being the gold standard.
My experience is that an engineer should strive to attend 5-10 seminars in town a year, and give one either internally or externally to the company. If you get a good topic then you can find yourself presenting at the national conventions without much trouble. I've been invited to three, and I'm only 10 years out of school for my BSCE.

 

[SylvestreW]

At my first job out of school, the company had a mandate that every new hire, within a year, would have an opportunity to attend one conference. By the same token, we could attend one training session (up to 5 days long, in any city in continental North America).
In addition, we got all the typical safety training stuff (fall arrest, lock-out etc etc)

Otherwise, it was the standard "sink or swim" stuff.

-
Syl.