[TowerTalk] Engineering

Thu Jul 14 15:21:26 EDT 2016

Hans,

I have seen many with career challenges such as what you describe.  Early in my career I even had a dose of that business model.  Even with space projects and other marquee endeavors there were always periodic layoffs to "meet budget".

Even in private industry, most deployments of computer and communications hardware and software had to be done at nights, weekends and holidays.  Not exactly ideal for a personal and family life.

Having said that, I have been very blessed with a wonderful career at AT&T since the age of 29 when I started as a Bell Labs consultant for 7+ years.   In 1994 I was converted as a full Member of Technical Staff, and now I am a Principal Systems Engineer.  The breadth and depth of opportunities and experiences has been awesome.  These opportunities are partially reflected in a patent portfolio which touches a wide area of disciplines.  Tinkering as a ham and computer hobbiest, serving as a Scoutmaster and other things in our church and community have also contributed to a rich collaborative approach to life in general.  Balance that with a wonderful wife and three great sons, you end up with much to offer.

Currently, the company is systematically offering educational opportunities to all employees and paying for it.  Further, they are mandating it, so that they can leverage the vast pools of existing domain knowledge as it evolves into an increasingly software and data-driven world.  It is both good for the business as well as for the employees, but it is, as you inferred, not as pervasive a personnel approach as we all might like.

Finally, I was once given a compliment by my boss at the time.  She said that, "I was the solution to the problem waiting for the problem to show up."  My advice to everyone is to 

"Be that person" in whatever career or avocation you pursue.  No one is indispensible, but it makes it less likely to be downsized if you have proven value across skillets and it doesn't hurt to be helpful and nice. 

73,

Gordon Beattie 

Sent from AT&T Mail on Android

From:"Hans Hammarquist via TowerTalk" <towertalk at contesting.com>
Date:Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 22:30
Subject:[TowerTalk] Fwd: AES SK

Hi Grant,

Let me through in a penny here.

I have been "working" in this country for 30 years. When I went to engineering school (more than 50 years ago) we were a proud bunch of student that were going to provide the country (and the world) with the best engineered products available. Working in this country I found that engineers are commodities that were used "as efficient as possible". Way too many times have I been offered a "permanent" position just to be told after I finished a project (frequently ahead of schedule) that they had no more projects for me and I had to go.

With that in mind I truly understand students that don't want to pursue an engineering career. They will have student loans to pay plus they want to make a living beyond barely "getting around". The day these "fast buck artists" that role our economy today, understand that the USA cannot continue to promote non-producing industries such as "Wall Streeters", the engineers will be appreciated and we will get a quality engineering corp again. USA needs a new "Put-a-man-on-the-Moon" incentive. The Apollo project was just sooo good for the country.

With a high heart rate for the moment. 73 de,

Hans - N2JFS

-----Original Message-----
From: Grant Saviers <grants2 at pacbell.net>
To: Roger (K8RI) on TT <K8RI-on-TowerTalk at tm.net>; towertalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Wed, Jul 13, 2016 9:30 am
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] AES SK

Engineering as a profession is "too hard" for many US students, PolySci 
is easy but then graduates wonder why their jobs are in retail or food 
service.  A recent major magazine article was about the "crushing 
college debt" of many students and their inability to pay.  NOT ONCE did 
it mention the career choice of the students profiled - DUH. 

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