Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
(OP)
So, I have a new job I'm starting this week and I am going to be the only structural engineer. I am worried about this because i have two summers of internship experience working as a civil/structural engineer for a firm that catered to architects. This position is for an office that does industrial work like bulk materials, plants, machines, conveyors and anything else they can get there hands on. So, I guess any advice that you could give me would be great. I what to know what to expect and what things are common must knows for this type of work.
Thank you.
Thank you.





RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
Of course extrapolation is not always acceptable.
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
How did you get this job offer?
Did you know you were to be the only Structural engineer while at the interview?
Surely the hiring Company know how much experience you have, don't they?
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
If you are designing for a factory environment bear in mind that just because the load case is 100 kg on the hook, you can't use that to size members as somebody will drive a forklift into it, so don't use anything less than 4 or 6 inch tube if it is within 10 ft of the ground. Steel is cheap, all that extra capacity you design in will be used one day.
Keep a notebook. Use it.
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: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
I've never really worked in an industrial setting, but my understanding is that they are usually considered "exempt" from requirements of needing a P.E. stamp on designs (still crazy to me, but that's a different topic for a different time). Therefore, they may take you design and go build it without a P.E. ever signing off on it. Again, this is not a situation that you want to be in. You should tell your hiring manager that you do not have the requisite experience to be in responsible charge of a design and either insist on them hiring another engineer with more experience that can mentor you, or refuse the job. In my opinion, you cannot ethically accept this position. The first rule of engineering ethics is to hold public safety paramount above all else. Designing real-world structures that people will use without the experience to do so is not a safe situation.
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
Any chance you will have similar assistance? If not, could they arrange for that? Maybe whoever you are taking over for still has a good working relationship with the firm?
Good luck
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
But another thought I have around these situations is that you can't learn good engineering in a timely manner by only learning from your own mistakes (waiting for them to come to the surface in the construction/operational phase). A good mentor will let you make the mistake so that you learn from it, but will provide the feedback before it goes into the field and costs the company money and time.
"You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself."
- Sam Levenson
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
Since you just started the job it's probably too late to back out now. Seriously consider abandoning ship as soon as practical. Plan on spending a lot of your own time self-studying with textbooks, technical papers, or relevant articles as you can. I would honestly grab some books geared toward the 16-hour SE exam, preparing for that really helped fill in any final gaps I had in my knowledge once I became a licensed engineer. Leave some conservative fat in your design (never bad for industrial design) and work hard to understand your limitations. Above all, don't be afraid to tell your boss "I don't know", but perhaps phrase it "I don't know, yet. But I'll try to find out."
I suspect you'll use a lot of black-box software. This will be your biggest asset and biggest curse. Buckling, connections, details, etc. will likely not be checked by these. Run hand calculations to check for almost everything you can. This will catch a lot of and errors and help you understand the material better.
If you are working on a design where the P.E. in your office is stamping structural designs/drawings and he is not a competent structural engineer then be VERY careful. One could argue that ethically you should notify your states PE board if that occurs.
Don't be afraid to tell your boss that you can't do something if it's clearly way beyond your skill. You could likely arrange to consult with an experienced structural engineer outside your company to do some of the heavy lifting.
Maine Professional and Structural Engineer.
(Just passed the 16-hour SE exam, woohoo!)
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
Maine Professional and Structural Engineer.
(Just passed the 16-hour SE exam, woohoo!)
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
Jeff Mirisola, CSWE
My Blog
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
This is how my career started.
My first job, I started out doing structural engineering for cranes (which was highly Code driven). There was a PE in the company but he was a couple states away, but he was a phone call away. I had to work hard and learn a lot quickly and I don’t regret it. There are a lot of books and information available, that can help you do things right. This was during the massive layoffs in 2008, removeing "redundancy" and overworking people is not good when safety is a factor. I quit this job on the advice of the company PE because I was definitely in over my head, phone calls and emails can only go so far.
My next job after that was doing structural engineering for an exempt field, for industrial facilities (machine, conveyor, vibrating equipment supports). My boss was the original designer of everything but he did not have an engineering degree. Nothing was "to Code" because the Code is a minimum set of requirements. The company had hired me to take their designs to the next level. There historic method was to look at other people’s structures, copy them, and make them "look good". When it was up in the field they typically worked just fine, and if there was any doubt, they "throw more steel at it". I did analysis’s of everything I worked on and found some structures had safety factors of >20. Their main problem was vibration control, so everything was way over built. In this particular field, failure was almost unavoidable (there was 40 USTon of consumable parts). They had plenty of structural failures and had learned from them, typically fatigue or wear related, which is massively complex, and was a fantastic experience for me. Because of this the sites were NOT accessible during operation so personal injury was not the concern of a failure. They were mostly concerned with down time and repairs. For maintenance LOTO to get in the plant took over an hour… This was great experience.
All this summed up in a nut shell. Can you design something that can get in the field and cause personal injury? My first job, something could have gotten out the door with a serious error.
My second job, I had a very experience boss, and there were a lot of checks, and workflow that made failure manageable. They never had personal injury because of a design flaw or failure. This experience really propelled my career, because I got to see lots of complex failures and problems.
Hope this helps
Good luck.
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer
Another thing to consider is this - If at some point in the future, you decide to get back into the area in which you interned (i.e. working with architects on structures that require a PE), then all of the 'experience' you get in this role will not count because it's not under the supervision of a PE.
RE: Newer engineer starting at a company and i'm going to be there only Structural Engineer