Should I just give up? 15

[TheMechanicaGenius]

I have had zero luck getting a job actually doing engineering. I had a technology degree and got stuck in a job doing nothing but drafting for five years. I got disgusted and quit. Returned to school to a BSME. Graduated from Penn state with a 3.1 GPA 3.3 in major GPA. Tried to get a job at medium to large sized company and either never got an interview or had an interview and got rejected. I'm now stuck at another job doing drafting. Day in, day out. Just cad and other menial tasks that I could have done in 5th grade. I'll be 33 this month. I am wondering if I should just give up and try another career. I was wondering if anyone has ever been in a situation like this. Will I get to the point where I'll get to do something else or is this experience a dead end? Some people have said if you're in my position at 30 you're stuck in a cubicle doing cad you should just get out of engineering, others say you won't get to do actual engineering until you have many years experience. I really feel like I could do great things but noone will give me a chance. Just feel lost and have no direction or career path. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[MikeHalloran]

I knew a gifted mechanical designer who had spent eight years drawing brackets for fuel lines on one side of aero engines. He had never seen an actual engine, or seen drawings of the other side of the one he had been working on.

I think he was ready to blow his brains out before he came to work for me, in a tiny company making medical devices with lots of electronics, miles of plumbing, and complicated mechanisms. He got a very intense OJT course in designing with plastics, and he got to work on a lot of cool stuff, because we couldn't afford a specialist just for brackets, or for anything else.

The key is 'tiny company'.

That tiny company, sadly, is gone now, subsumed by a rapacious multinational with no soul, which of course didn't need him, or me.

Have faith.
New tiny companies appear every day.
A genius is a person who is willing to fail just one more time...


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[GregLocock]

I agree small company is a more likely to let you start engineering in addition to CAD. You don't mention whether you are prepared to relocate, I have had to relocate for EVERY SINGLE CHANGE OF JOB.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[CheckerHater]

Agree with Mike.

Other key words beside "small company" are "privately owned" which is not always the case.

In a perfect world - owners who still remember how things are actually done.

Place being run by accountants with the sole purpose of pleasing shareholders quickly becomes soulless meat-grinder.

"For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert"
Arthur C. Clarke Profiles of the future

 

[Jboggs]

How flexible are you in your searches? Family restrictions? Willing to move? Anywhere?

Just reading between the lines here, when I read your post I was picturing one or two people I have worked with in the past. Honestly they were their own worst enemy. I'm not saying this applies to you but I will say that people for whom this is the case rarely ever know it themselves. You obviously have a reason to be upset, but really, how big is that chip on your shoulder? Is it coming across to the people that interview you? I could be wrong. I'm just sharing my honest first impression.

One other point, at one point in my career (pre-internet) I was trying to change jobs and mailed out over 150 resumes. Got TWO interviews.

And for what its worth, about small companies. The BEST job I ever had was for a small company. The WORST (and shortest) job I ever had was for a small company. They have their advantages (you wear a lot of hats), but they also have disadvantages (quirky owners and poor funding). Be very careful, and always remain flexible.

 

[truckandbus]

Couple of thoughts-

-try expanding your current role; try becoming more involved in the design process versus doing the detailing.
-keep looking for another position with a different company. You may want to go at it a little differently than scouring the job boards. If you don't want to move, pick a commute radius around your house you would be comfortable with and do a search of manufacturing companies in that radius and target those that interest you
-I know engineers tend to be 'the fixers' but you sound like you may be depressed - talk to a mental health professional about how to best handle this - not necessarily meds but having an outlet to talk to and some good coping skills can go a long way

 

[SkipVought]

If you can be a problem solver, you might be able to make yourself "indispensable."

I got hired (at one of those souless big companies before the corporate office fully encased the acquisition) for one job that I wasn't all that wild about, but very soon discovered a huge need that 'they' didn't even realize existed. Started doing stuff to fill that void. 'They' liked what I was doing and I never did anything else for the 10 years I was there but what I enjoyed doing; solving problems.

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance![/sub]

 

[Latexman]

Years ago, I lived in the same neighborhood as a very famous man. We never met personally. We ran in different circles. He was famous for several things, but one for which he is best remembered was his outlook and philosophy on life. He would say, "Don't give up. Don't ever give up." He was Jim Valvano.

Good luck,
Latexman

Technically, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[SNORGY]

When I graduated in 1983, I had nothing. I begged the government for employment insurance benefits on the basis I of having worked every available day between semesters, and gave them the documentation to prove it. They accepted the argument, and that income funded what became a 56 week long job search. For a while, I was a labourer who made tents. 1200 applications - yes, 1200 applications - later, I got two interviews and one offer. The only reason I got the offer was because it came to me under the conditions of a government-sponsored employment internship program whereby the government paid 75% of my salary. Accordingly, the net cost to my employer was $3.00 CDN per hour. In the first of two years I was there, my job was to put numbers into circles on schematics that I didn't understand and list what numbers had been assigned where. It turns out, that was my introduction to P&ID instrument lists. Then, they made me read catalogs and prepare requisitions for the thingies represented by those numbered bubbles. I did all kinds of goofy things like recommending gas actuated thermometers where bimetallic were clearly intended, but they smiled, politely helped me correct mistakes, and let me work through it. Then, when everything was bought, they sent me to various shops and field locations to check off that the right thingies got delivered to the right places. By the time that year was over, I had physically seen and touched just about every on line instrument device that went into a heavy oil battery.

After that assignment, they sent me to a field location for 7 months to be a site inspector for canal embankment construction. Most of what I did was compaction testing on the various clay fills that were used, but I also shovelled random samples of armour and rip-rap into sampling buckets to ensure those materials were installed to specification as well. I lived in a rented single-wide trailer in a town of 1500 people through the dead of winter and drove about 200-300 km per day with shovels, buckets, spikes, sledgehammers and a nuclear densometer bouncing around in the back of a stripped out cube van. By the time I finished that assignment, I could pick up a lump of clay in my hand and, with uncanny accuracy, estimate the proctor, moisture content, density and whether it could be classified as Zone 1 or Zone 2 fill based on my assessment of its probability to be worked to 95% compaction.

So for two years, I put numbers in circles and played with dirt. Not exactly what I figured "mechanical engineering" was all about, but I hung in there. Indeed, I had unbelievably good mentors who were willing to drop everything to teach me stuff as long as I was willing to work hard. I understand it's harder to find that kind of mentor ship or employer commitment in these times, but I am inclined to suggest just hanging in there and looking for a mentor or two.

Interestingly enough, about 7 years later, I worked in a place where there was a guy who was hired for the sole purpose of being a document control clerk. This guy just basically assigned numbers to drawings, listed them, and tracked them, and he was good at it, very tenacious. But, for about 5 minutes every day, he would ask me, "Just curious, what's this?" and point to some detail or other on a drawing. He would take the explanation, file it away in his mind, and go about his business. In about a year, he could review those drawings for errors about as well as the responsible engineers, and I don't think it was much longer after that before he morphed his career into becoming an instrumentation technologist - which is what his schooling had intended for him to become.

So...I'd hang in there. It sucks now but it won't forever.

 

[KENAT]

I do a lot of drafting, mostly my own, occasionally for others.

I've also ran several $1000,000 worth of 'special' orders last year & this being the lead on them for one of our major product lines.

I started here as essentially a drafter, but within months folks were looking to move me into engineering based on the work I was doing etc.

Not sure if that helps, or makes you feel worse, but there you have it.

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[MintJulep]

I've read your post a few times and I can't tell what you want to do.

Do you know what it is that you want to do?

If no: Figure that out. Now.

If yes: You need to be more targeted than "Tried to get a job at medium to large sized company".

 

[IRstuff]

Persistence, and often dogged persistence, is sometimes needed to achieve one's goals. How many resumes did you send out? I've seen people here that have sent out hundreds of resumes, looking for a job, and would send out hundreds more if that's what it took. Has anyone reviewed your resume or your cover letters? I've seen people that have awful resumes or cover letters, and often, their attitudes come through, even in the sparsity of a resume. How do your resume and cover letter demonstrate that you are the solution to that particular company's problems. Your resume and cover letter should say much more that "pick me, pick me;" they need to say "pick me because I'm the right choice for you because of A, B, C, etc." A resume and cover letter are marketing documents; they market you. Mythbusters proved that you can polish a turd, so if that's what's required, then you need to do so.

You seem to be more bored at your current job, rather than having a deep passion to do "engineering." What have you done on your own time? What can you point to as evidence of you're being "TheMechanicaGenius" that you seem to think you are?

TTFN
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Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
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[GregLocock]

Just to add to the numbers/persistence meme, for my first job I contacted every single company in the fields I was interested in, in the country, and handwrote a letter to them, and filled in every application form I had back, and went to the resulting interviews. So that was about 100 letters, 20 application forms, 6 interviews, and 2 firm offers. At the time I was studying for my final year at school, so I had essentially zero spare time except at weekends.

So, frankly, genii need to bear in mind that it is 99% hard work, 1% inspiration. Self proclaimed ones even more.



Cheers

Greg Locock


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[Rich86]

I realize you are frustrated but there are several things you can you to help yourself:

Based on the Penn State reference, I assume you are US-based. If you haven't already done so, take the first part of the PE exam. Your experience won't (yet) qualify for full licensure, but get the first part out of the way. Make sure your current management knows when this has been successfully completed.

Joint the ASME, or another professional group, and actually attend the local chapter meetings; speak with others in your area and find out what they are doing. Maybe the market in your local area is part of the problem.

You may want to get some feedback on your resume (and cover letters) to ensure they are highlighting your strengths and position you in the best possible light.

Lastly, you may need to recalibrate your thinking. Operate from the mental position that you are a degreed engineer (and hopefully an EIT in the near future) and that the situation will improve. The fact is, as others have stated, drafting-related work is a fairly big part of the design process. It's not untrue to say that you are currently a designer, seeking a design engineering position. You might want to market yourself in that way.

Don't give up - unless you really don't want to be in the field. We have all done our share of grunt work; it goes with the territory. If the job itself isn't yet providing what you want from the engineering field, focus on improving your position and assume the next one will. Good luck.

 

[BigBoyBob]

Hang in there, dude.
At the very least, you are getting paid pretty well to be bored. I just graduated with a BSME at the fresh young age of 39. I came off the factory floor because I realized that my body wouldn't hold out forever (at the quality of life I desired). I have days that I really miss the pace of the floor, but my fall-back is always "Hey, you're bored today, but your'e being paid well to be bored."

Based on my own personal experience, I can tell you that I look at my job as a means to pay for the things I am passionate about. Pursue the things you love in your free time, grind at work. I don't expect my work experience to be more than tolerable, and certainly I don't expect to be fulfilled by my work. Part of that is because there is no one that is going to pay me to do the things I love to do (will someone please hire me to be a professional fisherman/crocheter/hobby farmer/carpenter/gamer/hunter?), and part of that is because I focus primarily on my family as the center of my life. YMMV, but that mindset has gotten me through some stressful and some mind-numbingly boring days.

Even if all you want to do is engineering, you can pursue your interests in your free time. Maybe no one will pay you for it now, but you'll be happier for it. And it may come in handy down the line. You never know.

 

[IRstuff]

Obviously, that's sort of the Holy Grail, to be passionate about something, and to be paid very well for it. Even some gamers have found a way to make a living playing games. While there's likely lots of situations where you suffer the vicissitudes of some types of work to pay for your pursuits, that isn't necessarily a good thing. There's bound to be higher stress, and if you hate your job, you're probably not going to be particularly motivated to do well at it, which further degrades the job situation.

TTFN
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There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com:

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[Ron]

MG...you've chosen a frustrating but rewarding career. I won't repeat what the others have said...which is very good by the way....just chin up and don't give up....

Latexman...thank you for reminding all that Jimmy V was a true inspiration. Since 2006 the Delta Chi fraternity has partnered with the V Foundation to raise money for cancer research. There is no better cause in my opinion. Each Chapter commits to the V Foundation each year under the premise "Don't Give Up....Don't Ever Give Up". My son and I are Delta Chi brothers and proud to support the Jimmy V Foundation.

 

[JedClampett]

When I went to school, many centuries ago, the university placement office said they would help out graduates even several years out. I had never had to call them on that. But maybe you should.
You have a ready made source of leads and interviews. Plus with a few years experience, you might stand out (in a good way) from the new graduates.

 

[KENAT]

TheMechanicaGenius, just out of interest what do you consider to be "Engineering"?

For me doing detail design of parts to meet functional requirements and ensure manufacturability and then capturing this information in 3D & 2D CAD, applying appropriate tolerances in drawings that meet industry standards... counts somewhat as Engineering.

If you are literally just taking hand sketches or something and then putting them into CAD maybe not but if you're doing some level of design then yes, and it should give you a chance to show your capability so you get more responsibility.

Are you doing the CAD work & drafting well? After all these years do you have a good understanding of how to create a good drawing that complies with industry standards? Do you know to properly apply geometric controls to ASME Y14.5 or other relevant spec? You know and apply modelling best practices? Or, because you see drafting as below you have you been doing the minimum to keep a pay check coming in?

While I may have been in error, my view point was that if my job required me to do CAD & drafting I was going to learn to do it as well as I possibly could. So I don't have much sympathy for those that whine about doing their own drafting & CAD or even worse refuse to do a good job/just scrape by (not saying this necessarily applies to you). If you aren't willing to do one of your job responsibilities well you should find another job - which in fairness it appears from this thread you are trying to do.

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[RolMec]

MG, you're still one up: You want to do something. Use this, it's yours. Then also you have a competence.
Been a "draftsperson" quite a long time, got to engineer by proposing solutions and speaking out when there was a thing to say. There's a place and a time, you shall surely have a chance to chip in something someday, don't you? Play the GENIUS card, seems you tell us it's on your deck ?! ;-)

If seeking another carreer, why not making up some business of your own? Get some background on commercial / BA and perhaps dig out some funding? Be & speak local, look what's needed around you.
If nothing comes up, why not staying & making do? It's rather the mirror than the paycheck that gives the answer to a self-esteem in question.
Best of luck!