When should I jump ship, if I should. 7

[desnov74]

Hello,

I work for an MEP firm right now in the states, they are rather large, 300 people. I have been there for a little over six months.

I find the work very mind numbing. I usually do CAD mark-ups. I am usually slow, because it takes my boss forever to set up a job. I've asked to come along on visits or try and pick up other tasks, but my requests are refused. When I pick up work from other departments, my boss suddenly finds work for me to do. I also notice a lot of political lines are crossed when I do pick up work.

One time, I was working on developing some details that we did not have. One of my 5 superious, yes 5, yelled at me like I had cleared the entire CAD database. I tried to learn a calculation program, when they saw me working on I was promptly stopped.

What's going on? Should I consider finding a new job, or am I being impatient? All I really want to do is get my feet wet and be productive and learn.

Thanks

 

[MikeHalloran]

If you fell into a cesspool, could you think of a good reason to just stay there?


Well, you did.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[desnov74]

!!! Funny analogy, star for that one.

 

[MedicineEng]

I would jump ship today. I wouldn't stand a place where I want to learn and I am constantly being stopped without further explanation. One thing is you want to learn trade secrets with 6 months tenure, the other is you try to develop skills and having your legs cut.
When I worked in my country, I heard stories of bosses that didn't provide training to their employers because their position was: "after they learn they will be more attractive to the market and then go to the competition". This attitude and way of thinking is still a leftover of one of the longest ditactorships in Europe:"Do not educate the people, as they might open their eyes and overthrow us" was the official way of thought of the government.
Good luck with your job hunting.

 

[SomptingGuy]

A company that frowns upon you educating yourself? Lose them.

- Steve

 

[GregLocock]

Yup, run away. Your first three years out of uni are were you need to do all your learning. Do you have a defined training program, or a mentor?

Cheers

Greg Locock

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

 

[rtmote]

My first job in a drawing office as a draffie was getting tea/coffee/soup/chocolate for 20 engineers in the office at a penny a go and presenting a squared away summary of who owed what and had what, for the week. It took me two months to say....Boll@#*ks. I quit. I became an engineer instead and in my new role back in the drawing office, I learned to look busy and do the crosswords instead.... and tell some other draffie I wanted a double double.

Get a mentor or someone you can talk to.

 

[KENAT]

I don't know the details of your situation but, I did a lot of mind numbing stuff for the first 9 months especially. Then I got thrown in the deep end.

Turns out a lot of the remarkably dull stuff came in handy in the end.

As to being yelled at for spending time on or stopped for trying to learn stuff or developing stuff, sounds perhaps a bit harsh but think about it from their point of view. At the time did you have specific tasks you should have been working? If so they may not have appreciated a very junior member of staff deciding they new better what to work on, especially if they needed something done that was directly to a job or something.

Yeah you should be learning a lot of stuff in your first few years but I'd say unless you're lucky enough to land in a real big place where you're basically just a trainee, then you also need to be earning your living.

You say you are slow though blame your boss, I obviously don't know the facts but I'd look at trying to improve this aspect.

Do you have any kind of formal training plan or carreer path or anything to give you some idea of what you're meant to do for the first couple of years, if not might be worth asking.

So I'm tempted to say you may be being impatient but don't have enough info to know for sure.

If is possible they're just treating you as a designer with no thoughts to developing you as an engineer. If this is the case and doesn't work for you then start looking.

If you're that unhappy find somewhere else, but stick out 'the devil you know' untill you're fairly sure you've found something better.

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

 

[desnov74]

Hello again everyone.

This is unbiased advice is the best thing about eng-tips. Thanks everybody for their input.

KENAT;
I see you points, and its exactly the type of questions/points of view that are good for self-evaluation.
The problem as I see it is I have too many bosses. I find myself sitting around with nothing to do. I ask for something to do, and usually get told conflicting things. The details are one example. I have also had a sit down, and told them of my problem. My immediate supervisor takes his time setting up jobs, and also takes care of his moonlighting and real-estate investments all day. I feel like I am walking on thin ice, not being billable for so many hours. From my meetings, It was suggested that I do some side work with other departments. Once I do, my immediate supervisor, miraculously finds some cad for me to do and removes me from my inter-departmental tasks. I feel very uneasy. Plus, my work will be always be cad mark-ups.

To add to the insecurity, today they announced the firm is starting to outsource on "special jobs" to India.

Still I wonder if I should wait and see, to see how things turn out. Mabey an internal opportunity will open up, or something of value. But I have to put a time limit.

 

[KENAT]

Hmm, well based on what you just put I'm tempted to say the others are probably right and I may be wrong. The 5 boss thing is stupid, (I probably did't pay enough attention to that in my first post) especially at your stage in your career. I'd definitely start looking for other employment.

However, if it means getting work what difference does it really make if you have to go to a different department and that makes your direct supervisor magically find work. You'll find a lot of people in your career you have to learn how to handle, maybe this is how you handle this guy, forcing him to give you work by basically threatening to work for someone else. So long as it doesn't brew a lot of bad blood why not.

If you're still just doing cad mark ups after a year you have more of a problem but till then it's not a crisis. That said, I had some more design oriented tasks amongs the dull stuff.

One thing that may help, if you aren't being well managed then manage yourself, and if necessary your supervisor. When you get a task, write a short email explicitly detailing your understanding of the task(s) with deadlines etc. Send this to your boss saying this is what you'll be doing unless told otherwise. If you've misunderstood this gives him a chance to point it out, if he doesn't point it out and says something later you have your asbestos underpants, though may need to be carefull how you use them. Also in the email state any assumptions or information you need. For instance if you need certain information from hime then state it there and state the 'critical path date' for it (the date after which it will cause the finish to slip).

Hope it helps, good luck.

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

 

[HDS]

Who there had this job before you?
Who worked for this guy before?

Get their advice. Don't be embarrassed to ask something like "You used to work for my boss. How did you keep a constant work load? Was her slow to give you assignments?"

If you can do side work for other departments ask about transferring if they have a better manager.

You will need to manage your own career but if your plan does not match the companies at some point you will have to leave.

 

[BRGENG]

It was time to jump ship when you asked the question.

 

[csd72]

Talk to your superiors, find out if they have a plan. If you are not happy with the answers you recieve then jump ship.

 

[Helicopterjunky]

He has already talked to his superiors and all they could suggest was to get some work from other departments. His boss does not like this idea as it probably makes him look bad, that he cannot keep his own people occupied. Some past experience or present direction is causing them to act irrationally to your desire to learn. It may be that the last guy in your job learned other skills on his own while there and left them for better job. I once went to a company in Ohio where the metallurgist learned Unigraphics on his own and immediately left for a better paying UG contract job. Also, have to wonder how their outsourcing plans bode with your job future. Something is obviously not right. You are not overreacting. My opinion is you need to start looking for another job ASAP.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

You should jump ship only when another ship (job) is passing by or if you know you are strong enough to be able to feed the sharks with something other than body parts.

 

[desnov74]

Well update an update,

I actually got the opportunity to switch departments at work, doing a little more sophisticated stuff. I've actually picked up work for this group as well, so I have a pretty clear idea of who I will work for.

Everyone's opinion on this post help a lot. Made me ask questions and look at perspective I would not have thought of. I have a feeling it will work out well. Especially KENAT (If I see the same thing, then I think it will be time to jump ship.

 

[HDS]

thank you for closing the loop. It doesn't happen enough.

 

[KENAT]

Hope your new dept works out for you.

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