[TowerTalk] Engineering

[Earl Morse]

If given these opportunities for real education (not that crap education that HR requires you to take so you can be politically correct or remember to wear your safety glasses) jump on them.

There is a big push to model everything these days (virtual engineering), and if you have been in the work force for 25 years then you probably don't have those skills from your college days.  We hadn't invented a personal computer yet that would run modelling software when I was in college.  I have yet to have an employer send me out to learn any of the modelling tools.  Good thing I have some of my own and have modeled my own stuff because of this hobby.  Still would be nice if I had some formal training and access to the multi kilobuck tools.

Funny how the guys that modeled all this stuff up front disappear after the prototypes show up and the real performance doesn't match the model.  That's when my phone rings and we have to go back to how we used to do it in order to get the product into production.

I agree with Hans that many companies treat engineers as cannon fodder.  My current company thinks that you can write a process and any nimrod can follow it and end up with a functioning product at the end.  Unfortunately, there seem to be a few blocks in that flow chart that say "Magic Happens". 

I have been fortunate in my career managing to stay at companies for 5+ years before jumping ship.  Catching the last life boat to a new company.  Those changes were usually facilitated by a changing business structure (computer industry).  Making yourself indispensable (not by being responsible for the bathroom key) but by being knowledgeable and can-do will help ensure you land on your feet during corporate changes.

Earl
N8SS

--- towertalk-request at contesting.com wrote:



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.



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