Understanding with new engineers

[antd15]

I have been working for almost a month and for the most part I spend most of my time reading reports and info the more experienced engineers send me. I'm starting to get small projects but it's a bit scary. I want to make sure I do things right but obviously lack the experience. Sometimes I just don't know where to start or what to ask.

For those of you who have been in the industry "longer than I have been alive": Are you understanding of the fact that it might take new engineers longer to find answers or solutions? Can someone really ask too many questions?

 

[EngJW]

Don't worry about it. You've probably got 35 years ahead of you. It takes time to learn things and get experience, and it takes time to learn the ways of the company. You're lucky they are letting you ease into it instead of throwing you into the fire.

 

[sms]

Find a good mentor. Someone that has experience and is willing to help bring you up to speed.

Ask lots of questions, I really don't think you can ask too many questions. You may not get answers from some. You may irritate some people as well. There may be some that don't want to help, but ask.


What kind of company do you work for? Big companies often have formal mentoring programs, especially for women.

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?" Oddball, "Kelly's Heros" 1970

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of the Eng-Tips Forums.

 

[NickE]

"Are you understanding of the fact that it might take new engineers longer to find answers or solutions? Can someone really ask too many questions?"

Yes, No.

Of course we dont expect you new guys to have any sort of real knowledge, particularly when often teh field you are really working in is ridiculously specialized. There is no way anyone could expect university to provide teh detailed knowlege required ot perform real work.

(from a not so old guy to the new kid)

You could never ask too many questions, as long as you dont keep asking the same ones. That gets boring.

Hopefully you went to a good program in Materials. With a decent amount of hands on experience. There is nothing funnier than someone who doesnt know how to manually polish a mount. But if you put the effort in you can easily learn the fundamentals at work. (Especially if you perservere, are a quick learner, and can bluff a bit.)

Hopefully you have a good concept behind teh fundamentals of the processes, properties, performance, and economics of materials. IE: It is much better (as I see it) to know the shape and why of a Ni-Cu diffusion couple than know exactly the math. (Although you shold have done the math at least a few times by now.)

This place (eng-tips) is a godsend, I'm the only metallurgist/materials scientist with my division adn have looked like a genius occasionally, and at least smart when necessary.

Nick

Nick
I love materials science!

 

[KENAT]

Most Engineers are fairly understanding, if they're having a bad day not so much, but generally. There's always going to be the odd one that's a pain or that you just don't get on with but hopefully relatively few. I got told to "go away I'm busy right now" by my immediate supervisor on my first day at my first job, ended up learning a lot from him though.

To empasize what NickE says:

You can ask too many questions if it's the same, or very similar, questions over and over again.

Answering a question once is fine by all but the most awkward of Engineers. A lot of us will even be fairly tolerant the second time but, if you need to ask a third time then...

Also try and extrapolate the answer from one question to other similar questions. I'd rather have somone say "I'm going to do project Y like this because it's similar to project X which was done that way, is that OK?" than "What do you want me to do about project Y?"



KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[Heckler]

I second finding a mentor. I've been in my field for 12 years and still have a mentor. We have not worked together for ten years but he has still been there for my technical and nontechnical questions.

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 4.0 & Pro/E 2001
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Avoid the base hypocrisy of condemning in one man what you pass over in silence when committed by another." -- Theodore Roosevelt

 

[IRstuff]

Asking questions is usually not the problem. Forgetting the answers might be, so make sure you understand and remember.

The other side of the situation is to ask GOOD questions and questions that elicit explanations, rather than yes/no answers.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[antd15]

Thank you all for your input. It's a bit intimidating but I love it.

 

[MechanicalChef]

Oh yeah, and make sure to pay attention to and retain the basics of what you do. That and apply common sense when you can. Example: I work with a guy who's been on the job for as long as I have been(15 months). We were working with pre-impregnated fiberglass; whereas, we typically work with prepreg carbon-fiber. We had some scrap material, and he asks with a straight face, "Do we need to throw this in the hazardous waste barrel since it's glass?"

I think my eyes got big and my jaw dropped at his question. "The uncured resin is the hazardous material, not the fiber." All I could think of after that was, "How could he not know this after 15 months?"

 

[PanelGuy]

Good - Find a mentor.
Good - Ask Questions.
Good - Learn.
Better - Grow.

I have been in composites almost 20 years, I have had good and bad mentors. Even the bad ones teach. It sounds like the folks you are with are getting you up to speed. Remember not so long ago in school you were anxious to get out and set the world on fire? Do it. It takes time, but you gotta wanna.

It sounds like the folks you are with get it. Ask questions, try stuff. you will screw things up. If someone could get hurt or it will cost more than 3% of the annual revenue to fix, then by all means stop and ask more questions, but you will never grow if you don't put it to the test.

Finally, don't forget what Chef kinda said, they knwo things you don't...figure out what they don't know, but you do. Teaching is a two way street. We cannot always tell who is teaching who with my folks.

Good luck.


Chief Engineer
Bellcomb.com

 

[zdas04]

I have a little different spin on this. When newby's came to me and said "how do I ..." I would often be pretty short with them. When they asked "could you tell me where I can find ... " I generally was a bunch more helpful. The difference is that if I said "the answer is 5" the only thing they learn is that I can be counted on to do their work for them. If I say, "I'd start in the ________ project file, and then look in GPSA Engineering Data Book", they tended to end up with the ability to answer their own questions a bunch faster. Often the key to an engineering solution in a big company is to know where to start looking.

David

 

[csd72]

Ask lots of questions about what is in the reports. Best to ask them all early in your career when people dont expect you to know much.

csd

 

[MintJulep]

Yes, we do understand that it might take you a bit longer, or that there will be experienced-based knowledge that you don't have. (But we may still be frustrated by it - don't take it personally. We're not frustrated with you, but by our perception of declining level of engineering education.)

As others have said, find a mentor. More than one is better. Better still, make one of them someone outside of your specialty.

Don't ask "What is the answer?"

Do ask "What is the best way to solve this problem? Why?"

 

[MikeHalloran]

Keep a log. Keep one for each project if you have more than one. Notepad works fine for this. Hit <F5> for a time/date stamp, then start typing.

Record:
- What you did. What happened next. What you measured.
- Who said what, and to whom.
- If something strange happens, measure and record the degree of strangeness. "If you didn't write it down, it didn't happen."
Use simple declarative sentences. Be factual; omit emotion, opinion, and speculation.

Since the logs are produced on company time, they belong to the company, but they're really for your benefit. When you're asked to justify your existence, you can provide a record of what you were doing on any given day.

You don't need to transcribe the complete text of other communications, but at least record enough information to help you find them in a year or two or ten. If you use Outlook for email, _do_ transcribe the complete text of emails, incoming and outgoing. (Google the 2Gb bug)








Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[ScottyUK]

Go as far as you can on your own to solve a problem and, if it is a paper problem which will not cause any direct and immediate risk, go a little further than your comfort zone. Show that you are trying to push yourself, and ask the questions as "This is what I'm trying to do and this is where I've gotten to... am I on the right track?" I'm much more helpful to someone who has tried their best and has taken a wrong turn than I am to someone who has not tried at all.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes: just try to make them on paper or at the modelling stage! Don't be afraid to challenge something you think is wrong or can be improved if you think you can defend why you have that opinion. If you are wrong occasionally don't take it personally but listen to the reasons why things are done the way they are instead of the way you thought. You will learn much if you have the chance to have a good technical debate with someone who has experience. Remember that even the guys with years of experience don't know everything: they may seem like Oracles but they are not infallible or omniscient. One of the first lessons you'll learn is that there is far too much out there to learn to cram into just one lifetime.


----------------------------------

Sometimes I wake up Grumpy.
Other times I just let her sleep!

 

[SomptingGuy]

Bear in mind also that your time is less expensive than that of the more experienced folk and your brain is younger and fresher. So a few dead-ends aren't that bad compared with the chances of a few great solutions.

Do not assume that your more experienced colleagues know all the right answers. They can be wrong.

 

[Morquea]

Good advices have been told.
I'm two years experience and I applied every of them and still do.
But beware of mentor. I fall to rely on him too much. Now he's far far away and I rely mostly on myself.
Now when I have a question, I dig up an answer from understanding informations gathered from technical papers, standards, case studies. After, I ask that question to a senior engineer and provide my answer with reference to be challenged. I end up finding new ways, a huge library and teaching more than I learn by asking question.

 

[UcfSE]

I have only recently have had the opportunity to work with less experienced engineers than I am. I encourage them to ask questions, but also to always to try to find the answer themselves first. I'll help with finding which book they need but after that it's up to them, with some help if necessary to keep the wheels from needlessly spinning the budget away. What's important is that they try to find their own answer first instead of resorting to asking first. I want to see that they have tried to help themselves first before trying the easy way out.

 

[Ashereng]

Yes, I believe most of us "old timers" do realise that it takes someone "new" or "inexperienced" more time to find the answer.

Here is a question to you. "Are you understanding of the fact that we don't know who all the new or inexpeienced people are?" Have you talked to the people you are dealing with and explained to them that you are new/inexperienced?


With respect to your second question. No, I don't believe that you can ask too many questions.

I do believe that you can ask the same question too many times. See the difference?

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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