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Is engineering boring?
10

Is engineering boring?

Is engineering boring?

(OP)
I graduated two years ago with a Mech degree and I found school to be both fun and challenging. I loved it.  Since then I've held two full time jobs (one with the government and the other a large defense contractor doing CAD) and I've  found both to be unchallenging and boring - I end up finishing my work after an hour or two, then beg for additional work and ultimately stare at cubicle walls. After a couple of years of this, I've become awfully frustrated. I understand that I'm young and I have ALOT to learn, but I've looked around at the senior engineers and their work doesn't seem all that exciting... Maybe this is engineering?

I would like to get my hands dirty -see what I'm good at and what I suck at.  I would like an interesting, challenging and technical engineering job, but I don't how to go about finding one without job hopping.  It seems horribly inefficient for all involved. Any advice on where to go from here? Do I continue taking jobs and hope that one clicks? Go back to school and get into R&D?
 

RE: Is engineering boring?

When time is available, I amuse myself by reverse engineering our own products, and our competitors' products, trying to find weak spots, and understand the reasoning behind the differences and the science behind the similarities.

The effort is more educational when you are fortunate enough to have access to product that's been used, and especially, broken.

Eventually you understand why "we've always done it that way", and once in a great while you stumble across a better way.

I'm also continuously trying to improve my own process, not necessarily for this job, but also for the next one.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Is engineering boring?

BoredEngineer,
Been there. It's not you, it's poor management. Use your time and learn other software applications, tools, machines, whatever.
I learned CATIA and Flex3 during the time my boss had his....never mind.
Stick in there, a better job will eventually turn up.

Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP4.1
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

RE: Is engineering boring?

Sounds like you were working in the government sector and perhaps for a large contractor with plushly funded government funds with little oversight.  

No, this is not engineering.  You need to move to the private sector where making money is important, not wasting it.  30 years ago I had to move as I was in the same situation working for a government entity.

Up and until the past year, I was always busy with lots of work and little time to do it.

For now, if you are still in that government job, stay there as it will pay your bills.  However, if and when the economy turns, follow the road to the private sector.  Hopefully, by that time, and the sooner the better, you will have enough experience to get hired, if you have not been pidgeon holed already.

Some here will disagree with me, but to each their own.  That does not invalidate my experience.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

RE: Is engineering boring?

Engineering is not boring as long as the accountants who run the company actually allow you to do it.

Regards,

SNORGY.

RE: Is engineering boring?

Bored: Does the term "skunk works" mean anything to you?

When your task list is either short or dull, spend some time inventing or implementing things you know your customers would like, but haven't asked for.  Most large companies stifle this kind of activity, but grab anything good that comes from it.

One of my bosses created a World-leading product through skunk works, which exists today.  He got the boot several years later when a not-so-successful product was developed in a similar way (i.e. without management buy-in)
 

- Steve

RE: Is engineering boring?

Most jobs are boring. Take brain surgery for example. Same old skull, same brain every time. You can make the job more interesting though by drumming on the skull top to a Phil Collins track to lighten up the day. Try that with your colleague in the next cubicle to you.

Alternatively try and get involved with other people to see what they do. Network, as they say. If you have spare time take the opportunity to learn new things. It'll help you expand your skills and move into different areas where the work may be more interesting. Alternatively, take drum sticks into work.  

corus

RE: Is engineering boring?

My job is going a bit slow as well, mainly because i'm new, so to past the time i have decided to write an concrete FEA design guide, there are probably heaps of these around but what the hey i never planned on publishing it anyway.  

Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud. After a while you realize that them like it

RE: Is engineering boring?

It doesn't have to be boring.  But working isn't the same as school.  As long as you continue to seek positions where you are a tiny cog in a giant machine, you will probably continue to be bored.  My first job was taking airframe structural member machining drawings and converting them to machining drawings of cast parts for a defense contractor.  Never really saw anything else of the rest of the airplane. Agonizingly boring, that was.  I danced out of that place after eight months.

After one more stint with a large company, I have always sought work with smaller companies.  Less pay, less benefits, less people, more work, many more hats to wear, certainly less stability.  But generally the work was good and interesting and it made me want to wake up in the morning so I could go to work.

Try unemployment during a recession with a family to support:  now THAT's thrilling.

When you're 50+ you'll probably wish you had a nice cushy boring job that paid well and had great bennies because you'll be pre-occupied with your family isssues and actually thinking about retirement.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com

RE: Is engineering boring?

2
I came out of school and started working for a government contractor.  

I agree with msquared48 in that I worked - but it was not engineering.  And I did get pigeon holed.  When they downsized I found that I didn't have 7 years of experience -I had 14 iterations of 1/2 years experience and nobody wanted what I was experienced in.

It took me a long time to rebuild my career with good experience.

Stay while the bills are paid - find things to do that will be useful - take advantage to learn new things and then get out.

RE: Is engineering boring?

BoredEngineer,

If you are bored with working for the government, then you will probably be bored in the private sector. I've worked for bad management in both private and public, and one thing that hasn't changed is that in the government, managers are only too happy to load you with work until you drop, if you volunteer. Same genral rules apply to both, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. While private sector certainly had lots of dead wood and high paid nothings with "OVERHEAD" stamped on the forehead, they always seemd to have to stick their fat little fingers into engineering to justify their existence. Just like the pointy-headed boss on Dilbert. My experience with the gub'mint is that those same types do not have to justify an economic payback hence keep their chubby little fingers out and work on their buzzword generators.

Being with the gubmint, I've had experience opportunites that you just don't get in the private sector, and it has been anything but boring. It's been a lot of work with ASHRAE, IMC, CDC. NIH, etc., especially for facilities which had not yet had standards and criteria developed. More than once when the priate sector could not perform design, work was moved in house. If you are still truly bored, Uncle Sugar is always looking for people to relocate to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Not saying private or public is better for you, just that you don't need to be bored. A large benefit of gubmint work is it allows you to hold ethics over dollars. My last private sector job wanted me not to just bend the line, but defecate while crossing.

RE: Is engineering boring?

I should have mentioned (have done in other threads).

University is interesting because you are continuosly learning.  Work gets boring very quickly when that learing peters out.  You need to position yourself into a job where the learning doesn't stop.

- Steve

RE: Is engineering boring?

Engineering is not boring.

There are fun, exciting jobs as well as boring jobs in engineering (I have had both) as there are fun and boring jobs in almost any other discipline.

The trick is to find and keep the good jobs and leave the bad ones in a hurry.

I count my blessings that although there are many bad things in my current job, there is fun to be had and learning to be done every day.  

RE: Is engineering boring?

While management certainly has some fiducial duty to keep you gainfully employed, you need to find things to do, whether they're actual company projects, or something educational for you.

I don't think that you can fairly compare school, which is on a rigid schedule, with work, which is not.  

Nonetheless, I don't think engineering is boring at all.  There's tons of new things to learn every day, and I'm constantly amazed that someone actually pays me to do this!

TTFN

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RE: Is engineering boring?

So, mostly good advice above.  Find something to do with your spare time.  To some extent at my jobs I've created the position.  Essentially there were core tasks that I was employed to do.  Then there were other things that looked like they needed doing but no one else was working on them, so I spent some time on them.

So long as you're getting your 'core work' done mangement should be OK with it.  Be careful not to tread on anyones toes etc, it can be a political minefield, but basically find stuff you can do that adds value to your job while giving you a chance to learn stuff.

Big organizations like yours tend to be better at paying for training of employees, see if there's anything available.

Maybe do stress analysis or something of the parts you're working on in CAD.  If you're actually creating the drawings then I can tell you for a fact there are a lot of things you don't know about that after 2 years.  While some may not consider it hard core engineering you could try and learn about GD& T & tolerancing etc.

Basically, in your apparant 'free time' find something usefull & interesting to do.

Small companies may answer some of your issues, but they aren't a panacea.  Some people are happier in them than others.  Maybe they're the right place for you, maybe not.

Oh, and yes there is a lot of dull stuff in engineering, a lot of that dull stuff gets sluffed off on junior staff, partly as a learning experience and partly because more senior staff don't want to do it.  It's amazing how little cutting edge, make or break stuff there is in comparison to the more laborious stuff, funnily most of the few exciting/critical tasks aren't given to inexperienced junior staff that often.

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RE: Is engineering boring?

Any job can be boring if you get stuck looking at too small of a portion. Engineering often is terribly boring because of this.  

It can require much personal initiative to get beyond the 'little picture' stuff, but if you are bored or don't have enough energy to face the day, it is probably because your work isn't presenting big enough challenges.     

RE: Is engineering boring?

(OP)
Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate it!

RE: Is engineering boring?

BoredEngineer,

As others have mentioned, engineering can be boring, but similar to Mike, I have not had that experience yet.  I worked for a couple of years at a large construction company which afforded me the opportunity to get on job sites and meet with the people building off my designs.  This was good and bad, but even today in my current position as an engineer for a consulting firm, I often look forward to getting in the field for a day or so.  It makes the office time fly by and while the traveling can be a pain at times, I like to meet with customers at their sites.  Maybe I am a minority, but I find the variety is what makes engineering fun for me.

JWB

RE: Is engineering boring?

Driving the prototype with my suspension in? Not boring

Fighting a new concept in subframe isolation through, and proving it is works? Not boring.

Delivering an innovative product, on time, with better performance than promised? Not boring.

Being bored at work? Very boring.

Oddly, you are the only person who can decide to be bored.



 

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: Is engineering boring?

My job is very exciting and interesting.  I'm sure this is partially because I only have 3+ years experience and am still learning a lot.  My position also exposes me to such a variation of analysis and design issues that it's difficult to get bored.  

There are only really 4 materials - concrete, steel, wood, and masonry (I'm sure I'm leaving something out and someone will point that out), but the manner in which they're used and understanding the behavior NEVER gets boring.  

Another way to prevent boredom is to make spreadsheets (complex ones) and make sure they're as idiot proof and fool proof as possible - this will exercise your mental muscles.

RE: Is engineering boring?

I like StructuralEIT's advice very much! This is exactly what I do.

I had a budget of ten months, with another colleague to complete the piperack design on a major project. We completed it in two months and we knew management were not interested in hearing that! So we invented a new project for ourselves in a spreadsheet design. It was great and innovative work.

If you can find a "partner in crime" you'll find even more tremendous opportunity to learn.

Like yourself, I struggled in my first two years after university and found the culture shock of the drawing office too sedentary and boring. I quit and went back to university. When I left and came back into the profession, the jobs were better, more interesting but more so I had more ideas and more confidence.

If you have a hankering to learn more, then learn more now.

Robert Mote
www.motagg.com

RE: Is engineering boring?

I graduated as an engineer in 1992 and have since held a variety of different engineering jobs, from bill collection (small firm) to project design and management, to sales to Quality Manager and now am a Business Development Manager or GSE as I prefer to call it (Glorified Sales Engineer).  During my slow periods I learned and now know tonnes more than I did in college and it's all relevant.  So hang in there.  If you wanted boring, I am sure you could have become an accountant where you stare at figures (that aren't yours) all day.

drawn to design, designed to draw

RE: Is engineering boring?

You are the only one who can choose to be bored in engineering, so decide not too.  There are plenty of issues just in Eng_Tips, learn and explore on how to solve them.  For MEs there are a host of general, dynamic, and thermal issues.  Can you help solve them?  Some can be solved by college level analysis.
 

Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."  

RE: Is engineering boring?

I don't think the engineers working Aries think it boring.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ares1x/status.html

But it all depends on your outlook.
Two designers in the same group were asked what they were working on:  The first one said "A bracket to put a p-clamp on"; the second said "The next generation moon rocket".

RE: Is engineering boring?

Personally, Mining or Geotechnical Engineering would be boring.

smile   

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

RE: Is engineering boring?

Get out of the Government and the private industry that gets projects by government.

Well, getting out of industry that's funded by the gov't is going to be harder to do in the States.

______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.

RE: Is engineering boring?

Don't think I agree with you on this one msquared, did a stint as in a geo firm for about 3 months, some of the best fun i have ever had, mind you i was on drill rig duty. For all those that haven't had the experience, basically "drill rig duty" is you follow a drill rig around the outback recording bore logs. Sounds boring, but the drillers that i met all had great personalities and there was always a good story to be heard between drilling, or a practical joke to be played, normally on the sister drill rig.

Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud. After a while you realize that them like it

RE: Is engineering boring?

rowingengineer, sounds like you thought that drilling was anything but boring -- I guess to the rest of us non-drill rig jockeys drilling is boring, ah well its all different terminology at the end of the day!

RE: Is engineering boring?

Having said that, working on a tube all day doesn't suit everyone, there are certainly engineering jobs that have to be done that would fill me with a desire to get out of Dodge. Which is exactly what I did, twice.  

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: Is engineering boring?

Snort.  Greg, yer killin' me.

Small companies work for me, I like wearing lots of hats and staying busy.

Big companies have their R+D divisions, though, which operate a lot like small companies do.  Find out what group does this in your mega-corporation, and ask what you can do to get a job in their group.  I whined as a new MS, and eventually got to work on more cutting-edge stuff.  But you learn to live and die by the budget axe then, as others have pointed out.  Can be scary when the layoffs are imminent.

RE: Is engineering boring?

Boring?  You should have been there BI. (before internet). smile

Start trying to see what you can get away with.  Take on all resposibilities you can find.  Look for forgivness, rather than permission.   

**********************
"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world's energy used by electric motors and 25-50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities."-DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99% for pipeline companies) http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/

RE: Is engineering boring?

There was a chap in these fora a while back who came clean about his experiment of doing absolutely nothing, to see how long he could get away with it.  Like George Costanza in the Seinfeld sitcom and his under-desk bed.

- Steve

RE: Is engineering boring?

One trick, which has been alluded to a couple of times, is to take some boring task (say working out the correct way of designing a pair of bearings, to pick one particularly annoying example), and then do it so absolutely and completely that you don't ever need to think about it again. Anyone asks you, give them your procedure. The downside is that you risk becoming the goto guy for tricky problems. Well, that ain't boring.



 

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: Is engineering boring?

Learn Visual Basic with Excel.  

In my spare time I improve spreadsheets.  Pressure Vessel, ASME, PD5500 etc.

The equivilant software costs £10,000 for a yearly license.  If I go contracting I wont have to worry about that license.

Design Spreadsheets to be as perfect as possible and then add any required Visual basic addons to top it off.

 

RE: Is engineering boring?

Greg,

At the risk of being the go to guy there are always these little projects that you have to get around to when times are slower.  I spent the time on setting up the drawing templates and working with marketing on the new catalog for the company.  Neither required a big rush but when done, they saved a hell of a time.  Sometimes accounting would come looking for similar things like designing a new form for whatever and you have two choices...be the go to guy and do it for them or simply point to the software and give them your template to get them gong themselves.  I usually do the latter.  Then when it's 90% done I will help them tidy it up in my spare time.

drawn to design, designed to draw

RE: Is engineering boring?

From the beginning of my career, I have found ways of codifying my work to facilitate later analysis. New additions to the group picked up on it, and it helped them come up to speed.

Later on I wrote articles for publication, wrote work instructions, and continuously tried to clarify methods of analysis. The boss appreciated this because it allowed less qualified engineering people to perform efficiently.

[I had to slap the hands of salesmen who tried to engineer products, something they were not qualified to do. One salesman had the audacity to sell the most expensive approach to customers until I got that under control.]

Engineering is not boring. In the Army, officers used to say 'when time allows, improve your foxhole.' Keep busy.

RE: Is engineering boring?

I think it was Nietzsche who said - "That which does not bore me to death, makes me stronger".

GJC
 

RE: Is engineering boring?

"Personally, Mining or Geotechnical Engineering would be boring."

Until they gave you the shaft, right?

RE: Is engineering boring?

I wondered how long it would take someone else to pick up on that.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Is engineering boring?

Engineering is not boring. Some engineers are bores!

My take is that the  world is full of dreamers, historians and the can do people.

The dreamers are actors, authors, politicians and scientists who dont actually get to the end point and throw up a million ideas in the process. Then someone has to fix on one and make it happen.

The historians cannont do anything until something has happened. When the wheel was invented someone wanted to insure or sell it. the attorney wanted to patent it and the medico heal the bloke it ran over. All this happened after the event.

The can do people. Well you guessed they are engineers. They sort the ideas into practical things and give the historians something to do. That take the science and employ their technology to better the world.

If it did not grow an engineer was behind it!

RE: Is engineering boring?

And there is Bioengineering for those things that grow.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services
www.infotechpr.net

RE: Is engineering boring?

"Pick up on it, my second post beat him to it. "

No, you claimed Civil Engineers.  HE posted mining/geotechnical.   

RE: Is engineering boring?

Them are fighting words.

Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud. After a while you realize that them like it

RE: Is engineering boring?

If you plot learning versus time it is generally a parabola. If you are bored then you are probably on the top of the parabola. Change jobs and get on the steep slope.

If you are still bored go bungy jumping, mountain climbing or base jumping. If you still bored find a Buddhist monastery. its your calling.

RE: Is engineering boring?

I think that even if you ever got to a point where you stopped learning (this would only happen if you let it, there's so much to learn it's actually a little ridiculous), that by that point teaching (mentoring) younger engineers would take over and that's not boring either.

RE: Is engineering boring?

Bored?? Not, I try to update my knowledge every time I can (new documentation, software, etc)

Ibertest Internacional S.A.
http://www.ibertestint.com

RE: Is engineering boring?

i started working for a large defense contractor half a year ago. I feel what the OP posted when I'm are given 3 months to do a task that can be done in 3 days. It seems like that is how things are with govt funded projects. I notice the majority of people are IMing, surfing the Internet, or just chit chatting 80% of their time away everyday.  

... on the other hand, just a mile or so away from the office, there are tradesmen and technicians who bust their ass doing labor and work real hard for their dollar who wish they can make x amount in that amount of time and effort.  I feel fortunate to have it in this sense. I plan on starting my Master ME next year, and having a low stress job will def make things go easier.

RE: Is engineering boring?

Maybe it is nice for a while. But when you realize you have been playing with your balls your whole life then you may regret that way of life. (No pun or offense intended)  

peace
Fe

RE: Is engineering boring?

Bored,

In my limited experience, things can get boring in a company when they are going too smoothly.  For example the company is raking in profits on an existing product line where most of the bugs are already worked out, and the main focus is on slashing costs to squeeze out even more profit.  If you get into a situation where a new product is being developed, or better yet put into the field for the first time, life can get interesting in a hurry.  If there are problems, that's when the company will need your brain the most.  But, you might get burned out with too much of this kind of thing.

I work for a company that has a lot of government contracts but we're all very busy.  Not all the work is interesting of course, but there is no lack of work to go around.

RE: Is engineering boring?

From a sci-fi novel:

"Interesting: As in pertaning to ones death. Nothing so captures the mind than the knowledge that one is about to die."

Be careful what you ask for.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services
www.infotechpr.net

RE: Is engineering boring?

Its already been said.

If things arn't exciting, you're just not going fast enough.
---Mario Andertti

**********************
"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world's energy used by electric motors and 25-50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities."-DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99% for pipeline companies) http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/

RE: Is engineering boring?

Being busy isn't the same as not being bored. your just too busy to notice. Thread's made me realise I must change my work to make me interested.

Lot's of engineering is boring/dull paperwork and calculation, for me once the concept of a solution is worked out I lose all interest. Unless its making parts for my bikes.

RE: Is engineering boring?

malk:  no offense, but I hope we NEVER hire you!  Tough to be a happy engineer if you don't like to follow a conceptual solution through to its detailed conclusion...

I do hope you can find work that turns your crank, rather than just keeping you so busy that you don't notice how bored you are..    

RE: Is engineering boring?

mm--I've been the same way.  It's why I didn't last in computer science or linguistics--once I saw that a solution to a problem was possible, I didn't really care about working it out for myself.  The details in engineering were more interesting for some reason.  But as long as MALK actually can do the work whether or not he thinks it's fun, he sounds like a good candidate for management, where he can deal with the bigger picture and leave the details for others.

Hg

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RE: Is engineering boring?

HgTx,  you've got a point.  Living in the weeds can get dull after a time.  But the position of being "above" the weeds is one you've got to earn by slogging through them for a while first.

MALK's comment reminded me right away of an old friend of mine. He's a really smart guy educated as a mech eng, but his mom used to complain to me that he was useless to her-anything she needed fixed around the house he'd be happy to take apart, but as soon as he found what was wrong he lost interest and NEVER put anything back together again.

Would he be an ideal manager?  Perhaps if he's forced himself to hold his nose and work through the details enough times that he can empathize with his staff who actually DO suffer the details- otherwise, I'm thinking salesman rather than manager!
 

RE: Is engineering boring?

That's what I meant--if he puts in his time now, he might be better upstairs.  People who prefer the details to the big picture are better downstairs.

Hg

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RE: Is engineering boring?

Reading these posts like "once I saw the how the thing operated, I wasn't really interested anymore"  really makes me feel a little better.

I constantly get down on myself for precisely this reason, I typically work really hard and fast on something until I see a solution, then have to force myself to get it completed fully detailed.  I mean my mind finds all sorts of better things to do with its time.

this message has been approved for citizen to elect kepharda 2008

RE: Is engineering boring?

There's detail, and there's detail.  Drafting is *serious* detail.  Finishing the calculation is regular detail.  At least from my perspective.

Hg

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RE: Is engineering boring?

Come on. So just because you know there is a solution to a differential equation you will not solve it for your self?
Interesting, I wonder what you would do on exams. smile
BTW, there is a solution to every problem in this world. The 'details' are the remarkable part.  

peace
Fe

RE: Is engineering boring?

Come on yourself, FeX32.  No one is talking about disregarding requirements for homework, exams, or job assignments, just about what is more interesting.

It's not just knowing there is a solution.  It's knowing enough about the solution to know, roughly, how it would go.  For some types of problems and some types of people, the most interesting part, by far, is that push from "I don't know how that works" to "I see a way it would work", and then the biggest thing to look forward to is the next problem when one can make that breakthrough again.  For some, the bigger joy is in working the solution out fully to make it work.

For some, french fries are delicious.  For some, french fries are an excuse to eat ketchup.  I'm not sure which is which in this analogy.

Hg

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RE: Is engineering boring?

"For some, french fries are delicious.  For some, french fries are an excuse to eat ketchup.  I'm not sure which is which in this analogy."

Perfect...just perfect.

"A Designer knows that he has achieved Perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away"  - Antoine de Saint-Exupry

RE: Is engineering boring?

As long as you don't put mayo on it. Truly disturbing.

RE: Is engineering boring?

I sense some attributed traits......
Maybe theoretical physics is more the game for that type of whom like to 'think' and not 'DO'.

P.S. french fries make your ass stick out. wink

peace
Fe

RE: Is engineering boring?

My 2 cents: I agree with those who say that you need to get into private sector.  I disagree with "mauricestoker".  It is possible to enjoy your work.  You seem to want to work and do something constructive.  

I worked for a large government contractor and all I was given was small tasks. My work ethic at that time wasn't necessarily the best and I didn't pursue more for myself, but I look back and realize that I would have been doing little tasks forever.  I wasn't pressed to work.  When I went to the private sector, I needed to perform and, fortunately, my work ethic changed once I realized that I enjoyed my work.

The point is that if you are bored, you are working in the wrong place.  You need to make a move.  There are all types of companies out there.  

It is possible to work at a place that challenges you, is interesting, is ethical, and is not a sweat shop.  Just make sure that you know what you want, and think long term such as if you'd like to be a project manager, field engineer, etc. Make sure to convey this to a prospective employer. They will appreciate the honesty and won't hire you unless they can provide you with what you are looking for.  When you get hired, it will be a win-win situation.

Good Luck!

RE: Is engineering boring?

Glad to see I stoked up some debate. Engineering is the best desk bound job you can get, just it gets infected with (important, afterall the devil's in the detail) paperwork. You could say the ultimate detailing is making the stuff and for one offs I love that. I possibly dislike the grinding to a finish part because I realise it has to be done properly. Plenty folk 'finish' a job only for rectification to have to take place later.

Anyhoo, be happy in what you do. Funnily enough I am trying to get into a management post at he moment. Also I try to give any graduate engineers reporting to me interesting work to do and I do emphasise the importance of dotting the is and crossing the Tees.

RE: Is engineering boring?

Engineering jobs are interesting no doubt in that... May be you are struck in the job you don't like. Take the free time to learn new things available in the office! or in the web :)
You have eagerness to learn... You will get a job you like... May be in the pvt sector.

Product Design Funda!
http://www.productdesignfunda.com

RE: Is engineering boring?

I don't like the details either.  I learned this early on and got my MSME and relaized the R&D, consulting, and leadership roles (doesn't have to be management types.  I am a lead engineer and I enjoy being a leader without all the BS that comes with actually being the boss) are better suited for my personality.  Taking the differential euqation analogy that FeX32 made  one step further, I think of myself of the guy that dervies the differential equation and I would happily leave the details of the solution to someone else.  I know how to solve it, I just prefer not to.   

RE: Is engineering boring?

Even people who loved each other at one point in time get divorced.

If you love someone, you put up with a certain of irritation.  If you don't, then you won't put up with any irritation.

TTFN

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RE: Is engineering boring?

There is no need to be bored in most careers, and certainly not engineering.  As an engineer you can work on all aspects of the creation of products, from research through production, and in-service.  You can also do this for manufacturers, or customers, or governments.
The trick is to get to know yourself, and what you like - what is it that really gives satisfaction - an obvious contrast is between people who like to be 'hands-on' and design the article, through to those who prefer think in the abstract or 'system' level.
For me, I worked in a govt R&D situation for a few years, and then, thinking I wanted get more specialised, I went to Industry.  Now been there 18mths, and the work seems repetitive, and lacking the interest that makes me want to be an engineer, and I looking to get back into investigative work.
Hope this helps

RE: Is engineering boring?

As far as government vs private industry goes....

Your chances of getting into more high tech and interesting work are higher in government than industry.  However, it all depends on your skills and the size of the company.  If you work for a large defense contractor you are one of hundreds of engineers, and a lot of those jobs are boring.  The products that those companies make are very cool, but unfortunately you will be such a small piece, that the coolness factor is somehow lost in the day to day grind.

I went from one such company to a small privately owned manufacturing firm.  I found life at a small company not to be much better.  The engineering department at this company was four people.  There was no room for advancement and no cash for cool toys.  We didn't even use 3D CAD (this was around 1998).  We did our drawings (which were done by us engineers) using some no name 2D CAD program.  There was no FEA and no calculations.  Nearly all of our new products were just derivitives of existing products, so designs were based not on engineering principles, but on experience and rules of thumb-very low-tech.  I was a glorified draftsman and paper pusher.  By Thursday of my first week on the job I was bored silly.  I lasted one year there.  

I have found that I prefer  medium sized defense compaines.  There is more real engineering going on (analysis on nearly every project) and even R&D.  There is more money and overall better pay.  Plus, there is room to grow and advance within the company.  

My ideal company has between 200 to 400 employees.

RE: Is engineering boring?

Just curious now, what kind of positions / job function do all you guys /gals have. I've moved within the company recently to a job with a faster paced day to day manufacturing problem solving type of work from design / analysis. The pace certainly suits me better and I haven't had to totally give up the design aspects - still looking tho

RE: Is engineering boring?

Just curious now, what kind of positions / job function do all you guys /gals have? I've moved within the company recently to a job with a faster paced day to day manufacturing problem solving type of work from design / analysis. The pace certainly suits me better and I haven't had to totally give up the design aspects - still looking tho

RE: Is engineering boring?

And even with that, do you really think that even research is exciting 24/7?  

To do any sort of interesting research, you have to running a lab, which means that you have to:
>>  teach classes
>>  grade assignments
>>  mentor students
>>  supervise your postgrads
>>  curry favor to get grants
>>  be on the road about 25% of your time to glad hand potential customers
>>  grind out analyses proving your position
>>  oh yeah, spend some time doing some real research

When I was a kid, being a rock star sounded like something that was glamorous and exciting, but the reality is that the only exciting part of the day is the one or two hours on stage, and everything else is gritty and mundane, unless you've made it to the top, but the luxury and glam appears to be insufficient for many top rock stars that spiral into drinking and drugs to blot out the periods between performances.

The bottome line is that nothing you'll do will be 100% exciting 100% of the time.  However, there's enough excitement in doing the things that get yiou out of bed in the morning to keep you contented.  As in the old song, " you can't always get what you want, but you sometimes get what you need."

TTFN

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RE: Is engineering boring?

Good points IRstuff.
At least you get 'some' stuff of the interest. Many jobs this 'some' is nonexistent.

" you can't always get what you want, but you sometimes get what you need."  2thumbsup

peace
Fe

RE: Is engineering boring?

To that regard, we are truly lucky; as engineers, we have the potential to get, or find, interesting things to work on.  There are lots of jobs where there's not even the remote possibility of ever doing something interesting.

Just consider the people that clean your office.  The biggest thrill for some of them is to find a cache of soda cans that they can recycle for $20 or so.

TTFN

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RE: Is engineering boring?

I'll back up Mike Hollarans point about the interesting stuff getting given the interns.  I used to have to stop myself from doing their work for them because it was so much more interesting than what I was doing.

Sorry New Postjck87 but there's relatively little real cutting edge new product development.  

A lot more of the stuff Mike mentions.

For instance, for every guy coming up with the planform or wing section of the next super fighter, there are probably dozens that get stuck analyzing release of the same weapon from a couple of different hard points under the wing of the same aircraft at various stages of the flight resume...

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RE: Is engineering boring?

Also bear in mind that while working on new concepts is great fun, if you don't do the implementation as well then your 'ownership' will be slight at best.

At least with cars, a large percentage of the people involved in initial system design/selection tend to be the core of the group who will see it into production (usually described as "go to woe").

Cheers

Greg Locock


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RE: Is engineering boring?

go to woe = go to guys?

peace
Fe

RE: Is engineering boring?

The accountants in Australia are running ad campaigns and the theme is " You can work with interesting people". If you think engineering is boring dont become an accountant!

RE: Is engineering boring?

Oh ic. Thanks Greg.  

peace
Fe

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