Work from home engineering jobs? 5

[bill8123]

Hey Guys,

I'm a young Mechanical design engineer, about 3 years experience.

I'm interested in a job where I can work remotely from home via a laptop and internet connection.

The majority of my experience lies in mining equipment design, drafting, modelling and analysis using Pro/E, structural hand calculations, conveyor calculations, report writing, layout and drafting with 2D autocad.

I understand that this would be more suited to a drafter and I am ok with that because at this stage in my life I want the flexibility in my living location at the cost of career progression. I currently have a great job with a strong company but they are not open to this sort of thing.

Any ideas where to look for this type of thing? Does anybody know a recruiter specialising in this?

 

[MikeHalloran]

Telecommuting was a fad for a while. It may survive in some places, but I haven't run into a recruiter who specializes in it. I have known a few programmers who did it regularly, by just showing up when they felt like it, but programming is different from engineering.

I have tried telecommuting on a small scale on occasion. It has several disadvantages.
- At home, it's hard to stay focused on work; it's too easy to turn on the TV, grab a snack, and get distracted for an hour.
- Even if you work like a dog and scrupulously account for your time, it may be impossible to convince your boss that you're doing anything at all.
- At home, you are disconnected from the office rumor mill and the office political arena. Politics is the process by which money is allocated; do not underestimate its importance.
- Do you have a serious CAD workstation at home? Does it have a seriously fast connection to the workplace servers? Telcos think that a T1 line is fast; for e.g. Solidworks, it's bog slow and will seriously impact your productivity.
- In the US, you may be tempted to take the 'home office' deduction for tax purposes. Be aware that doing so will almost certainly flag your return for an audit every year, and even if you can deal with that, the home office deduction can seriously complicate sale of your house, because you have to treat some fraction of the property as a business property, not a residence. Allocate at least a week for reading the relevant tax publications just once.





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[TheTick]

The majority of your experience is less than three years.

 

[ctopher]

Don't quit your good job. Find some side work to do from home at nights, maybe eventually it could turn into something permanent.

Chris
SolidWorks 11
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[Kilndry]

An engineer at my old firm learned the hard way the difference between a network connection and a broadband internet connection. He couldn't do jack squat on the computer that he could in the office because of the lag.

 

[DTOREC]

I've been working from home for about 12 years. Everything Mike says is true. But I have a mix of income, and the money is very good as long as you stay focused and you're willing to work hard. I have an employer across the country that issues assignments by email, and I have an agreement with them where I can still operate my own little firm (doesn't compete with what they do). The trick is to not say yes to too much work, otherwise you're working 7 days a week and invariably ticking somebody off. It takes extreme discipline for it to work out properly. Extreme. Discipline.

 

[stanier]

Working from home is generally more successful for people with 30 years experience that work as specialists. I have only managed to do it for the last 15 years. Even then project work demanded I worked at least some of the time in a team environment.

You need to ask yourself what special attributes you have that would encourage a company to hire you let alone let you work unsupervised at home with competing interests. Your desire does not match business needs. Sorry but utopia is a long way off for you.

“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”
---B.B. King

http://waterhammer.hopout.com.au/

 

[msquared48]

I too agree with Mike after doing just that for 26 years as a private consultant.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

http://mmcengineering.tripod.com

 

[DHambley]

If you've got only 3 years experience, you should be a good salesman to sell your skills and convince a stranger that you can perform at home. I worked for 2 decades as an employee before I was confident enough to go out on my own. I had very good engineering skills after just a few years but that's only a part of what you need. Beyond your good Pro/E and autocad skills, you need:
* Networking and Contacts (Mine are based on many years of meeting people in the industry)
* $10k worth of CAD, printers, etc and the knowledge that, every 5 yrs you gotta spend another $5k.
* An isolated home office - to keep your mind off that TV which Halloran mentioned and set up as an office so when a client comes by, he knows he is at a business with a professional.
* Good salesmanship, marketing, website.

 

[brandonbw]

You do not need a plotter. Its easy enough to go find a local repro place and at the very least Fedex Kinkos can do the job. I would think if you were working from home you could just FTP in and out files so connection speed isn't that important. A fast cable connection would be enough. I think most think that working from home you don't do anything and that's the challenge to convince someone otherwise.

I know someone who does mechnical work from home and he seems to be doing fine. I wouldn't think that there are that many jobs you could do this unless you were working for someone overseas or vice versa.

B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer

http://bwengr.com

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http://bwstructuralengineer.com

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http://bwcivilengineer.com

 

[sibeen]

You do not need a plotter.

I'd disagree with that. I'm an EE who has been working from home for the last 7 years or so. Whenever I do designs I'm forever printing them out, running my eye across them, and then making changes. I 'should' be able to do this on the screen, but I find that having a large piece of paper in front of me much more useful.

 

[berkshire]

sibeen (Electrical)
I dis- agree with that. I just sent my plotter to the scrapyard. I have a large format printer 11x17 and I found ou that Fedex can plot/print anything bigger than that for a lot less money than the pens cost for my plotter.
B.E.

"A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
-George Washington, President of the United States----

 

[bill8123]

Thanks for sharing your experience guys, much appreciated.

I do understand that I only have 3 years experience.

The reason I am interested in telecommuting is because my girlfriend lives overseas and moves around from year to year. If I had a job telecommuting, the relationship would be likely to survive.

I honestly think a company could use my pro/e drafting skills as all I would need is a 3D model and a rough explanation of what is requited sent to me. I would then do the drawings and send back the drawing files. I have seen some material an Indian CAD drafting company sent back to my old company, the quality of my work is much higher.

The trouble is I cant find any job postings for anything of this nature.

 

[moltenmetal]

You can't get this kind of job with only 3 years of experience. Nobody will take the risk on you- likely not even your current employer.

Working from home as an employee is very different from being self-employed. Very different challenges, and both impractical for you at 3 years of experience.

I have 20+ years under my belt with 16 at my current gig, and still get grief from some of my colleagues for working from home 1 day per week- they just don't like it. It actually improves my productivity, having a space free from constant distraction where I can concentrate on something- anything- for more than 5 minutes without an interruption. That's not something I can say about my cube in the office.

 

[macmet]

I feel like it would be better for your career to move around and take small contract positions wherever you girlfriend is moving. I don't imagine you are going to get a lot of good experience while telecommuting full time. I had a job where I worked from home as much as I wanted and I found it hard to get integrated with the company and I eventually left.

I also suggest you may want to be careful about giving up career progression. You may find it hard to get out of a full time drafting role once you've done it for a number of years. IMO when you're young you should be giving up flexibility for career progression, not the other way around. But maybe that's just me.

 

[GregLocock]

mm's post was a goody and macmet raises an interesting point, you'll never become the goto guy if you are never there.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[sibeen]

berkshire, OK, when I stated plotter I actually meant large format printer.

I still plot (sic) from autocad

For many of my drawings I go up to size B0 - 39.37 × 55.67 inches.

 

[brandonbw]

When I say plotter I meant printer. And you should easily be able to find a repro place or at the very least a Fedex. We have yet to buy a plotter as its still cheaper to source that part out. I have spoken to other Architects in this vicinity and they do the same thing.

People still use pen plotters? And why? Past companies I worked for just threw them out. Time to break the Leroy machine out.

B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer

http://bwengr.com

|

http://bwstructuralengineer.com

|

http://bwcivilengineer.com

 

[berkshire]

brandonbw (Civil/Environmental)

Past companies I worked for just threw them out. Time to break the Leroy machine out.
Brandon, do you have a LeRoy? I still do, I just do not use it very much anymore.
B.E.

 

[HDS]

As others have said no one advertises for a work at home engineering job. The people that work that way are independent contractors and consultants. Those jobs usually require more experience. Your best bet is to look at these options.

Work locally as a contractor where ever you are at.

Find a global company that has offices where you want to go and get transfers. I've had friends that worked that way for oil field services companies.

Get a sales or service job. Those jobs are often from field offices or home offices. If you truly do all the work on the phone or in the customers office it doesn't matter where you live if you don't mind traveling.