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Would you take a 20% pay cut to learn a specific software? 1

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ST111

ST111

Mechanical
Jan 22, 2016
16
Hello.

Would you take a 20% cut in salary (around 7500 USD) to learn a specific software if training was included? I am a graduate and I'm thinking if I should leave my current job to work for someone that is willing to provide training using Ansys. Long term would this could be good but I'm unsure how important this is, as I currently use FEA software but it is an in house program.

Thanks.
 
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Great advice geewiz20! I think that is another big element, the fact the pay cut would include going to work for a consultancy and therefore more variety in projects...a lot of thinking to do still!

 
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Note that the cost of Ansys training isn't going to be much more than $6000 so you're going to be effectively paying at least $12,000 (for two years), so you might as well not even consider the training to be much more than a minor perk, and concentrate solely on whether it's worth your while to lose at least that much money just for the work content and environment.

TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
homework forum: //faq731-376 forum1529
 
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And who's to say that after they "train" you with this program, you'll even use it? If you're given two weeks of training and never or rarely use the program, will you really learn it? You might end up checking shop drawings for 90% of your time.
 
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Of course as a recent grad you have recently been paying up to 25000 a year for 'training' for 4 years, so 6000 a year isn't so bad.

I've taken a pay cut to move into a more interesting area, it doesn't strike me as absurd. 41000 a year does strike me as absurd, apparently the USAn restriction of trade rules (sorry, hem hem, PE regulations) aren't doing graduate engineers many favours.





Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
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No worries; I wasn't even going there. I was simply trying to understand why his wage was so low. So, being in GB could explain it, or he used $ instead of £, but that was less likely.

TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
homework forum: //faq731-376 forum1529
 
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OP: If its a matter of doing what you like and this job will likely be fulfilling your expectations, looking beyond software experience thing, well I will put money second in the list. Reason is: your productivity and learning abilities will increase tangibly when you simply do what you like. This also means higher chances that you will stand from the crowd and that can lead to reward...whatever the form - see what I am pointing out ? with negatives cumulate enough kinetics by growing solid technical skills to make a "quantum leap" if you could impress your next hiring manager -let alone the satisfaction of being and working in your element. Now having said that with other family/personal/etc. constraints certainly the decision process becomes more complex. Is this your case ?

 
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Tell them you're very interested, but need them to match your current salary for you to be able to make the transition. Maybe they match it minus the bonus, but there has to be some wiggle room in their initial offer.

Life is a negotiation.
 
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The job uses ANSYS on a regular basis, in house training + on the job training, so it would definitely not be a one off course then never use it again.
Sorry for the confusion I used $ as I know a lot of people on the forum are in the US, I didn't know there was such a large difference for graduate salaries! After a quick search this appears to be because of tuition fees being considerably less in the UK (and readily available financial aid), would you agree?

Cycling back around to the original question...on the bases that average UK salary for a graduate is around $39000, does this affect you decision (now the argument of underpaid is no longer viable)
 
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rotw:

Yes you are correct, there are other significant issues that come into play such as location etc. I won't over complicate nor bore everyone with my personal matters, but I would agree with you that the decision takes on another element with these factors incorporated.
 
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Tuition fees are a one-time thing, so that really shouldn't impact your salary. What might impact salary is NHS, which is something that the US does not have, and which means that for engineers, part of the health cost must be directly borne by one's salary.

TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
homework forum: //faq731-376 forum1529
 
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ST111 - back in 2003 I left the UK making £27270 PA as a 'design engineer' with about 4.25 years experience. Took me a couple of years before I got employed in the US as an Engineer but started out a little under $70,000 PA but it was a contract position so not quite apples to apples but gives some idea. 'Benefits' certainly is an area with a lot of differences - health care is the obvious direct $ factor but things like amount of vacation, employee protections and various other things come into play too.

As to your question, that's a big drop just to learn some SW. However, if it's a chance to get overall better on the job training & experience as a stress analyst then might be worth it.

Posting guidelines faq731-376 (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​
 
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2.5 is a common USD/GBP conversion rate for comparable engineering jobs. Regardless of the currency exchange rate.

Steve
 
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One of the suggestions above was to learn ANSYS on your own time. That's not a bad idea, but at interviews there may be a crunch question, where your answer will sound perilously like "well I've done all the tutorials" ... an answer frequently encountered in my specialisation, and it means that the interviewee has saved us about 3 weeks of doing the tutorials, but doesn't tell us a whole lot more.


Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
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In my experience with many different software packages (in the power systems world), the easy part is learning how to drive the software, e.g. press the buttons and navigate the user interface. The hard bit is understanding the algorithms / calculation engine behind the UI, developing the intuition to "sense check" whether a simulation result looks valid and solving modelling / simulation problems. This is actually the most important part and is generally not program-specific since most programs tend to use similar, if not identical, underlying algorithms.

I once worked at a software company and gave training courses on the main product. One of the biggest obstacles for me as a trainer was that many participants didn't really understand the basic concepts of power system modelling / simulation and it was not in the scope of the training course to teach that. The course was set up to teach how to drive the software. So I don't think training courses by themselves are really going to help you... most of the important work needs to be done by yourself in your own time or on real projects.

One advantage that you have is that you say the FEA software you use is developed in-house. That's actually a good thing because you can directly ask the developers specific questions about how it works. You'd be amazed how much you can learn sitting next to a developer while inspecting the code. Unless you worked at ANSYS, you probably wouldn't have access to this.

So I concur with the other posters here, don't do it.
 
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One thing that makes me laugh is thge number of software courses that basically consist of the presenter taking you through the tutorials and exercises in the manual. Now there's a value added experience.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
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I work in the world of "similar, if not identical, underlying algorithms". Sometimes I try to sit in on training courses for our own products if they're held locally. That's always a worthwhile experience.

Steve
 
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Greg, couldn't agree more the typical SW training course I've been of is of fairly limited use. Best thing about it was you were assigned time to do the tutorials (i.e. didn't get pulled onto other tasks) and there was someone to ask questions of if you got stuck.

Posting guidelines faq731-376 (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​
 
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No, I would learn that software myself by reading (practicing) and keep that 20% in my pocket :)
 
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