Starting new job mid-career - What advice to learn from my past? 9

[ParabolicTet]

I got laid off after spending 16 years as an engineer at a Fortune 100 company. I was never into leadership, so remained an "individual contributor". My job career was unique in that for many years I hardly had enough work to do. It was a combination of laid back bosses and go-getter co-workers who enjoyed doing everything themselves. I also never could really connect with my co-workers. Most came from small towns and had nothing better to do or talk about than work. To me it seemed they were always "busy doing nothing". For the last five years of my career I worked from home in a much bigger city nearby.

My job was providing high-end technical support to R&D engineers. But I would make it clear to people I was not there to hold their hands. They had to have a basic understanding of things and it was not my job to teach them that. With this attitude I minimized a lot of unnecessary work. At the same time, some folks may have seen me as "unapproachable". So it was a delicate balance trying to please the power users without offending the newbies.

As a result I invested my spare time in a side-business, managing rental properties and churning credit cards. I also invested my time reading up on investing and taxes.

Anyways, I've been unemployed for 7 months, but will be starting a new job soon. I want to start things on a new leaf. What advise would you have for succeeding in corporate jobs? From my experience, one should never say NO to anyone's request. The challenge with this is you get overloaded and spread yourself too thin. How does one manage that successfully?

My side-business has shrunken a lot so I no longer spend much time on it. I recently hired a property manager for my rentals, so that has taken a load off me. Last, credit card churning is almost done as banks have all cracked down on it. So I have plenty of time to devote to my new career!

 

[awhicker84]

This is interesting.

The hand holding that you don't like is actually somewhat engineering related. I don't like holding unnecessary hands either, but my complaints come from doing Sourcing's job or Application Engineering's job when I know that they could / should do the job themselves. It really overloads me. I try to give solutions to their teams, but get overridden by terrible management. (I'm taking a break from work right now to calm down due to my stress. I needed a relaxer)

However, I'm always open for actual training sessions IF the participants are going to use the knowledge in the future.. sort of the "teach a man to fish' thing.

Plus, I think it's a piss poor attitude to suggest that learning software is just learning what happens when you type 'xyz'. A lot of actual / practical knowledge is 'the results tend fall on the conservative side with this software' or 'the best way we found to get accurate results to is to do this..'. That's the reason you're paid well. Not because you can repeat the Help menu by heart.

Maybe I misunderstand your job though.. (I personally think FEA should be something I (BSME) sub out to a FEA specialist, but that's a different story)

 

[IRstuff]

We have no "FEA specialist;" all of our MEs are expected to run their own analyses. There's enough horsepower in modern computers that you can spawn FEA jobs and then work on something else at the same time.

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

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

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[IssacFreeman]

here's a thought that popped up as I read your post - did you ever find out why your position was terminated? If there were over 500 engineers that required support - why did they end the position? one quick learning would be to find out the why and prevent that from happening again?
1. was it because you were working from home?
2. not enough proactive interaction with your 'laid back' bosses?

etc.etc.

for every role I was involved in, my goal would be to find what sort of metrics i would be compared against, and what targets that are internally set for me to meet and exceed. in a general support role - it'd be difficult, but possible. have you thought about finding the key measures of your own success (or derive some), and discuss this in a recurring sense with your manager?

I'd say part of process metrics and people metrics would be good for you to think about for your next role.

https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/18-key-performance-indicators/

 

[rotw]

"I'd say part of process metrics and people metrics would be good for you to think about for your next role.

https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/18-key-performa..."

Process metrics, people metrics, scorecards...
Real recipe for disaster...

Take it easy, just kidding a bit

 

[MortenA]

I would recommend that you consider that in your new job they will do things differently than where you were before. Dont say "in my old job" as the first response but try to listen and understand why there is a difference.

Best regards, Morten

 

[CWB1]

JMO but a key to being successful in any role is to know your colleagues well enough to fit on a team. Esprit de corps. Push yourself to open up a bit and be a bit more outgoing so others see you as approachable and a smiling face rather than cold and distant. Help others in your department when you can but also make a point of going to lunch with and/or using other opportunities to get to know others outside your department whom you interact with. Sales, marketing, and customer service guys are usually up for conversation and can often speak volumes about the product so they're often a good starting point.

I'd also recommend being very careful regarding "its not my job." While I understand your previous situation having dealt with many similarly clueless engineers myself (teaching CFD actually), that's typically not viewed as a good answer unless the extra responsibility is truly monumental AND the magnitude of the work is clearly communicated/understood. No doubt you've run into that bc in your example some folks are clueless about FEA complexity and the breadth of required knowledge, the key is politely helping them to understand the absurdity of their request for you to teach it.

Good luck either way.

 

[lacajun]

I've seen some professors teach inadequately prepared students the basics to get through a course in which they lacked pre-requisites. Throughout my years, people are always helping people. It's part of life.

A friend of mine worked a software help desk but learned, after many years, that he didn't like it. He wanted to teach. He just graduated with his Ph.D. in Computer Science and is now teaching. Maybe you need to find something you really enjoy and go after it.

And remember, people applying the software are in the trenches doing work. If you were one of them, your vantage point may be more like theirs rather than the Subject Matter Expert.

And, if you want to connect with others, you have to be interested in them, too. There is a hint of "not enough in common" on your part, with your peers. They'll get it.

Good luck with the new job.


Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC