Somebody not qualified had been assigned to supervise me. 7

[rQuestionEngineering]

Somebody (generalist ) not qualified had been assigned to supervise me ( specialist) .
Every discussion looks like a tutoring session.
When it comes to critical decision making and review inputs, the supervisor tends to be philosophical and it is clearly babbling without the relevant substance.

Apart from resigning and move to a new company , what else can I do to improve myself pass my supervisor ?

 

[LittleInch]

Do you have another route?

Head of department or project?

Quality manager?

Then express your concerns in terms of quality mgt, quality control and company liability.

We can all make mistakes and errors so need suitably qualified and experienced people to check and verify and also discuss technical issues with. If this person isn't it then you need to say so, just avoid personal criticism and concentrate on the quality and liability aspect.

The individual themselves must surely be feeling uncomfortable in this role but has maybe been placed there and is uncomfortable saying "I'm not the right person for this role"

Is all a bit vague at the moment.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[GregLocock]

If you are in the technical stream this will happen throughout your career, increasingly often. So, you have to manage the supervisor. Once they trust you and if you are lucky they will confine themselves to important supervisor type jobs like the timecards, and leave the technical stuff to you. The worst ones are the ones who think they know your job, or are micromanagers. My not especially brilliant tactic there is to wait for them to get re-orged or promoted.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[CWB1]

As you move up the org chart you should find many managers with zero experience in their staff's field. If you didnt then the CEO would only be qualified if they had worked every role in the company - absurd. Thankfully as engineers we are ethically bound to conducting PEER review, not management review of our work. Your manager may sit in on design reviews, ask technical questions, change staff assignments, or even cancel projects if they're concerned....but ultimately their job is to ensure that their staff are following good process and remove roadblocks, not to ensure that your work is technically correct. Managers simply dont have time to know every relevant detail of every project their staff is working on, only the risky ones, hence why its called managing staff and not checking details.

Given your other posts and the basic nature of this one I would respectfully suggest a vacation and focus on improving your attitude and experience.

 

[geesaman.d]

You need to learn what's important to your supervisor and convey your status and outlook in their terms.

Rambling in engineering-speak about engineering-level problems is a waste of their time and it won't help you. Even if they 'understand' what you're saying, they won't have the experience to create an overall context from the pile of engineering details so that they can supervise you / your activities effectively. When it comes to including them in technical decision points, which does need to happen sometimes, you need to convey the risks, potential rewards, and always estimated costs (hours, lead time, material costs) for the options.

There are some supervisors who pretend to be engineers and want to always dive in. Maybe they really find it interesting to much around in the details and try to translate it back to generalist concepts. Whatever, one or both sides of this relationship needs to cut through the cloud of time-wasting and communicate what matters.

 

[weldstan]

Your situation often occurs. Get over it. What you really want from your supervisor is promoting your good work and the work of your group to others in management.

 

[geesaman.d]

Apart from resigning and move to a new company , what else can I do to improve myself pass my supervisor ?

BTW you are not prepared to move past your supervisor in the organization if you can't work for a generalist. Plan to stay at the bottom in Engineering if you require another engineer to be your supervisor.

 

[ThomasH]

@rQuestionEngineering

I see that you have started several threads on the same theme. But you have not offered much feedback beyond the initial post.

There is a lot we don't know about your current situation but in my experience, there is a lot of good engineers that are promoted to supervising positions. And that is not always a good move. But I don't understand what you want for yourself. Do you also want to be a supervisor?

 

[coloeng]

Based on the four threads that you have started, I would recommend that you find somewhere else to work.

 

[IRstuff]

I would recommend that you find somewhere else to work.

Pogo's assertion comes to mind, "We have met the enemy and he is us" It may be the case that the OP is truly being oppressed and might therefore truly benefit from a change in scenery, but I'm 80% certain that's not going to be the case.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[IRstuff]

I find that "unqualified" supervisors, per se, aren't an issue, PROVIDED they heed the advice of the experts whose salaries they pay. It's when these supervisors think they know more, or are willing to "bet on the come" that issues can arise. In some rather famous cases, engineers who become CEOs can strangle a company into nonexistence; Wang Computers is one such case, where a detail-oriented engineering type ran the company into the ground by micromanaging everything and not paying attention to the problems that weren't directly engineering related.

I worked for a similar type, who would be cranking solutions to PDEs and posing minutiae-detailed technical questions at design reviews while being general manager, but he couldn't be bothered to run the business part with the same zeal or level of detail.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

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