What is the best engineering advice you ever received? 205

[tulum]

I would like to continue engineerdaves series of threads; what frustrates you at work, and what satisfies you at work...

I just finished reading one of Donald Trumps books entitled "the way to the top". What he did was he asked the top executives across the US to submit the one single most important thing they learned to help them achieve businees success.

For example one qoute was (and is very applicable to engineering):

"Although you can't always control where you are planted-to which department or specific project you are assigned-you can control the experience while you are there...bloom where you are planted."

So my question to the forum is: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

 

[MTPipeliner]

If anything, the computer age has caused even more paperwork.

 

[ctopher]

Is true ... thanks to printers

 

[BigH]

. . . and due to the little errors that always seem to be found after you've printed the bloody work out!

 

[attilon]

PatrickR!

A french engineer told me once, when I ask him about his very complecated design style:

"The less people understand our drawings, the more they need us."

)

Cheers.

 

[rerig]

Sign on the wall of an FAA Airworthiness Safety Inspector's office:

"We will become a paperless office when the earth becomes a treeless planet!"

 

[EddyC]

I have heard quite a few interesting expressions over the years:

a) "No one cares how good your engineering was if the product has a broken wire and doesn't work when turned on". (Said by my boss at my 2nd job out of school at an R&D firm. Boss had numerous patents.).

b) "Your going to be judged by the quality of your work, so you have a vested interest in doing a good, quality job". (Said by my boss while I worked at a Fortune 500 manufacturing firm. My 3rd job.).

c) "Paste in some standard details and send it out ASAP!" (Said by my boss at my 4th job at a civil/structural firm.).

d) "Do it quick & dirty". (Said by my current boss at an A/E firm.).

e) "When engineers speak of professionalism & ethics, its just lip service". (Said by a family friend who is a retired civil/structural engineer.).

My advice: Go for Mechanical, Electrical or Chemical Engineering and aim to work at a large (Fortune 500) manufacturing company. Get your PE license, because you may one day want to do some consulting. Do not blindly accept design codes at face value. Try to understand their background logic & assumptions. Do not blindly accept the output of computer programs. Be an innovator and do something that no one else (or few) have done before.

 

[CKOne]

"Work it out to four decimal places, then add 20%."

And don't try to use other people's design spreadsheets, especially not if they have tempting little buttons with illuminating statements like "Button 1" written on them. Put down the mouse and back away from the computer slowly...

 

[joekm]

from MJC:

"The best carrer advice for an engineer is...

Marry a rich woman...."


Ya know, you might have a point there, I mean, if she's cranky and miserable all the time then you'd be more likely so spend more time in the office and.....

<voice offstage> "RICH! ....He said, "RICH!"

Ohhhh....ya know? I think that would work too.....

--
Joseph K. Mooney
FAA DER Structures

 

[joekm]

Rich2001:

"The idea is to create a ritual so that when someone asked you a hard question it gave you 10 to 15 seconds to gather your thoughts and formulated an answer. "

Good advice actually, I learned it as, "never bring a calculator inside an airframe". That way, when you see what needs to be evaluated, you have to walk back to your office to do it. Not only does it give you time to think, but it gives you a way to avoid answering a lot of impatient questions before you've had a chance to evaluate the situation.

BTW - I do smoke a pipe actually, you just can't do that in an office anymore.



--
Joseph K. Mooney
FAA DER Structures

 

[HgTX]

EddyC

"When engineers speak of professionalism & ethics, its just lip service". (Said by a family friend who is a retired civil/structural engineer.).

My advice: Go for Mechanical, Electrical or Chemical Engineering

It is inappropriate for you to condemn an entire field just because you've had lousy taste in associates.

There's plenty of bad manufactured product out there from major companies (or their numerous subsidiaries) that had to have been made on "quick & dirty" principles. If structural engineers all had the attitude apparently held by these manufacturers, or the attitude you describe, we'd be thinking of bridge and building collapses as routine.

Also, "quick & dirty" means something very different when you're dealing with a safety factor of 2 than when you have almost no margin at all, and very often means rounding UP for simplicity, rather than rounding DOWN. This is an industry where almost everything is a custom build, so what standardization we *can* do is welcome--and we don't have the luxury of prototype testing.

That's not to say there aren't certain structural applications I trust less than others--but those I trust less are actually more like manufacturing than those I trust more.

Hg

 

[EngineerDave]

GREAT THREAD GUYS

ON PROBLEM SOLVING: When a problem seems overwhelming, break it into the smallest possible steps and take immediate action on them.

ON FRUSTRATIONS CAUSED BY MANAGEMENT: While very cynical, nonetheless it is funny, A colleague once said "There's no problem too small to baffle the management of this company!"

ON LIFE: Google search Rudyard Kiplings "If". This one will be hanging up at my new job when I start. It is great.

ON EDUCATION; Never underestimate the value of continuing your education.

FOR STRESS MANAGEMENT: If you are chronically stressed or tired, do a few things 1)Dramatically cut back on coffee 2) Dramatically increase your water intake 3) Get off your butt and start exercising. There is no better stress management solution.

ON HARD WORK: You are going to be there 40 hours or more a week anyways, you might as well kick butt and take names!

 

[crossframe]

Sign in the conference room of a contractor:

"No one in this room is smarter than all of us."

 

[GregLocock]

http://www.despair.com/meetings.html

Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[subtech]

A very intelligent electrical substation tech with some 40 years of experience left me with a piece of advice that I'll never forget.........

It's better to be suspected of being a fool, than to open your mouth before you are certain of something and remove all doubt!

 

[bigbillnky]

"Sitting in a garage does not make you a car"

Bigbillnky,C.E.F.....(Chief Electrical Flunky)

 

[NickelMet]

Just heard this one over the plant maintenance radio:

"Ahr compressure"

Which I took to mean "air compressor". It wasn't just one instance, it was a whole 5 minute conversation with several people.

Gotta love living in redneck country!

~NiM

 

[NickelMet]

OOPS Sorry folks! Posted this on the wrong Forum!

I guess another word of advice...check your work twice! (And drink your coffee before you post!)

~NiM

 

[plasgears]

Nickelmet,

Read the book "How to Speak Southern." It's hilarious. It's half tongue in cheek, and all true. I got it from my daughter-in-law, a Florida gal.

 

[beckala36]

In the end, it's all about self promotion. So, my motto is:

UNDER PROMISE, OVER PERFORM.

With this, everyone will always be impressed.

 

[jkar]

One of my best advises was: When work begins to get monotonous, repetitive and routine in nature, its time to move the hell out of there. Engineers are dynamic people who cares new work scenarios everyday. Take the challenge and dont let yourself grow static