To be an expert in one specific engineering course/subject VS know all of them a little? 3

[youngEngineer818]

Hello All,
I am a young Engineer with BSME and one year experience in designing pressure vessel parts. My goal is to learn and apply specific skills to become a successful engineer. I have a lot of different options. For example, Autodesk inventor modeling, GD&T and checking drawings, manufacturing processes, Stress Analysis of different solid shapes. Please suggest me more if you can.

I want to invest on myself early in my career so I can be successful in future. I have two questions here.

1) Is it better to be an expert(spending thousand of hours ) on one or just know all of them to some extent?
2) In Mechanical Engineering, people with what kind of skills are getting paid the most?

I have also thought of getting a MS degree in Engineering Management. I will wait for your reply. Thank you All.

 

[KENAT]

$200K within 10 years, well I'm pretty well paid and am some ways into my career not entry level like you, even if I got 3% annual raises for next 10 years I'd not be at $200k.

So, as it's all about the money for you I suggest either looking at more lucrative fields you can peddle your skills in or else management route.

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[GregLocock]

I gotta git me into pressure vessel design, there's gold in them thar tanks. Whoever knew?

Funny money targets aside, at this stage in your career you need to do a bit of both, you need to become an expert in your day job, but you should also be taking an interest elsewhere. I got pigeonholed to some extent in my second year out of uni, and for the following 20 years found it very difficult to move out of that lucrative if rather repetitive field into other areas that interested me.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[MacGyverS2000]

There are very few people I know who make $200k a year... among those that do are high-level managers, those with clearances and many years of experience, etc. It sounds like a great goal, but few will get there.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[JMirisola]

As the others have alluded to, $200k with what will be 11 years experience? Well, we all need to have dreams.
You'll need to either become the ultimate authority on some subject, who is called upon by numerous, deep-pocketed companies to come in and consult, or go the management route. Even if you were to get your MBA though, you'd still be hard-pressed to rise up to $200k/yr in ten years.


Jeff Mirisola, CSWE
My Blog

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

Got a BSEE from Lehigh University some 50 years ago.

Ended up my career as a software engineer, for the last 20 years doing what I really really enjoyed getting out of bed for nearly every day, for much less than I would have made in my original discipline.

Although money is important, it is not the most important factor in a meaningful, rewarding, purposeful life. Notice life is not equivalent to career. "The love of money is the root of all evil."

Skip,
Primarily posting in Tek-Tips.

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

 

[IRstuff]

Even if you currently make $100k, you'd still need 7.2% raises yearly to get to $200k. The question you need to ask yourself is whether you are worth that much to the company. Does your company grow at that rate? Do you even know what rate your company grows at?


You're obviously one of those young bull types, but those that burn the brightest tend to burn out sooner. Sarcastic remarks about the dark side not withstanding, a management path typically leads to higher pay, but that potentially comes at a price. I knew someone who was on track to be general manager of a major aerospace division by age 35, but even he turned down the first chance he got because it required him to uproot his family. Management typically demands an unbalanced family life, so if you are willing to take that on, then that's OK. Regardless, taking the management path means that you must sever your engineering ties. You cannot realistically wear those two hats at the same time.

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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[ZDR1985]

Now I know why there are so many western expats here in the middle east, they make that lot of money tax free.

As for your question, I prefer to be specific in my area of interest, that way you know the path you are going to.

Big paycheck is not the measure of success.

 

[IRstuff]

Actually, I think US citizens are still required to pay taxes on foreign income.

TTFN
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[GregLocock]

If it works like most countries, you are expected to apy the tax you would have paid at home, less the tax you paid to the country where you work.

That actually has quite bizarre implications. That's why multinationals

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[Guest262653]

These come to mind immediately:

"Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless."

and

"Remember, a Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware. Anger, fear, aggression. The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."

Couldn't help it.

 

[ZDR1985]

In my home country Philippines, overseas workers are exempted from income taxes, and airport fees. The only benefit being in a third world country

 

[urgross]

Play the lottery. Or become a male gigolo.

 

[HamburgerHelper]

I think you have to happen to fall into a speciality that is in extremely high demand like something in oil and gas when things are booming but even that is very cyclical. I have heard of piping designers getting north of 70 dollars an hour but that was only for few years. You probably would have a better chance in finance, medicine, or law to hit the numbers you are hoping to hit.

 

[zdas04]

One unfortunate phrase at the end of the post has completely derailed the thread. You are not going to be making $200k at 11 years as an engineer working for someone else. You could do it as an investment banker or day trader, but not as an engineer.

Now to the basic question.

I know a lot of people who dug themselves into a very narrow niche for an entire career. Pipe modelers. Stress Engineers. Code Compliance. Rotating Equipment. etc. I went the other way. I can talk to all those guys about their specialties and I see a lot of them that do not really have 30 years experience as a Rotating Equipment engineer, but instead they have about a year of experience 30 times. Mostly they seem happy (if incredibly pedantic) and more of them are satisfied with their pay than not. It would drive me up a wall to think that every day for a career I would be limited to doing what I did the day before. That is just me.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[TheTick]

Why do you expect to be an expert in only one thing?

 

[youngEngineer818]

Hello All,

Thanks to everyone who replied. I think I made a mistake by including the last three lines of this thread because most of you decided to comment on that but not the main questions.

Usually in our life time, we can either be an expert in one field or know all of them to some limit.

TheTick:
Because most likely you can be the only one who knows the subject from real depth.

 

[KENAT]

There have been previous posts touching on this, maybe take a look.

thread731-195603

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[Maui]

Once you become well versed in a certain discipline, your level of expertise depends upon your depth of understanding and knowledge. Are you an expert when you can do the work without any supervision, or are you an expert when you can teach it to others? Are you an expert when you become the go-to guy for making the final decisions, or are you an expert when you can write an in-depth article on the subject in a peer-reviewed magazine or journal? You won't be able to get to that point without picking up a lot of other knowledge along the way.

One characteristic that often distinguishes experts from posers is that they know the limits of their own knowledge and understanding. And they tend not to venture beyond it when dispensing advice without making it VERY clear that anything beyond what they already gave you is mere speculation.

Maui

 

[IRstuff]

Well, the $200k issue was a nice numerical problem, which obviously appeals to engineers ;-)

As for what you were trying to ask about; it depends, and your mileage may vary. It's flippant, but that's the nature of the subject you're asking about. There are those that succeed very well as experts, and there are those experts that get laid off because they're too specialized and can't have enough work to justify their existence. In my arena, we've had a chronic shortage of one particular expertise; twice, the person left because they got bored, and one, we laid the person off. In other words, feel free to specialize, but don't give up your day job. Likewise, generalists can be useful; being that I'm one, I'd like to think that. That said, not all generalists are created equal. I've survived a number of layoffs that took my fellow generalists and I'd like to attribute that to a combination of being able to pick up enough knowledge to be dangerous, and being a reasonably good presenter/communicator.

The best suggestion that I can offer is that you should do what interests you the most, assuming that's a viable career choice, since that's where you're mostly like to be successful at your job. If you're a success, then most everything else will fall in line.

TTFN
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