Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
(OP)
Hello All,
I am a fresh Engineer with about a year experience in pressure vessel and mechanical components. I must say that my field, mechanical engineering, is very challenging and I am liking it very much. Everyday when I am driving home, I have a new problem to think about at night and I wonder if there will come a time when I will have solutions to problems right away. Anyway, As of now, I am having a magnetic problem at work. I have to do some calculations for force and torque for some magnetic assemblies. I think simulation is the best solution here. I can either find books, online sources, readings, and this group to educate myself or I can pay the experts to do these calculations and simulations for us. I think my boss is ready to pay but I personally would educate myself and do it myself rather than paying someone else.
My question is, when you face a problem in your project that is not related to your field and you hardly know anything about it, would you try to educate yourself and solve the problem yourself or would you pay the experts and they do it for you?
Thanks
I am a fresh Engineer with about a year experience in pressure vessel and mechanical components. I must say that my field, mechanical engineering, is very challenging and I am liking it very much. Everyday when I am driving home, I have a new problem to think about at night and I wonder if there will come a time when I will have solutions to problems right away. Anyway, As of now, I am having a magnetic problem at work. I have to do some calculations for force and torque for some magnetic assemblies. I think simulation is the best solution here. I can either find books, online sources, readings, and this group to educate myself or I can pay the experts to do these calculations and simulations for us. I think my boss is ready to pay but I personally would educate myself and do it myself rather than paying someone else.
My question is, when you face a problem in your project that is not related to your field and you hardly know anything about it, would you try to educate yourself and solve the problem yourself or would you pay the experts and they do it for you?
Thanks





RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
This would give me an idea of how important it is to get it right first time. If it is essential to get it right, I would pay an expert. If it is only for a prototype, and you expect to iterate it a few times, I would do it myself.
Either way, I would educate myself - if I pay an expert, I would use their results to check my learning.
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
Doesn't mean you cannot analyze the problem after it is solved.
"For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert"
Arthur C. Clarke Profiles of the future
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
robertib had it right: if it has to be right first time, or it will hurt people if you get it wrong, then yes you should obtain advice from skilled specialists. But you should ALSO educate yourself so you can be a knowledgeable consumer of the expert advice given.
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
When I had a site stability issue on a compressor I hired a geotech expert and bought some books because I figured that I had to know if he was blowing smoke up my pants leg. I knew that I could get to be a geotech expert in a couple of years of study and 20 years of experience, but my project had a month. In a month I could learn enough terminology to BS my client, but not to determine how to fix the problem.
When I needed to design a custom thermocompressor for a client I looked into experts and found them to be scarce on the ground and really expensive. I also thought that it was a skill that I could use again, so I bought some software and dug into the subject. The first design was kind of weak, but it got better with experiments. I've used that skill on a dozen projects since.
When I needed to do the code calcs on a pressure vessel, I priced software ($20 k and up), looked at doing manual calcs in MathCad (probably a month's work to set it all up), or hiring a local guy that had the software and some dead time for $800. Kind of a no brainer.
When I needed a CFD model developed for an invention, I looked into purchasing CFD software and learning its quirks, or hiring an expert. The expert was by far the best for the project.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
Until recently, at least, when something I have not done before or out of my realm of familiarity comes up and I suggest a better resource, I always seem to end up with the ones that say, "What the heck did I hire YOU for? Are you an engineer or not?".
As a contractor now, I can politely make a gracious exit from such situations. When it was the classic "boss-employee" relationship, most often I was just left to figure it out on my own.
In the end, that made me a much better engineer, which is why I contract now.
I would ask your boss if there is enough time and budget for you to meet both objectives, namely, get the task done PLUS be the one who learns it and does it, getting guidance from others as appropriate. Especially with young engineers these days, I find that they can climb learning curves that are very steep (otherwise they couldn't have survived the academic rigor of getting their degree), and I have seldom - if ever - been disappointed by the results I have seen from the trainees I have been involved with.
I view this as an opportunity for both you and your boss. Have a back-up plan, but otherwise, go for it.
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
Even if you go with the 'expert' it's worth trying to learn enough on the topic so you understand roughly what they're doing and have some chance of telling if what they've done is meaningful etc. You may even be able to learn a bit from the expert themselves so next time you make an initial stab at the issue.
More specifically on your magnet issues, I work with a former magnetician (now working in our tech pubs) and occasionally dabble in simple magnet applications myself and I've learned from him that magnetics is a fairly poorly understood field by most folks (including me).
Some of the low/mid range magnetic analysis packages aren't that good - e.g. another colleague of mine tried using an ANSYS module for some relatively simple simulation and it apparently wasn't really up to it.
My magnetician colleague still consults on the side on magnetics and uses a highly customized simulation tool (he appears to know what he's doing & he actually wrote the code for some early magnetic simulation SW back in his hard disk development days.)
Despite his PHD, years of experience etc. he's often unable to answer what appear to be simple questions off the top of his head and often says things like 'that's actually quite a complex issue I'd need to do some simulation to get a good answer'.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
I will use that training to fix my company problem soon and also as an knnwoledge investment for me, later on... I dont advertise internally about what I did, and I will not ask for refund (I evolve in a sort of broken organisation, can't fix it immediately (I work towards it :) but my learning regime shall never slowdown at any cost...).
"If you want to acquire a knowledge or skill, read a book and practice the skill".
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
knowledge is power
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
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: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
A.
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
Still we do often use experts - there is often not the time to learn on your own. I'll always try to learn at least enough to ask the right questions of the experts.
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
Some of the things that I've learned on my own are only refreshed here, by attempting to answer questions.
TTFN
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
[IMG http://tinyurl.com/7ofakss]
Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com: http://www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?
Spurt - drip under pressure
Draw your own conclusions
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Do you educate yourself or pay experts, if your project has a problem related to other field?