Proposal Engineer 10

[Etrier60]

Hello everyone, I need your feedback on my situation.

I am a process engineer with ten years of experience. Four years ago I moved to our Proposals Department. Pay is better that what I was making as a process engineer.
Hello everyone, I need your feedback on my situation.

However, I am missing the engineering challenges and I am pretty much fed up with writing proposals. I don't enjoy this at all anymore.

There was an opening for an engineer position at my current company but I was told I am too good as a proposal engineer to be considered for the new position.

I don't know what to do and I am afraid that if I am staying in the proposals department, I will never be able to get back to engineering.

Has any of you been in a Proposal Engineer role before? Was the switch back to engineering possible?

 

[Etrier60]

This is a double post. I want to delete it but I don't know how.

 

[Latexman]

Click the link "Inappropriate Post? If so, Red Flag it!" beneath the post.

Tell them it's a double post.

Good luck,
Latexman

 

[TheTick]

You are paid more as a proposal engineer because your employer sees that job as more valuable. After all, you determine how much money they make, and making money is important.

Lateral moves can be tough, for the reason you state above. No one wants to give up an employee that works well in his current position. About the only way I know to get them to let you move is dogged campaigning, spiced with the notion that you are determined to find the job you want somewhere.

 

[SomptingGuy]

"spiced with the notion that you are determined to find the job you want somewhere"

I used that one before. Having already made up my mind what I wanted to do, I made it clear that I'd rather do it with the current company, but didn't need to.

- Steve

 

[controlsdude]

I had one of those jobs, after I automated the proprosals I went looking for another job. I did not like writing proposals either, turned out so boring. It was forced on me since I kept finding their mistakes in the engineering area. Sounds like they got you pegged to this position since you do it so well.

Automate it so anybody can do it, then show them that and see if you can still return to engineering. Tell them I can assist the person who takes over as an engineering guru if needed. So they will be happy and you will too.


If not then just start looking for a job.

 

[MintJulep]

Companies that care about their employees make an effort to keep employees happy.

You have been told that the company cares more about itself than about you.

A resume is no different than a proposal. Since you are apparently good at writing proposals it's time to write one for yourself.

 

[TheTick]

It sucks when someone discovers you are good at something you hate to do.

 

[rbulsara]

Star for Tick.

Etrier:
You have a lot of time to enhance your career. Not sure what the difference is in the salaries, but if you love engineering, I would look for another job. I am sure you can earn better salary with right engineering experience. Do what you love to do.

Rafiq Bulsara

http://www.srengineersct.com

 

[SiliconeAurora]

Etrier, at least be happy you have been told that you're too good at what you do for them to want you to do something else. I think a lot of us would kill for that sort of job security.

But yes, you're probably stuck there. Once people transfer off the floor they rarely seem to ever go back. Since you've already tried the reasonable approach with your company, it's probably time to look for another.

 

[Etrier60]

Thank you all for your feedback. I guess the only way to get back to engineering is to switch employers.

I'll keep you posted on my resume "hit rate" .

Regards,
Etrier60.

 

[IRstuff]

Perhaps you should revisit a discussion with your employers and suggest that you spend 50% of your time doing engineering, and 50% on proposals, which would be better than if you went away and spent 0% on proposals in your current company. They, hopefully, will see that you don't want to leave, and if they want some output from you, they'll need to yield a little.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
Chinese prisoner wins Nobel Peace Prize

 

[PeterStock]

Maybe you should see if you could do engineering on the projects you write proposals for.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services

http://www.infotechpr.net

 

[racookpe1978]

Did you ever consider that EVERYBODY's else's job in the company - including yours! - requires that your company "make money" every year, hopefully on every bid or proposal YOU review?

My dad once pointed out that the first line of every corporate yearly report BEGINS with "Sales"? (Engineers, by comparison are listed somewhere below under "Salaries and Other Expenses".)

Without "Sales" your company dies. Your proposals are the foundation that determines whether a proposal is possible; and, if the sale is made based on the proposal made to the customer, whether you make money or lose money on the resulting job. Do either wrong (too high or too low) too many times and you lose.

 

[KENAT]

Well I spent a bunch of time doing proposals but still kept a toe in engineering.

Switched employer for other reasons and now spend effectively no time on it other than occasionally how long a specific engineering task will take.

Can you speak to your manager about it?

My directer is determined to get me into a CAD Admin type role, something I don't want to do and don't think I'll be that good at and in which the specific task he wants done I happen to think is a bad idea. I've spoken to my direct manager about this and he supports me though it's not clear yet if that's enough, so as a back up I'm trying to fit in some resume polishing.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

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

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

 

[Etrier60]

IRstuff and KENAT: I already approached my employer when they had an opening for a process engineer, without any results.

PeterStock: There is an engineering department that handles project execution. On the engineering side, I am only doing preliminary design, answer technical clarifications and sometimes meet with customer's engineers to discuss the details.

racookpe1978: I agree with you, it feels like there is more job security in sales and historically, sales is the last department where they will cut jobs.

I have learned a lot on the commercial side of the business and I’ve got to know a lot of people. However, I need a change; I believe if I will stay in this position it will hurt my engineering career in the long run.

 

[FSS]

Wow, I did not know there was such a thing as a Proposal Engineer. That's a new one for me. I only get to be that part of the time. Other times I am the Get the Work Done Engineer or Get the Client to Pay Engineer. I especially enjoy the Answer the Phone Engineer and Take Out the Trash Engineer.

Sorry to derail the post, but us small guys sometimes have trouble relating to all the BS seen at the large companies (and I even have some big company war stories of my own).

 

[SiliconeAurora]

racookpe: I don't think anyone was arguing that the OP's job was unimportant. The problem is that he really doesn't enjoy it at all. Waste disposal is certainly vital for keeping society going, but that doesn't mean that knowing this fact makes it any less unpleasant to be a garbageman.

He certainly has the job security as a proposal engineer, so that's nice, but it seems like the general displeasure with the position is outweighting that fact alone.

 

[Yagonyonok]

Time to slip a little line into the next proposal that says that you will be the one doing the work.

Use of product voids warranty.

 

[a2mfk]

I guess it depends on the size of your company. Smaller consulting firms (less than 50) usually just have one of the bosses/owners do the proposals, with some feedback from the design staff on time, technical issues, etc. Like FSS when I ran my own little 2 man SE firm, I was all of those guys including the Office Depot Engineer, my favorite position. Sorry, I have an interest in office products.

Follow your heart, proposal experience is valuable but its not that hard after a while, of course that is dependent on the complexity of your projects. If you prefer doing design, try to get back into that. Really pretty simple, other than obstacles put in your way by your employer. "With this economy" you may just need to stay put to keep your job...