Travel and the Engineering Profession 13

[nornrich]

Since graduating from University 8 years ago, I have worked in small, medium and large size companies. In all the size ranges it seems that to be an engineer these days requires a commitment to travel. The level has ranged from 30% to 75% depending on the scope of the project. I was curious if this is de rigueur for the profession as a whole or if the career path I have chosen has led to this point?

The other question would be of a more personal nature and that is how to balance family life with career. On the projects where the level of commitment is over 50% most of the "older" engineers involved seem to be working on 2nd or 3rd marriages. It seems that the number of marriages increases in direct proportion to the amount of travel. Is this an inevitability if you travel more then 30-40%?


Richard Nornhold, PE
nornrich@redrose.net

 

[JayMaechtlen]

Travel depends on the type of work that you do, in what industry.
I've travelled some (sometimes a lot!) but that's because I work for a company that sells equipment (machine tools) all over the US. Some of my duties have taken me into the field in various roles. Some of the engineers here travel less than I have, some much more.
Then there are the service engineers- they live on the road. Nearly the same for some of our instructors. Not for me!

I am still on my first marriage, almost 19 years!
As you look at people in general, the divorce rate is not real encouraging...

The personality of people who get into major travelling situations may not be as suited to marriage, plus the travel does add stress!
Your Mileage May Vary...

cheers
Jay

 

[TheBlacksmith]

I see these as separate issues. Travel can be extensive with any job, engineering included. And its not limited to entry positions. I have seen many presidents/CEOs that are at the beck and call of the board. Likewise, many people become buried in their work, whether it involves a lot of travel or just a lot of hours in the home office, after normal hours and weekends, to the exclusion of their personnel life. Finally, as Jay points out, the divorce rate is pretty high overall. Me - married since Dec '79, through a Naval career, 4 1/2 years as a traveling instructor/salesman and now a ship design engineer. I saw all my jobs as lasting "only" a couple of decades, the marriage lasting a lifetime and try to put my priorities right.

Blacksmith

 

[vpl]

Nornrich

I have to agree with the two previous posts on this issue. When I interviewed with my current employer (whom I've now worked for 14 years), I knew the job would involve travel. And as the "belt's been tightened" (to do more work with fewer people), the travel's gone up. I'm sure there are jobs that don't require travel, for me, in the nuclear industry, it would involve working at a plant. You just need to look around. However, even if you don't travel, you can still get wrapped up in work to the detriment of your personal life.

Looking at the personal side, I agree you have to decide what balance you want between your personal and professional life. I don't subscribe to the "have it all" outlook: many, many businesses expect their employees to give "24/7" - and we have a saying here (I work for the government): "If the government wanted you to have a family, they'd issue you one!" I long ago made the choice that my family was most important for me - even given the amount of travel I do. Therefore, I turn down extra assignments, don't work overtime, and have accepted that I won't ever make into the management ranks. However, I will be shortly celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary and have a reasonably good relationship with both my kids. Patricia Lougheed

 

[JamesBarlow]

Very interesting post.

I have always made a point to not look for jobs with a lot of travel. I may be asked to go for a week or two every couple of months, but for the most part I don't travel. I have, on occasion, asked to not be sent because I didn't want to be away from my family for extended periods.

Concerning the balance, my life dosn't have any better balance than the guys who travel. I am either working or with my family. I am also in graduate school, which take a lot of my time as well. I have a small amount of balance by not having any real hobbies. I laugh when I hear someone say they never see their kids because of work, yet have six hours to spare on the weekend for a round of golf.

You just need to decide what is important to you and were you want to be in X number of years, and live the life that will get you there.

Since I am on a roll I thought I might vent a little about the "oldtimers" as well. I have worked for some of them, and I think alot of the divorce you see is more from their attitude twords women that it is about their jobs. I remember the first time I got a call from daycare that I needed to pick my daughter up because she was sick. I went to tell my boss and he said isn't that your wifes job. You get the sense that many of them are still living in the 1950's, were they got maried to have someone to raise their kids. Thank god for forced retirement.

 

[quark]

To All!

It may be inappropriate for me to comment on this as I seldom travel in work and yet to get married. But I think travelling in work vs divorce is a question of understanding. (if not sacrifying one's interests) Any extra time we spend watching TV or working with individual iterest can be used to offset it.

Taking up extra assingments is totally subjective. (Ain't Buddha said 'wishes are the causes of sorrow') You don't work hard to satisfy your family and still you get a divorce.

Do paranoids really survive?

Regards,

Truth: Even the hardest of the problems will have atleast one simple solution. Mine may not be one.

 

[austim]

Just a brief word to James Barlow from one of the 'oldtimers'. Your view on 'forced retirement' could well be different in 30 years time.

I for one, did not marry so that I would have "someone to raise my kids". I just knew that my life would be incomplete if I could not share it with the young lady who consented to be my wife. And I still thank God that she did.

As for travel - most of ours came in one single trip - from UK to Aus. My father-in-law's one comment was very much to the point "If you didn't want to travel, you shouldn't have married an engineer".

My Grandfather travelled around as a civil engineer, my parents married in India where my father worked as a civil engineer. I have really not travelled very much. One 40+ year trip to Australia, two 2-6 week visits to Hong Kong and East Kalimantan, a few 2-3 day trips here and there.

It all depends on the type of work that excites you. In my case, that has been structural design of bridges, wharves and major temporary work. That is essentially office based, and may not involve much travel. If, on the other hand, you hanker to be out there translating drawings to reality, then travel may be inevitable, as you go from one major project to another.

 

[Qshake]

Austim, Great advice..."what goes around comes around".

As an "oldtimer" I agree with many of the posts that encourage you to define what it is you want and strive to make it work. However, let me opin a little...making something work which involves at least two individuals takes the commitments of both. When entering a relationship don't beat around the bush about your work, what it means to you and the commitment you must must have as a professional. Let them know what they can expect from you in return and live up to it; no early broken promises. The more your future spouse understands this the better. If the other person cannont accept this then you need to look elsewhere for commitment.

 

[StressGuy]

Personally, I went into engineering in part becuase I didn't want to travel or work a bunch of absurd hours. A lot more money can be made in sales or other such fields for those who want to travel and computer programming for those who want to work 40+ hours on a routine basis.

Went it came time for interviews, I specifically ignored the convential advice and wore my wedding ring to all my interviews. Did it cost me some offers? Probably.

But, if an interviewer were to see my ring and conclude that I'm not likely to be open to work 80 hour weeks and travel around the world at a moment's notice becuase I'm already married, that interviewer would be correct and I wouldn't want an offer from such a company anyway.

For me, my family is the driving reason that I get up every day and go to work. 100 years from now, no one will know or care about the widget you worked on that was part of a subassembly of some giant machine. However, your great great grandkids will at least care that I was a good enough spouse and parent to hopefully pass on a good family life and upbringing down through the line. Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

 

[MortenA]

nonrich:

I have my self traveled quite a lot (total 3-4 years during the last 8: 6+14 months a shorter stay of 2 months and periods of pendling mon-fridays - home in the weekends) and i believe that the most important thing with regards to family life is to listen to your partner (may it always is ).

We traveled (for my previous company) as a family and quited liked. We talked about me becoming and independant consultant but in the end we decided agaist it because my wife couldnt get a job that way (to many moves) and because my wife wanted to go home to Denmark.

With regards to your career my personal experience (with just 3 companies) is that they say that it will benefit your career to go abroad but in reality its the one who stay behind and rub elbows (kiss ass?) with the management who benefits the most.

Best Regards

Morten

 

[redtrumpet]

One thing I have noticed about travel and engineering companies is that we are notoriously undercompensated for it. I have several friends in the accounting business who are occasionally sent to a client office in another city for a few weeks and it is de rigeur for them to fly to the client city every Monday morning and back every Friday afternoon on the company tab. You would be lucky to get one paid flight a month from the engineering companies I have worked for, and you would be traveling (unpaid) on your own time, not during normal working hours.

 

[Qshake]

And how! Isn't that amazing Redtrumpet, its like that at our company!! How stereotypical - cheap bas....oops!

 

[TheBlacksmith]

On the compensation - no kidding. I travel on contracts worth 10's of millions and get the third degree on my expense report over $42 worth of per diem because the motel offered a free continental breakfast (bad coffee and stale danish). And its considered a benefit by those doing the inquisition because we get paid travel and they are stuck in the office.

Blacksmith

 

[MortenA]

Well im from Denmark (off-shore upstream engineering) and i would expect any part of norther europe (Norway, UK, the netherlands) to be mon-fri with a paid air-fare every week (home fri evening-sun evening/mon morning) - no less! And i would be surpriced (and a little angry) if this didnt cover all of Western Europe - unless the schedule was very thight

Best Regards

Morten

 

[nornrich]

I haven't found the compensation to be bad. I've had two types of deals. One was a comp time policy, where every hour over 40 was given to you as 1/2 hour of comp time, in addition to combat pay. The other deal was for overtime pay at 1.5 for every hour over 45. And when you are out in the field the hours rack up very quickly.

Morten must be lucky in the position he has found. In my dealings with Western European(Netherlands, France, Poland and Germany) countries the engineers working here in North America or Asia are required to be out for 6 week intervals due to the cost of air travel and the amount of time taken.

Richard Nornhold, PE
nornrich@redrose.net

 

[MortenA]

Im not going to/from the US of course but to/from Denmark (and thats a country in Northern Europe - just north of Germany (a rather large country located sort of center upper part of Europe (no not a moon of Jupiter)));-)

Best Regards

Morten

 

[vpl]

You know Morten, I think I MAY have heard of Denmark. Isn't it one of those countries up near Russia? <VBG> ....maybe we need to start a post on how terrible Americans are at geography - even within their own country!

BTW, as a US government employee who travels frequently, we try to arrange our trips to be on company time Monday and Friday travel. Doesn't always work, but most often it does. However, we're limited to $30 a day for meals and expenses and $55 for hotels, so it's not much of a bargain. Patricia Lougheed

 

[Indyneer]

Quote---&quot;I laugh when I hear someone say they never see their kids because of work, yet have six hours to spare on the weekend for a round of golf. &quot; James Barlow

I hear that. Alot of people seem to think that if they aren't working they should be out golfing with the guys from work. They are the ones who go off the deep end when the company downsizes them. They evidently think that &quot;living to work&quot; will gain them special favors from the accountants during hard times.

 

[piks95]

I've been a Senior E/I&C Designer for over 32 years (haven't worked in over 8 months, due to lack of work) and I really enjoy traveling; seeing the entire country; experiencing how companies do things similar, yet different!

I've been single for 30 years (my personal choice) because most women want &quot;roots&quot;...you can't have roots while traveling with your spouse, unless you have a permanent home waiting for you!

If you know of anyone needing a Senior E/I&C Designer (multitude of industries) and various CAD systems, coupled with extensive Field experience, please contact me!

Thanks!
Skip Best
Houston, TX

 

[electricpete]

There are certainly some jobs with minimum of travel. If you work supporting a single plant location, then chances are you don't travel. If you work contract supporting many customers at different locations, odds are you have to travel.

I feel somewhat lucky to be working as in-house staff at a large industrial facility. My only travel requirement is when I choose to travel for training purposes or to observe motor failure evaluations and testing. Less than a month per year. Of course there are downsides, like everything.

Still on my first marriage. Knock on wood.