Work from home engineering jobs?
Work from home engineering jobs?
(OP)
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?
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?





RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
Chris
SolidWorks 11
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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/
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
* 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.
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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 | http://bwstructuralengineer.com | http://bwcivilengineer.com
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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.
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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----
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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.
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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.
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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.
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
I still plot (sic) from autocad :)
For many of my drawings I go up to size B0 - 39.37 × 55.67 inches.
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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.
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
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.
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
To go back onto topic, work from home jobs are out there. I just don't see a big firm looking to hire for that style of work. I bet if you worked there long enough and said upfront that was your goal that would be a way to pursue the idea. If you are making a company money they know you will keep on producing, so that's not the problem.
I knew of someone that was working for a few different large companies that was working from the Caribbean and Fedexing the plans overnight. He started by being really good at his job, and went off on his own. And then everyone knew they could work with him.
B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer
http://bwengr.com | http://bwstructuralengineer.com | http://bwcivilengineer.com
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
If you don't find an employer who'll allow the telecommuting and you consider going the Self-employed route, Professional Liability Insurance is required.
It's expensive and it's required for the long term. That fact alone should be sufficient to convince you against this.
It is the number one show stopper, in my opinion.
tg
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer
http://bwengr.com | http://bwstructuralengineer.com | http://bwcivilengineer.com
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
RE: Work from home engineering jobs?
My 2 cents: Please don't give up a promising career and a job you like over a girl. Particularly one you're not married to, or even engaged to. The simple fact that she would rather move every year or so than stay with you is proof that her career is more important to her than you or your career. This isn't a bad thing, but it does mean that if you're not more important than her career, she should not be more important to you than your career. And I think settling for a telecommuting job at this point in your life would be a negative for your career.