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What is the best engineering advice you ever received?
200

What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

(OP)
I would like to continue engineerdaves series of threads; what frustrates you at work, and what satisfies you at work...

I just finished reading one of Donald Trumps books entitled "the way to the top".  What he did was he asked the top executives across the US to submit the one single most important thing they learned to help them achieve businees success.  

For example one qoute was (and is very applicable to engineering):

"Although you can't always control where you are planted-to which department or specific project you are assigned-you can control the experience while you are there...bloom where you are planted."

So my question to the forum is: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3
Two things, one to the engineering side, one to the business side:

-- Murphy was an optimist.
-- Dilbert is real.

While engineering is serious business, if you can't find humor in the unexpected failures, the frustrations of management, etc., you're eventually going to hit the wall of burnout.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

4
While brainstorming ideas with a senior engineer I was assigned to work for, he finished the session with this:

Quote:

Do what you think is best.  I've learned not to fall in love with my own ideas.
This was a man more interested in a solution than just politicking his ideas.  He was well respected by all, especially by those lucky enough to work for him.

Due to illness, the part of The Tick will be played by... The Tick.
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Always check the interfaces

Always check your assumptions

Always correlate your model

Cheers

Greg Locock

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Check your units (and for IRstuff) even if your using Mathcad.

Patricia Lougheed

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of the Eng-Tips Forums.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Learn something new everyday.

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

4
In God we trust, all others bring data!

Good luck,
Latexman

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
During the review phase of a project - if half the criticism that you receive in for one reason and the other half if for exactly the opposite reason, you probably have things right.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

5
Don't assume the shop knows your design intent.

(This is particularly true with custom work.)

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Never believe your job is secure, no job is secure.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Consider the operating temp of the design.

Assign the temperatures at the design point. Your layout should exhibit the cold condition with the hot condition superimposed. You may be shocked at the disparity. Of course, the parts need to be detailed so that the hot condition results in the intended agreeable relationship.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Learn how to make money fast and alot will take care of it self.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3
vpl,

I always do.

Quote:

Plan the work; then work the plan

TTFN

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

From Engineering:
Let the quality of your design speak for it self.





RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

5
Respect the support people - the AAs, drafters, technicians, etc can make your job much easier or difficult to the extreme...

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

If it doesnt look right it probably isnt.

Nick
I love materials science!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Beggar, that is absolutely true.

Make friends with the people who build your designs and don't hesitate to ask questions. They are a wealth of knowledge waiting to be tapped into.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

If you want to do it right, do it yourself!

With this, if/when things go wrong, you can only blame yourself.  And if others do the job for you, make sure that you verify the outcome before putting your stamp.

Coka

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

7
If it works

Don't touch it..leave it well alone.

Everything can be taken back to the very most basic laws of physics.

What goes in must come out, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, simply changed to another form. The conservation of energy etc.

If it looks right, it probably is right.

Think laterally and ask lots of questions.  

You are made with one mouth and two ears. Use them in that ratio.

Friar Tuck of Sherwood

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Figures can Lie and Liars can Figure.  Look at the data closely.

Your options are "Good," "Fast," and "Cheap."  Pick two.

ChemE, M.E. EIT
"The only constant in life is change." -Bruce Lee

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

5
(OP)
When creating a design, always create a parallel path backup design, in-case your original falls through.

Regards,
TULUM



RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

5
Don't tell an employee to do something that you're not willing to do yourself.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.


                                                Maui


                                     

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
If you do not know the process for making your design, chances are the guy who is going to make it for you won't either.

Makest thou not parts measured to the breadth of the hair of thy pet flea's toe; which causeth thy blacksmith to curse mightily and inspection to question thy sanity.

I find these two go well together and keep me out of a lot of trouble.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3
Great thread!

My 2 cents:

Business sense: "There are some customers you want your competitors to take."

Engineering sense: "Make sure you are solving the right problem."

Steven Fahey, CET
"Simplicate, and add more lightness" - Bill Stout

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

4
The principal: "measure twice, cut once" is as sound a piece of advice as you can get.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I really love that thread. All I have to say has already been said.

Cheers

Patrick

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Question everything.

Start with questions that you know the answer to, then move on to questions that you don't know the answer.

If the answers to the simple questions that you know the answer to are wrong, then the answers to the questions that you don't know the answer to are probably wrong too.

"Because we always do it that way" is never the right answer.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Don't teach fools". I thought my boss was saying this out of ignorance, for he really knew nothing. Now I am very much thankful to him.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3
First Rule of Design: DON'T

(If you can make economical use of existing known systems, do so)

Regards,

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Plan some meaningful tests. You may discover that your analytical design or SWAG doesn't quite meet requirements.

Speaking of requirements: Be suspect of shifting targets. If a product meets mutually agreed testing, don't let other factors cloud the issue. "We passed PPAP but we discovered the plastic parts had voids." What else is new about plastic parts!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
ASSUME

It makes an ASS of U and ME

Regards

Tom

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

From an Engineering Professor in college:

Do NOT trust someone else's information or design--make sure it is correct before you use it.

Also from the same guy:  "If you can sell water of air, you are doing good."  This was stated in the 70's before bottled water or oxygen bars showed up on the scene.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

To an architect in a meeting:

Cheap.  Fast.  Correct.  Pick two.  

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

5
I'll present some advice that I wish I had received.  I occasionally host high school students interested in engineering in our facility and always give the following advice more or less using these words:

"Be prepared to work in a competitive and critical environment.  Engineers tend to be intense and detail oriented.  Many engineers are workaholic types.  Engineering is a decent and fair way to make a living but don't expect to get rich."

These traits commonly associated with engineers are not necessarily bad, just different from traits associated with people in other professions.  If someone had told me these things when I was in high school I probably would still have followed the engineering path but would have been more aware of what I was getting into.

Some good advice I have received:  

"Do it right the first time."  There is always pressure to get more done in less time but yet when there are mistakes made there seems to always be time available to do it over.  Resist the urge to rush because it's false economy.

"You get what you pay for."  This applies to so many areas.  One example is awarding business to the low bidder.  The low bidder can nickle-and-dime until the cost approaches or even exceeds the higher bidder.  The higher bidder may be bidding on a more thorough or higher quality job that in the end turns out to be the better value.  Again, false economy.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Value Engineering is neither.

If you can't afford to do it right, how can you afford to do it twice?

From my dad while in grade school; "pay attention in math, it will serve you for your entire life."

Rik

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

work on the 'KISS' priciple

KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID

Friar Tuck of Sherwood

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

An impressive advice I got from my senior Civil enginer colleague years back when I was going too fine into the values I calculated during the design.

"In civil/structural design adequacy of the design counts more than the accuracy of the calculations"

I value it till date.

Trilinga

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

(OP)
Don't be afraid to make decisions, and mistakes.  Mistakes can be fixed, most of the time.  Make the best decision on the information presented to you.  Remember, not making a decision, is ironically, making a decision.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

There is one quote that floats around my company... Though I'm still not sure if I buy into it completely.

"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission."

ChemE, M.E. EIT
"The only constant in life is change." -Bruce Lee

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

asperin1, that's just about the only way i ever got new products and product changes through. Plus baffle them with science.

When I left college i spent some time with a house building crew in GA. Balanced on a 2x4 in the roof i was asked the measurement for a piece of wood. "17 and 11/16th inches" I replied.

The answer left a lasting impression: "You're a nail driver, not a damn cabinet maker" and in an aside to the sawman, "17 and 3/4 inches, shy".

The moral is to fit the product to the market requirement, anything else adds cost and lessens saleability.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Sometimes it is better to have the right questions instead of the answers"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Best advice ever?

Never piss off your tech's because if you do they will pay you back by doing EXACTLY what you tell them to do - from my mother in law

don't drown another guys teddy bear - from a retired engineer who owned a John Deere dealership.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Listen to the tradesmen.  

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

A paraphrased quote I heard regarding decisions...

Quote:

Decision is clean cut, easily mended, blended, repaired or removed.  Indecision is ragged edged with loose threads that jam up everything around it.

Due to illness, the part of The Tick will be played by... The Tick.
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

The first law of quality control is that the function you didn't test is the one most likely not to work.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3
Best advise I have received.
    “Save your self some I quit money.”
You may never use it and tell your boss you quit, but it does change your attitude.

Bradley

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
If you don't have time to do it right the first time, when are you going to have time to fix it?

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?


Quote:

No one, on their deathbed, complains about not having spent enough time at work.

TTFN

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Listen first, and "Keep an open mind" toward solving field engineering problems. Just when you think you have seen it all - that's when you are humbled.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Progress means learning from someone else's mistakes."  That's my own personal motto.  

But to quote, "The opposite of progress is congress."

ChemE, M.E. EIT
"The only constant in life is change." -Bruce Lee

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Wonderful quote IRstuff.  Who is it attributed too?

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
I have to thank my dissertation advisor for this one:

If you have to understand a paper or similar material give it a chance and read it at least thrice before coming to the conclusion that it is too complex.

If a research or engineering task seems overwhelming, give it some structure by labeling what you are trying to accomplish in the next half hour and give it three tries.

I am amazed at what can be achieved with this attitude. The most important lesson is probably the realization that there is a fine line between not understanding something and a deep and abiding understanding.

I have made this suggestion to several of my employees who had bad habits of throwing their hands up at the first sign of difficulty when executing a project and it has helped them to switch to a more independent way of functioning and thinking.


RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Apparently, it's attributed to Paul Tsongas:

Quote:

NUMBER: 61790
QUOTATION: No one on his deathbed ever said, “I wish I had spent more time on my business.”
ATTRIBUTION: Paul E. Tsongas (20th century), U.S. politician. “Blind Ambition,” as quoted by Anna Quindlen in Living Out Loud (1988).
from Bartleby.com: http://www.bartleby.com/66/90/61790.html

TTFN

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I've heard this one since I was a kid.  I think it's an oldy-but-goody that's obscure enough to seem new to many.

My dad seems determined to be an exception to this rule.

Due to illness, the part of The Tick will be played by... The Tick.
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3
"Never check your own analysis, and don't submit a drawing the same day you finished it."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Profengmen,

If I could give you two stars I would. I never received that advice, but rather learned (the hard way) how true it is.

This isn't engineering advice, but it was the advice given to me when I first started. It is supposedly the advice given to new plumbers when they first start:

1) S$%t flows downhill.
2) Payday's on Friday.
3) Don't bite your fingernails.

So true for the work I do...

**If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the precipitate.**

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

A few come to mind, not just for engineering...

"Illigitmi non corborundum" - 'Don't let the bastards get you down!'

"If it was easy, everyone would be doing it." Graduate level electromagnetics teacher... saying it with a smile.

One of mine... "If it ain't your dog, don't walk it."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Free advice is worth what you pay for it." used to be a good one but is obviously now proven false by this web-site.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Remember, your design is going to be built by someone that spells "dirt" with an "e."

And,

"Never take down a fence until you know why it was put up in the first place."  - Robert Frost

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
See "matter-of-fact, normal,inconvenience" as an angel telling you to review your work.

For example, you dropped the leads 2 or 3 times to your meter as you were testing, take a second to see if the meter is turned on before you try picking up the leads again.

Life talks...Listen

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

6
The list can go on and on, but some of my boss's fav one liners. Not necessarily linked to engineering, but life in general. Ant the proverbs by famous people as below, only puts in better words the thoughts in most of the posts above. A beautiful thread!!!

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.  

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Guns don't kill people, people do!

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again -- and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read a book of quotations.

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.

Thanks and regards
Sayee Prasad R
Ph: 0097143968906
Mob: 00971507682668
email: sayee_prasad@yahoo.com
If it moves, train it...if it doesn't move, calibrate it...if it isn't written down, it never happened!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Use an engineering team. That way not one person can be blaimed for mistakes."
This was from an owner of a shop I worked at, who himself was a manufacturing engineer.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

7
The best engineering advice I ever found, came from a column published in Electrical Engineering Times magazine about 20 years ago titled Lama Dung.

The column explained that during WWII, Leather used in goggles, flight helmets, and jackets intended for use in aircraft had a specification that it be treated with Lama dung. Because of shipping and submarine menace made transporting the material from South America so difficult, there was an attempt to establish a Lama heard in Arizona. Only after this attempt failed, did someone question the spec.

It turned out the leather specification had been copied from US Army Calvary specs for Leather. This spec originated in earlier British specifications, which themselves had originated in the colonial era of the British empire for use in leather used for horse saddles. Untamed horses were less frightened by leather treated with Lama dung which changed the smell. Obviously, the old requirement had no place for leather used in aircraft.

The column ended up with the pointer that when as an engineer you see specifications that make no sense - question them. They might be Lama Dung.

I know that in the 20 years since, I have encountered a lot of Lama Dung!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3
Read this one a while back and it still gives me a chuckle....

A guy in the midwest buys a car, a few months later he returns to the dealer with a concern, My car doesnt like chocolate ice cream. Dealer laughs it off, guy gets angry, Im serious he says.
So they try to find out the problem, ends up the guy takes an engineer down to the ice cream shop buys vanilla ice cream and the car started. They repeated this and went for chocolate and the car would you believe it didnt start.
Engineer was very perplexed about this, and so a long and intensive investigation was carried out. Several other technicians got involved. Nothing could be found wrong with the car. Eventually a company engineer was summond and he went through the events with a fine comb.
The result was that the reason was eventually found, and lo and behold it had nothing to do with the ice cream flavour but it had everything to do with the length of time it took to be served. Vanilla was served right out of the tub in the display and given to the guy, but the chocolate flavour required the server to go to the freezer in the basement and then bring it up. This added quite a few minutes to the transaction and when the driver returned to the vehicle they had the problem.
The problem itself was fuel percolation in the carb.
Anyways you know it shows that sometimes you can get confused with the obvious around you and then let the actual root cause escape you for a while.
Dont let the trees obscure the wood !

Advice given to me by an older electrican was that the best piece of test equipment that you could ever have was a restroom. When you hit a problem and it was stalling you a quick trip out of the loop was sometimes just enough to break the loop. From personal experiance it does work....!

Rugged

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Two things:
(1) Engineers are tools of industry.
(2) Get out before the industry wants new tools.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Maybe not the most important thing I've learned, but for some reason the words that stuck best in my head:

"Don't get cute."

(Addressed to a professor of mine when as a young engineer he over-optimized a design.)


Some of my favorite engineering advice was written by Paul Pendragon and published in Process Engineering in 1973:

http://www.sacbusiness.org/cs/hesterj/Beware%20The%20Wrath%20Of%20Abibarshim.htm

(or try http://tinyurl.com/5p87r if the URL wraps too much)

It's one of the funniest (and most painfully true) things I've ever read.  A small sample:

"Design not assemblies which require four arms to put together or operate. Verily, the guy we hire in these days hath not four arms but ten thumbs."

Hg

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

You get what you pay for.

JTMcC.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

4
"The first 50% of a project will take the first 90% of the available time.
The other 50% of the project will take the other 90% of the time."

Keep the wheels on the ground
Bob
showshine@aol.com

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Risk can be divided into two categories: those risks that you can imagine and those risks that you can't possibly imagine.

Lacking any better information, one might as well assume a 50:50 (%) split between these two types of risk - a good first approximation.  With many years of experience, you might be able to tilt the split to something like 75:25 (%) by improving both your prediction and prevention skills.

In other words...

'Risk plans' typically have 50-75% coverage.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I once worked for a company and due to lack of opportunity became unhappy. This led to me moaning and groaning and generally becoming MR Angry. Until one day my boss took me to one side and said: sonny Ive noticed that you are not very happy here any more and while your a good worker and all, at the end of the day this is my company and if you dont like it, ***k off.

Now while I was gob smacked at the time it turned out to be the best advice Ive ever had.  I no-longer get fed up at a company or moan or groan I just leave before it gets that bad.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Feel free to discuss your challenges with team members and others in associate teams.

The Manhattan Project benefitted from consulting with others. It started out as a compartmental set of groups in which you were not allowed to talk to others.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

There are some great answers here!

I'd only add one that I received from a savvy engineer that I used to work with: "Always remember, they pay you the same to march as they do to fight."

I have to remind myself of this every now and again.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Long hours with no results mean nothing. Learn To Work Hard and Work Smart!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

If you can;t dazzle them with brilliance... Baffle them with Bullshxt...

And i also subscribe to the K.I.S.S. principle

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I forget who said this, but it applies here:

Make it as simple as possible, but not moreso.

Don't customize your design to the builders to such a degree that it fails or does not do what it was intended to do. While making your designs as intuitive to the lay person as you can, you also have to assume that the builders / fabricators / etc ARE familiar with standard practices and aren't going to try to fil all the square pegs into round holes. Some people in our shop make you think that they don't have a clue, but it's just so they can slide by without making an effort to do their job.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

7
Although some of the following may apprear a little negative at first, they are certainly worth thinking about.

A. For those of you who aspire to be a 'Manager', be very careful of what you wish for!

B. Pushing for what you believe is best for the company you represent will often cause your superiors to view you as a threat.

C. Be a worker, nothing more nothing less.

D. Never invest any more than 65% of yourself in whatever it is you do. The remaining 35% will ensure you maintain a quality of life.

Regards,
GGOSS

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Given that you're only supposed to be working 40 hours out of 168, suggests that if you invest more than 24%, your quality of life has already degraded.

TTFN

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Walk softly, but carry a big stick"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

GGOSS: I'm with you on A, B, and D--A and B as words of warning, D as pretty good advice. But I don't understand C. Can you elaborate?

Hg

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Things never go as planned, so plan accordingly.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Hello HgTX,

'C' is really and extension of 'B' but it also implies that if you don't buy in to the office politics and/or corporate decision making processes and simply do as you are asked (be a worker), then life in general will be more pleasant.

Regards,
GGOSS

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

For an ant, maybe, but other people like to take charge of their own professional destiny!

Steven Fahey, CET
"Simplicate, and add more lightness" - Bill Stout

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

SparWeb,

I don't discount what you have said at all, but not everyone wants to be a Manager and many of those who do, don't fully appreciate what it means to be one, particularly in a larger organisation.

I have been in a Management role for more almost 20 years and have been Senior Manager for the last 8 of those. What stands out most from that experience is that 'there are no guarantees'......even if at some stage they had been put to you in writing.

I have seen numerous people bust their gut on a promise of promotion/career advancement within the company they love only to find that their Manager moves on or there is a corporate restructure....and everything promised to them earlier goes flying out the window. I have also seen cases where these very same people were presented with 'real' external opportunities and passed those up because of a promise of what might become. And guess what, it never became.

Lets face it, we often think we are in control of our own destinies but in reality we are in control of nothing more than our own emotions. We cannot control corpotate take-overs, we cannot stop those who have made promises to us not to take up external opportunities, we cannot control who the replacement Manager might be and wheteher or not he/she agrees with our thinking or even that of the previous Manager.

So my advice for those of you who are career/advancement oriented is; if you truly want to be in control of your destiny then take up external opportunities as the arise. They are real and available to you with no ifs or buts attached. You may find the grass is not greener on the other side, but at least you have put yourself first and given it a go. DO NOT hang around just because someone has promised you that something will happen at some time in the future. It rarely does!

Regards,
GGOSS

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Amen.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

GGOSS is absolutely right on target. I do not see anyone staying at companies for 30 years anymore, although I am sure there are a few. The company I work for has an unwritten policy not to counter offer anyone who leaves for more money. We have lost several good people in the past for a dollar an hour.   
My advise is to take GGOSS’s advice.

Bradley

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

GGOSS, one shouldn't rely on promises of career advancement, but your approach ensures that if an opportunity does come along, the person following your advice wouldn't be able to take it.

I'm not just talking management, either. Your job can be what you make of it. Job descriptions have a lot of wiggle room and can even be adjusted. If you have ZERO control over what you can do day after day, it's time to look for another job. Unless you're an ant.

Even in stupid teenage summer jobs, I've found ways to make my job more interesting than the job description says it should be. Yeah, maybe they're getting more out of me than they're paying for, but it beats being bored--and in my current job, with all the financial troubles my government employer is having, I'm still getting merit raises, while my co-worker who shares your attitude hasn't seen a raise in years. Doing no more than what your job description and your boss say you have to do ensures that you'll never be offered a better job, and you'll get lousy references from your current employer if you look for a new one. It also means you'll be the first one out the door in a downsizing.

Terrible advice.

Hg

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I don't think that GGOSS ever said that you shouldn't give 110%.  I interpretted his/her statements to mean that you shouldn't pass up opportunities based on a naive concept that people will always come through on their promises.  Many managers will promise more than they could ever deliver.

Don't get me wrong, I would go out on a limb and suggest that most of these managers that promise the world have every intention of delivering on their promises, but circumstances outside of their control prevent it (economics etc.).

Therefore, I would have to say that GGOSS gave disheartening, yet fairly realistic, and sound advice.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I'm good with "DO NOT hang around just because someone has promised you that something will happen at some time in the future." Absolutely. Excellent advice, and not even that disheartening to me.

I'm not good with "simply do as you are asked, then life will be more pleasant". That's not a plan, it's a symptom.

Hg

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

HgTX,

The comment 'simply do as you are asked, and life will be more pleasant' is intended for those do not have an aspirations of climbing the corporate ladder.

There are many in fall into that category who also buy into company politics and/or business strategy. Unfortunately every time they do (and please understand this is a generalisation) they stick their necks further onto the chopping block.

There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that these very same people have the company's best interest at heart, almost always placing the company's well being ahead of their own. Unfortunately however their Managers don't see it that way, rather they see someone who is continually challenging decisions and upsetting the team.

Tell me please, are you aware of any team that can actually outperform a team of ants? Might this give some clues as to what Senior Management expect from their team members?

Regards,
GGOSS

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

PS: In defence of HgTX, I think I could have explained myself a little bit better earleir in the piece.

HgTX, I think we are both saying the same thing but coming at it from two different angles. My definition of a 'worker' is someone who is prepared to;

Go the extra mile.
Show initiative.
Complete tasks ahead of schedule (where possible).
Present alternative solutions.
Assist team members who may be struggling etc etc.

I think most do that not for financial gains but because they want to contribute in a positive way. In recognition they may get the odd pat on the back from their superiors and/or see an increase in their hourly rate at the next salary review, but things are not necessarily their key motivators.

The point I was trying to make is that those people (who want to be workers) would be viewed even more favourably if they did not buy into the corporate decision making processes, company politics, the rumour file etc etc etc.

Regards,
GGOSS

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Now *that* I can go along with. I guess I've (and haven't we all?) just seen too many people who'd probably call themselves "workers" but who are more like "existers".

You go, GGOSS!

Hg

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

GGOSS, HgTX,

I seem to have really got you going when I didn't mean to.  Engineers are professionals, which means that we can assume many roles, according to our abilities and interests.  Any engineer could become an analyst, designer, team leader, manager, inventor, entrepreneur, consultant, or burger-flipper.  Pick whatever level that suits you, and go for it.

Steven Fahey, CET
"Simplicate, and add more lightness" - Bill Stout

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Hello HgTX,

I refer to those as being 'free-loaders'. What erks me most about them is that they are depriving someone (who truly wants to contribute and is possibly more capable) of a job.

I do not refer to those guys as ants, because Ants;

Are team players.
Show initiative.
Work for their existance.

Regards,
GGOSS

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

4
Amen brothers and sisters... GREAT POST!

My short career has brought many things to light, but here are some things that I try to pass on to the techs, co-ops, etc. that have worked with me:

Work:  "There is no box that can contain the universe.  So what small part do you want to work in first?"

Stress:  "Sh!! happens.  Solve the problem and move along."

Research:  "Don't get lost in the data."

Experience:  "Never forget about those that work the trenches."

Observing:  "A fresh set of eyes on a subject should always be welcome."

Questions:  "The only stupid questions are those that are not asked."

Ethics:  "Never compromise your ethics and morals.  Stand up for what you know is right."

Poltics:  "Office politics exist, don't delude yourself, you will become involved."

Life:  "Don't confuse your career with your life."

I'll leave with this:  Dilbert lives in each of us, Murphy is a close relative, and laughter IS the best medicine.

Stay real everyone.

~NiM


"When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command.  Very often, that individual is crazy."  ~Dave Barry

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"It works the way you build it",
Build it wrong and it'll work wrong.
(Assumes accuracy in testing).

"All failures are mechanical"

kch
antenna engineer

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Give 110%...
Don't worry about things you have no control over...
Change what you do have control over...

This will at least ensure yourself of the best possible outcome and no regrets.  Most of the time, the worm will turn if you follow these simple suggestions.

Also,  Don't get caught on the drugs rollercoaster.   That will f#k your life up in no time.   If you are drinking or using, get help before your company figures out you need it.  They will be glad to help you out.  If you wait until they test you, it's too late.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Johnchrc,
the advice not to worry about things you have no control over would appear to be a paraphrase of St Francis (or someone) and is missing an important rider: the wisdom to know the difference.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
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RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Always QUALIFY your designs by one or more methods:
1. By analysis (calculations, theory)
2. By experimentation (bench tests, stress test, subject it worst case)
3. By similarity

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Jims99
I would say that you should pick any two.  Just doing analysis with out correlation can come back and bite you in the butt.

Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
"There will be a five dollar charge for answering any question you could have Googled yourself."

Written on the whiteboard just outside the door to my cubicle. Sometimes I idly wonder how many people have turned away to try it themselves before coming in to ask something.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Ah! memory returns... the quote is from St Ignatius Loyola.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Understand the principles.  If you understand the principles, then the details will come easily.

Tunalover

Tunalover

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Build it as if you were going to buy it.

Regards,

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

To stupid questions you can only get stupid answers.

GSC

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

There is no such thing as a stupid question!

I've recently been embroiled in an attempt to procure hi-tech safety ropes that must be spliced just so.... Everybody said they could do it, some said they've done it a million times in the past.  When it came time to splice, nobody has succeeded.

The manufacturer of the basic ropes changed their product design, and none of the people splicing them realized the impact this would have on their ability to splice it.  I asked some of the right questions, but I didn't ask enough of those "stupid" questions - the ones we are afraid to ask for fear of offending someone.

There are stupid times to ask certain questions - moments where exposing your ignorance destroys all your credibility, for example.  Tactfulness... a quality that eludes some engineers, particularly young ones...

Steven Fahey, CET
"Simplicate, and add more lightness" - Bill Stout

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Not a piece of advice I've received but a response to SparWeb.  Sadly, I've learned not to worry about insulting people's intelligence.  Specify and double-check everything.  I also tell people not to worry about insulting my intelligence when reporting something to me.  I'd rather have detail in the report that I already knew than have to get back to them later to get the missing information.  The only way to really insult my intelligence is to assume that what I don't know can't hurt me.

If one really is concerned about seeming insulting, the question can be phrased like, "You already know about XYZ, right?"

Hg

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
One of the most valuable pieces of advice given to me was "Walk and listen."  This was told to me by my mentor, who ran the boiler room where I took my steam time.  Every morning before starting any other tasks, he would walk around and listen to the environment - not only to the machinery, but also to the people.  In this way, he often got forwarning of any trouble brewing, mechanical or otherwise.

I've followed this advice and its proven its worth for me as it did for him.  

Good thread.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Don't burn bridges.

You never know if the company you're leaving today (hopefully for better pay/advancement) is the company you may want (or need) to work for tomorrow.

-InspEngr

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

You don't know what you don't know... Ask lots of questions from anybody and everybody.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

For newly minted engineers or hires (on technological "arrogance").

Don't make the boss look like an idiot (even if they might be one) you won't be forgiven by anyone in management.  Yes you might know the latest techniques and technologies but you also will need to learn how to integrate into the existing corporate culture.  Listen and learn first.

Regards,

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Just recently I was told this:

"At the end of the day, all an engineer really has is his personal integrity."

It is very easy to lose that in practice.  Customers will put financial pressure on you to make a more expedient decision.  Sometimes your own employer will put pressure on you to go against your better judgement.  At other times - and this can be very subtle - they will even try to manipulate your ego to get you to bend thier way.  

The thing is, when all is said and done, all you've got to rely on is your honest-best judgement.  It's one thing to be wrong (and there will be times when you will be wrong), but it's quite another to get pressured into compromising your best engineering judgement.  Once that line has been crossed, the same people will pressure you to cross it again and again and again.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Stay away from the person who feels the need to tell you how good they are and tells you about all the great things they did on the last project.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

JPatten, you just described our weekend relief operator.... the one nicknamed "Mr. Incompetance"

"Eat well, exercise regularly, die anyways."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3
Don't measure with a micrometer that which will be marked with a crayon then cut with an axe.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...it's probably a duck.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

My first mentor said over and over again, "Cover yer butt.  Don't ever forget to consider the downside of every design decision."

Although being in the real world with the sword of lawsuits hanging over me is depressing enough, that fellow's advice has kept me out of the courtroom for almost thirty years now....

Occam's Razor is nice too.

Peace all,

Old Dave

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Don't go into programming. Programmers don't make any money."

(circa 1989)

Rob Campbell, PE
Finite Monkeys - www.livejournal.com/users/robcampbell

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Some of my favorites in no particular order with apologies for dupicates

Coworkers:
  "Never get mad at the person - get mad at the situation"
  "TACT is the ability to tell someone to go to hell such that they look forward to the trip"  (Also saying 'nice doggie' until you can pick up a rock....)

Team Building: "Rule #10 - have some fun"

Engineering:
 "ATTN: SALES... Good - Fast - Cheap .... Pick 2"
 "Two things that are not the same are different"
 "Experience is a hard teacher - it gives the Test first, then the lesson"

Ethics:
"Integrity is doing the right thing when nobody is watching"
"Part of your job is to keep your boss's boss of your boss's back"


Keep the wheels on the ground
Bob
showshine@aol.com

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Hi,

I've really enjoyed this thread. I was wondering if anyone would mind if I copy some of the really good ones down and put them into our little news pamphlet that my branch of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers (SAICE)distributes every month? I would of course make reference to the fact that the golden nuggets came from the Eng tips website.

Regards,

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Hell all,

Not sure if it's already been covered here, but even if it has it's probably worth re-stating.

It is how other people view you, that will determine how far you progress in any organisation.

Find yourself a mentor, let that person know that you want to learn from them and make sure you take the information they provide you (both good & bad) on board.

Regards,
GGOSS

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Amazing, I actually use a varient of one mentioned by sprintcar above, his quote was "Part of your job is to keep your boss's boss of your boss's back".

I use this variation with new engineers after I hire them, and occasionally thereafter: "you have a very difficult job - you have to make me look good".

Another one I heard years ago from an admiral was: "don't pass on information without checking it out yourself". I don't recall using this one myself, but it was and is very good advice.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
The sweetness of low price is long forgotten, while bitterness of poor quality lingers forever.

Putting Human Factor Back in Engineering

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Walk fast and look worried.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I heard this second-hand, but, knowing the source, I do not doubt the validity of the statement at all.

Apparently there is a current practice at a place I used to work where each of the lead engineers gives an update during lunch meetings of the projects they are working on.
 
This one particular guy gave his presentation and at the end, wrapped up with a nugget of advice I won't forget, even second hand. As close as I can come to writing what I heard follows:

When you're done with everything, re-verify your facts, make sure your assumptions are reasonable, and double check your calculations. Do this because, and I apologize to those who I might offend, but it's extremely difficult to un-f**k something.

I would have put that in quotes, but I do not know he said that for a fact. In its way, it's very good advice though. Just thought I'd pass it on.

Byron T.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

My current's boss's statement to a group of Engineer's screaming about being shorthanded and wanting to know why the interview process was taking so long.

"It is hard to find a good Engineer, it is even harder to get rid of a bad one!!"

When hiring new employee's ensure they not only have the technical abilities and the drive req'd to accomplish the task, but also has the personality and communication skills to meet the corporate or company culture.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Very good thread. Even old dogs are willing to learn new tricks :)

Here's my two cents worth:

Know your clients requirements and don't be afraid to question them!

jhambham

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Life is short, so stick to what you can do best.

Enjoy life!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

The best carrer advice for an engineer is...

Marry a rich woman....

MJC

  

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Lemme work on that and get back to you.  This could get interesting.

Hg

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

HgTX,

If you are going to heed the advice given by MJC, you had better hurry!  TX is about to make it an impossibility.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

My father told me to "Never marry for money.  But it does not mean you can't hang around the rich folks and hope you fall in love"!  

Regards,

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

One of my favourites, that a manager in a company I used to work for had stapled to his front door - "The best thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete and utter surprise!"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Great thread.

Right out of college I worked with an older engineer that told me "The first two or three times you change jobs you change for idealistic reasons (to get away from politics, better morals, better ethics, etc.), but after that you find out that every company is the same except they call it something different.  After that you just whore yourself out to who ever pays you the most."

I have found that to be closer to the truth than I had hoped it would be.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Some more one-liners that prompt us to think and ponder.

How did the great rivers and seas gain dominion over the hundred lesser streams ?... By being lower than they.
Lao Tse

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
Picasso

A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
Arthur Black

Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem.
John Galsworthy

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
Jonathan Swift

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
H.L. Mencken

Aristotle would have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men if he had simply asked Mrs. Aristotle to open her mouth.
Bertrand Russell

Thinking is more interesting than knowing but less interesting than looking.
J.W. von Goethe

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
As an engineering technician the best advise I could give is:

Say "Thank you," when someone makes you look good, does a good job or just goes out in the rain to retreve your test specimens.  Ask me questions.  You may find that, because I look at it from down to up, not up to down that my response may aid in the solution to the problem.  Always remember that my job is to make your boss look good to the client and to keep your A$$ out of court.

Semper Fi.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I have noticed further up in this column that some have discussed Managers promising more than they can deliver & also a note about the danger of acting in what you feel is the best interest of the company.  I always act in what I feel is the best interest of the company.  I ask my boss if we disagree and often reach a middle ground that works for both of us.  To prevent your work from being used by another for thier personal promotion I do the following:  1) always print your finding in memo or report format with your name on the letterhead (after all you are a degreed engineer making responsible decisions is what you are getting paid for).  2) pass out your findings in print (not email) so that you get credit for what you have done.  3) Don't be afraid to take a stand for what you believe in.  None of the people at the top of their fields got their by only being average.

-John

That's my 2 cents.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Great thread.  I saw this quote the other day and it struck a bit of a raw nerve with me.  In my experience many people see a nicely rendered CAD drawing and think you have a working design ready for manufacture when nothing could be further from the truth.  Pretty pictures cause all kinds of problems since they often seem to carry more weight than they deserve to.

"There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept" - Ansell Adams

Regards,

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Slightly modified from a Thailand shop of sartorial splendor -

      Quality is NEVER an Accident
      It is ALWAYS the Result of Intelligent Effort
      There MUST be a Passion to Produce Superior Things


I happen to like the "passion" aspect; but, in today's age of regulations/rules/codes on just about everything, lawsuits, and just plain ol' sheisse at every turn, one senior person I knew suggested the following advice.

    RETIRE
for a pretty good thread!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

There was an anecdote about a Med. Doctor and a Painter. The Doctor had fairly stressful and responsible duty to save people's lives. Painter, well, he painted pictures. However when it came to comparing the results of their errors, the Painters logic was impeccable:

Doctor's errors landed under thick layers of dirt, out of human sight;
Painter's mistakes were hanging on the walls - eternal proof of his ignorance.


Don't make the mistake of assuming that your errors will be hidden by layers of dirt...

Putting Human Factor Back in Engineering

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Take up smoking a pipe.  

The idea is to create a ritual so that when someone asked you a hard question it gave you 10 to 15 seconds to gather your thoughts and formulated an answer.  

What you select as your ritual is not as important as training (programming) yourself to automatically do it, give your time to relax and formulate an answer… Think, before engaging the mouth.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Someone quotable once said " A pipe gives a wise man time to think, and a fool something to stick in his mouth".

Cheers

Greg Locock

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

The other pipe quote I've heard is:

Never hire a man who smokes a pipe. He already has a full time job.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

DNA - Do Not Assume

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I like this:

If someone says you're crazy, then you're probably heading in the right direction.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

If one person calleth you a donkey, pay him no mind. If two persons call you a donkey, get yourself a saddle.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

AG62,

Thanks for the clarification. I always thought DNA was an abbreviation used by the National Dislexics Association.

Regards,
GGOSS

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

One saying that an ex-boss of mine had:

"Problems that go away by themselves, return by themselves."

My addition (at the end):  "...at the most inopportune times."

My interpretation of that was that I should always strive to find a solution that prevented a problem from recurring.  That included researching the problem until the causes were understood and could be acted upon.  However, sometimes we don't have time for that type of research and we tend to go with quick fixes.  That is what leads to the problem recurring.  That leads to another quote (I don't know who to attribute this one to though):

"Do it right the first time."

~NiM

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Read everything, listen to tapes, watch TV programs, continue your education … Not just information you are interested in, and information you are not.  Gain knowledge on many topics not just your area of interest but others as well. True innovations come from the fringes, not the mainstream.

Keep a logbook not just of phone conversations, project details, et cetera, but also of dreams thoughts, and ideas.  If you have a particularly hard problem to resolve think about if before you sleep, let you subconscious mind work on solving it, when you wake up write down your ideas.

Wrie papers and give talks and presentations. Teaching or presenting ideas to others increases your knowledge, and skills.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Teaching or presenting ideas to others increases your knowledge, and skills", which is why many of us are on Eng-Tips, in fact.

Steven Fahey, CET
"Simplicate, and add more lightness" - Bill Stout

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail"

"There is no such thing as a statistical blip"

My favourite;
"Everyone is replaceable"

I have to say that I like Thane's quote on Nov 10.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"When everything is going too well, be prepared for a very big problem, that you were missing in the big picture."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

(OP)
attilon,

Good advice... been there a few times...

Regards,
TULUM

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Not advice, but seems to fit the thread.

Put the following note on every drawing.

"Contractor to cut to dimensions, beat to fit, and paint to match"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
When you design something,listen to the trades people who will build it and also the end user. Some good ideas can be had from these two areas. Analyse their ideas and go with them if they are sound, but don't try to incorporate them with what you were thinking. Go with one or the other...the best one.

This lends creedence to the phrase:
"A camel is really a horse that was designed by a commitee"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Aside form receiving all of the above and more, the one that has served me the most is one that I use and tend to pass on.

Don't lead with your lips!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Cut your way in, weld your way out"

Motto of the maintenance crew of a bog hervesting company in Ireland.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

When you buy a piece of equipment and you need a certain size hole in it, say 3", and you don't know where to locate it yet, tell the fabricator to "ship an extra 3" hole with the unit and we'll install it in the field".  ROFLMAO!

Good luck,
Latexman

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Paper is cheap, and I'll buy you more paper"

When I was in about 6th grade my Dad told me not to try to get too much onto one sheet of paper.  Since then I've used lots of  paper and always made my work look neat rather than schrunched.  

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

PatrickR,
Wake up!
You are in the computer age where paperwork is a thing of the past.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

:) If anything, the computer age has caused even more paperwork.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Is true ... thanks to printers

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

. . . and due to the little errors that always seem to be found after you've printed the bloody work out!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

PatrickR!

A french engineer told me once, when I ask him about his very complecated design style:

"The less people understand our drawings, the more they need us."

:))

Cheers.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Sign on the wall of an FAA Airworthiness Safety Inspector's office:

"We will become a paperless office when the earth becomes a treeless planet!"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I have heard quite a few interesting expressions over the years:

a) "No one cares how good your engineering was if the product has a broken wire and doesn't work when turned on". (Said by my boss at my 2nd job out of school at an R&D firm. Boss had numerous patents.).

b) "Your going to be judged by the quality of your work, so you have a vested interest in doing a good, quality job". (Said by my boss while I worked at a Fortune 500 manufacturing firm. My 3rd job.).

c) "Paste in some standard details and send it out ASAP!" (Said by my boss at my 4th job at a civil/structural firm.).

d) "Do it quick & dirty". (Said by my current boss at an A/E firm.).

e) "When engineers speak of professionalism & ethics, its just lip service". (Said by a family friend who is a retired civil/structural engineer.).

My advice: Go for Mechanical, Electrical or Chemical Engineering and aim to work at a large (Fortune 500) manufacturing company. Get your PE license, because you may one day want to do some consulting. Do not blindly accept design codes at face value. Try to understand their background logic & assumptions. Do not blindly accept the output of computer programs. Be an innovator and do something that no one else (or few) have done before.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Work it out to four decimal places, then add 20%."

And don't try to use other people's design spreadsheets, especially not if they have tempting little buttons with illuminating statements like "Button 1" written on them. Put down the mouse and back away from the computer slowly...

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

from MJC:

"The best carrer advice for an engineer is...

Marry a rich woman...."


Ya know, you might have a point there, I mean, if she's cranky and miserable all the time then you'd be more likely so spend more time in the office and.....

<voice offstage>  "RICH! ....He said, "RICH!"

Ohhhh....ya know? I think that would work too.....

--
Joseph K. Mooney
FAA DER Structures

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Rich2001:

"The idea is to create a ritual so that when someone asked you a hard question it gave you 10 to 15 seconds to gather your thoughts and formulated an answer. "

Good advice actually, I learned it as, "never bring a calculator inside an airframe".  That way, when you see what needs to be evaluated, you have to walk back to your office to do it.  Not only does it give you time to think, but it gives you a way to avoid answering a lot of impatient questions before you've had a chance to evaluate the situation.

BTW - I do smoke a pipe actually, you just can't do that in an office anymore.

--
Joseph K. Mooney
FAA DER Structures

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?


EddyC

Quote:

"When engineers speak of professionalism & ethics, its just lip service". (Said by a family friend who is a retired civil/structural engineer.).

My advice: Go for Mechanical, Electrical or Chemical Engineering

It is inappropriate for you to condemn an entire field just because you've had lousy taste in associates.

There's plenty of bad manufactured product out there from major companies (or their numerous subsidiaries) that had to have been made on "quick & dirty" principles.  If structural engineers all had the attitude apparently held by these manufacturers, or the attitude you describe, we'd be thinking of bridge and building collapses as routine.

Also, "quick & dirty" means something very different when you're dealing with a safety factor of 2 than when you have almost no margin at all, and very often means rounding UP for simplicity, rather than rounding DOWN.  This is an industry where almost everything is a custom build, so what standardization we *can* do is welcome--and we don't have the luxury of prototype testing.

That's not to say there aren't certain structural applications I trust less than others--but those I trust less are actually more like manufacturing than those I trust more.

Hg

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
GREAT THREAD GUYS

ON PROBLEM SOLVING: When a problem seems overwhelming, break it into the smallest possible steps and take immediate action on them.

ON FRUSTRATIONS CAUSED BY MANAGEMENT: While very cynical, nonetheless it is funny, A colleague once said "There's no problem too small to baffle the management of this company!"

ON LIFE: Google search Rudyard Kiplings "If". This one will be hanging up at my new job when I start. It is great.

ON EDUCATION; Never underestimate the value of continuing your education.

FOR STRESS MANAGEMENT: If you are chronically stressed or tired, do a few things 1)Dramatically cut back on coffee 2) Dramatically increase your water intake 3) Get off your butt and start exercising. There is no better stress management solution.

ON HARD WORK: You are going to be there 40 hours or more a week anyways, you might as well kick butt and take names!



RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Sign in the conference room of a contractor:

"No one in this room is smarter than all of us."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

A very intelligent electrical substation tech with some 40 years of experience left me with a piece of advice that I'll never forget.........

It's better to be suspected of being a fool, than to open your mouth before you are certain of something and remove all doubt!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Sitting in a garage does not make you a car"

Bigbillnky,C.E.F.....(Chief Electrical Flunky)

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Just heard this one over the plant maintenance radio:

"Ahr compressure"

Which I took to mean "air compressor". It wasn't just one instance, it was a whole 5 minute conversation with several people.

Gotta love living in redneck country!

~NiM

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

OOPS Sorry folks!  Posted this on the wrong Forum!

I guess another word of advice...check your work twice!  (And drink your coffee before you post!)

~NiM

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Nickelmet,

Read the book "How to Speak Southern." It's hilarious. It's half tongue in cheek, and all true. I got it from my daughter-in-law, a Florida gal.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

In the end, it's all about self promotion.  So, my motto is:

UNDER PROMISE, OVER PERFORM.

With this, everyone will always be impressed.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3
One of my best advises was: When work begins to get monotonous, repetitive and routine in nature, its time to move the hell out of there. Engineers are dynamic people who cares new work scenarios everyday. Take the challenge and dont let yourself grow static

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

My favourite is the following:

" When nothing goes right, take left"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

My favourite is

"Nothing succeeds like success"

HVAC68

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Great thread.
With reference to the "smoking a pipe/ritual gives time to engage your brain"
Many years ago I was chatting with a military pilot and the subject of in flight emergencies came up. His immediate action drill in response to any emergency, "wind up the clock", it gives time to engage the brain before your hands move something you really wish they hadn't. He was 84 and survived WW2 so I guess it worked.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

That reminds me of the advice a policeman friend of mine got from a senior comrade on the beat one night.

"There's always time to tie your shoelaces".

This was when they were about to enter a bar where a tight was taking place. He reckoned this was about enough time for the guys to have winded themselves. They could then walk in and make the arrests.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Great thread


For a mental health of (software) engineers

In a day, if you successfully achieved something after 4PM e.g. got a function debugged and running. Save it, document it (optional) and do not touch it or anything else for the day. Your wife and kids will enjoy a happy evening with you and next day you will wake up fit for other tasks.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

- When it works it’s OK.
- If it doesn’t, don’t say: “My model predicted this would work.”
- Reality is the criterion of truth.

Kind Regards,
hahor

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Here are a couple of my favorites that I pass to my coworkers as they have been passed to me:

Quote:

Work smarter not harder!

Quote:

A smart man learns from his own mistakes, a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

Quote:

Say what you believe, when you believe in what you say!

Quote:

Train your people so you can move up.  If nobody can do your job, you will have to do it yourself.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

This one has helped me immensely.

You get what you INSPECT, not what you EXPECT.

Great thread!

Afterhrs  

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Excellent one, afterhrs!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

At its very best any communication is maybe 25% good.  Engineering drawings may hit 75%.

If the other guy thinks you are going over details too much then try to get out of the project.

Learn what change orders are.  You can lose money trying to make toilet seats for only $600 if the specifications keep changing.  

The other guy’s job always looks a lot easier than yours.  It isn’t.  

Somewhere, sometime everyone puts decimal point in the wrong place.  Always use a conversion table and a calculator.    

Success in any major project comes very shortly after the time when you absolutely loathe and detest it.   

The guys on the plant floor usually have a good idea what is going wrong.    They don’t know engineering language and often they describe the situation in terms that don’t make sense to the engineer.   

They will tell you it is impossible before you start.  They will tell you it is impossible while you try to do it.  They will even tell you it is impossible as they stand and watch you do it over and over.    

The more your design is done out a Grainger catalog, the better it is.   (This is “don’t reinvent the wheel” but seems to be easier to understand.)

My best invention is a stainless steel cup on a chain.  The local park department was trying to figure out how to get water for dogs from a drinking fountain.  Picking the dogs up didn’t work very well even with small dogs.  A cup on a chain is hung next to the fountain.  Fill the cup with water from the fountain, set it down, the dog drinks and then you hang the cup up on a hook.    It’s been eight years; the original bowl is still there.  Everyone knows how to use it.  The dogs get water.  One of the reasons I really like it is that I was first going for a dog level fountain as an addition at floor level, with bowl and scrubber to keep the bowl clean.  I hadn’t solved the problem of disposing of the waste or how to keep kids out of it.  Then I just undesigned like crazy and there it was.   I donated the materials and engineering time and talent (grin).  

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessor.com

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

tomwalz:

Such darn good info I had to give you a star!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

This one is for the people that will appreciate a collision between a redneck saying and the human side of engineering

"Be careful when being mean to people and critters, they
just might learn thier lesson."

This saying is the southern take on Confucius.

Regards,
Afterhrs

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Proof may just be lack of Imagination"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

for all the new guys out there:

"Questions are better than mistakes."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

You have 2 eyes, 2 ears, and one mouth.  Use them in that proportion.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

It’s easier to criticize than create.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?



My site agent told me this on my first day at work, regarding Site diries.

"If its not written down it never happened."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

(OP)
The tick said something in another thread that I thought was worth adding to the list...

"Plenty of lazy old people out there.  Don't be fooled.  They just sweat more."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?


Be carfull not to make too many ememies on the way up, they may still be there if your on the way back down.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?


200 post's and still coming keep it up.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I wanted to be 201.

Best engineering advice came from my father (40+ yrs electrical utility).

1.  Listen.  Older engineers and shop people know the real world, books are great but not always applicable; and sometimes you have to take the lid off the box
2.  Learn everything you can and apply it
3.  Don't be afriad to ask.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?


"If something doesn't look right, it probably isn't."

"Computer's don't make mistakes, but people entering data do."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Tinytim22,
    
 " Computers dont't make mistakes, but people entering data do"

   If this was true, companies wouldn't need I.T. departments.

It was either the computer or a woman, I just know it!

I can't find my lost shaker of salt!

Regards,
Afterhrs
 



RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

NiM: Do it right the first time, everytime, and ON TIME!!!
Keano: "If its not written down it never happened." Which I read somewhere else as "If it moves, train it...if it doesn't move, calibrate it...if it isn't written down, it never happened!"

"Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the entire world." Albert Einstein

"If you can't define it, you can't measure it; if you can't measure it, you can't evaluate it;  if you can't evaluate it, you can't improve it !"


"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill

If we don’t change the direction we’re going, we’re going to end up where we’re headed.

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. --Mark Twain

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

"It often takes more courage to change ones opinion than to keep it." Willy Brandt

Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

Quality improvement will result from people improving their processes and from management improving the system.” —Thomas Pyzdek

Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them. Albert Einstein

"The starting point for improvement is to recognize the need." Imai

“Quality isn't something that can be argued into an article or promised into it. It must be put there. If it isn't put there, the finest sales talk in the world won't act as a substitute." C S Campbell

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity. - Albert Einstein

I always have one liners at the end of my email immediately after my signature.

This is one of the best sources for the one liners at the end of my email. I would unabashedly admit though, that I do it without reference to you guys here, maybe I need to add at least this site or thread as the source in the future.

Funny how many of colleagues and associates have reverted to me that they read the last line of my email first.

Thanks and regards
Sayee Prasad R CEng MWeldI MIOMMM


If it moves, train it...if it doesn't move, calibrate it...if it isn't written down, it never happened!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Thanks for sharing Sayee.  I like the last one-liner especially, regarding my current job and all of the idiosyncrasies it has.

This one is just for levity:  "Ages pass and so does gas."  <think about it...and grin!>

~NiM

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Although I forget where I originally heard this, it appealed to me after a particular interaction with a boss at a previous job.


"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity."

And that's the sig on one of my email addresses.

NSPE

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Some one-liners I have in my e-signature file:

Aristotle:  "We cannot learn without pain."
Abraham Lincoln:  "We hold the power and bear the responsibilities."
Thorton Wilder:  "All excellence is equally difficult."
Anonymous:  "Craftsmen are those people who cannot help doing whatever is given them to do better than others think worthwhile."

And in reality, my engineering career has mirrored certain aspects of those thoughts.  To my interns, summer students, co-ops, technicians, and others I have always tried to impart excellence, responsibility, and the constant yearning for mental growth (not only in engineering but in knowledge of the world around them).

There are many many many good thoughts on this thread.  I know I can't acknowledge each one, but each time I read a new piece, a smile lights my face.  Truly to each and every one of you, thank you, for imparting a bit of wit and wisdom with the rest of us.

~NiM

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

This one was shouted across the workshop shortly after a loud hammering was heard.

"Don't force it, get a bigger hammer"

Not really good advice but had me in hysterics, it was obviously a slow day.

Karl

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

If it ain't broke - dont fix it.
The bigger the problem - the bigger the hammer.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

This one is a bit off topic but when designing something I always remember what one of my Professors used to say:

"You can't make it lighter, stronger and cheaper - but you can pick two."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

When in doubt, make it stout.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

There is never time or money to do it right, but there is always time and money to do it over.

A machinist I worked with was asked how long it would take to do a certain job.
"Eight weeks", he said.
"Can you do it in six?" they said.
"Sure, I can do it in six weeks", he answered, "but it will still take eight."

In estimating time or cost, "It is what it is."  A scope costs what it costs and takes how long it takes.  You're better off not starting with scope, schedule, and budget all written in stone, because something will have to give.

William

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Remember:

The man who keeps his nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel and ear to the ground will have a hump back and be good for nothing but cutting bread with his nose.

Or

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy.

There will be seemingly wonderful jobs where you work eighty, get paid for forty, have more coworkers than friends and rarely see your family.  If you survive, you might get to retire at sixty-five.

My personal philosophy is "I was looking for work when I came here and I will be doing he same when I leave".

Enjoy life!

I remain,

The Old Soldering Gunslinger

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Be nice to everyone on your way up. You will see them on your way back down.

Trust no man. And measure everything.

Your life is worth more than their profit. No task is so important that it can't be done safely.

Check isolations with your own eyes. The best SAP makes mistakes occasionally.

Prove dead before touching.


----------------------------------

If we learn from our mistakes,
I'm getting a great education!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

ALL engineers make mistakes, however, the good engineers find those mistakes before they become serious problems.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?


For those of us that have technicians, co-ops, interns, or students to manage:

? Never assign something you couldn't do yourself.
? Make the tasks worthwhile and meaningful.
? Praise the good, correct the bad, and cull the ignorant.
? Set the bar high and expect nothing less than the best.
? Mentor and teach, listen and learn, advise and manage.
? And always remind them to never confuse their career with their life.

Just some items I think about as a new set of youngsters start to filter in.  

Also, some advise for all of us outside of work, this from Dave Berry (humorist):  "There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'."  (I have this posted on my wall at work and it draws smiles from people.)

~NiM

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

The best advice I ever got was:

"Doing a mistake is normal. Not learning from it is foolish!"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Regarding mistakes, from a former boss:

Don't make any mistakes that will cost the company a lot of money.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?


"Everyone Brings Joy To This Office. Some When They Enter, Others When They Leave."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Inevitably, the easy things are where the bugs are.  So when it comes to designing you must sweat the little stuff!!

"Good enough" is perfect.

The bug just introduced is your bug--it is not a compiler bug, a subtle bug, it is a bleeding obvious one--so question thyself first.


John

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Two that I ran across in my notes from a session in 1960

 If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

A company that goes to the ends of the earth for its employees will find it can hire them for 1/5 the cost of an American.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Reasons someone will leave their present job: They perceive they:
1. Don't make enough money.
2. Don't like what they are doing
3. Don't like whom they are doing it with
4. Don't agree with company's principles
5. Don’t see self there in 5 years.

If you think you do or you think you don’t, your right.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Glad to see someone posted this, but I'll add a little to it:

"Always sweat the small stuff. Don't worry about the big stuff - it always takes care of itself."

This has been so true in every aspect of my life - and contrary to "popular" belief.

Here's another....
We've all heard "Do what you're told", "Do what I say, not what you think", "Do what I mean, not what I say", "Do as I say, not as I do".... And all the other variations.

I tell my interns/proteges "DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE!" Empowering a person with "responsible" initiative is an incredible learning experience. Of course all actions/corrections need to be communicated, and if they are wrong, then it's marked up as a positive learning experience.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Quote:

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill

While I like the quote I no longer believe it is true.

I have come to believe that some of the best Engineers are not pessimists or optimists.  I believe the best Engineers are the ones who start a project as a pessimist and figure out how to become an optimist before day 2.

The trick is to not let anyone know what you truly think on Day 1.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

3
A good source of information is the foremen and superintendents – especially when you’ve never seen the kind of project you’ve been given.   

When the superintendent comes storming into the engineering office, get him to go for a ride with you.  

Make friends with the steel shop superintendent:  You might then be the only engineer he’ll let into the shop.

Make friends with the steel shop superintendent:  He’ll call you when he can’t build your design and won’t tell your boss.

Write your letters and reports “idiot” style.

Don’t be afraid to fire you client.

You can be fair, but you don’t have to be generous.

When your client blindsides you in a meeting, don’t be afraid to yell at him!  You might be friends by the end of the day and drinking buddies by the end of the week.  

When one of your vice-presidents screws up a project badly (and the project was suppose to go out that day), and he offers to pay to redo the project, tell him no and “you’re gone”!  (Not the right way to fire somebody)

When the vice president (licensed Calif. S.E.) says he’s proud that he’s never been on “the boards”, then you’re more than justified when saying “you’re gone”!

When you are doing an instant engineering project and the client asks you to get it to him a “couple of days” early, make sure you put the phone down before you blow your top!

The client complains about you bill after he insisted that the project be looked at every which way and you reduce the bill by about two grand, much to the disgust of the staff.  Two weeks later, the client returns with another project, glad handing you about your wonderful solution to the previous project and telling you that you save him a million dollars.   Fell through the floor on that one.  

Sorry guys, but this is about fifty years of gripes of lessons learned and advice given to me by my bosses.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

My boss once told me,

" Always be trust worthy and can be relied upon by people you work with. This would come in very handy one time"

He told me that sometimes, he gets some things done (Protocols and bureacracies not with standing), not because he has the influence of being a manager, but due to his record with people. Other managers do get stuck with the same.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Don't sh*t on the rungs of the ladder while climbing up.
You may have to climb back down.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

This may have been mentioned above, but the best I ever received was CYA.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"You can't push on a rope" came from a statics teacher trying to get us to really think about the problem rather than just 'work' the problem

"Think of the worst thing that can happen before you do anything.  If you're prepared to deal with those results, proceed."  Not necessarily engineering related, but it can fit there too.  This little jewel came from my Dad when I was in HS.

"NEVER work under a car not on jackstands!"  Another tidbit from the old timer.

All three have helped me out in life :)

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

ddelaiarro,

Actually you can push on a rope.  You just have to freeze it first.  winky smile

Cheers,
CanuckMiner

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"We can do everything you want...but, why do you?"

That's stoped a few change orders.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

So true CanuckMiner....that was actually the 'extra credit' question on the final - What is the one instance you can push on a rope?  It threw most everyone for a loop.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I believe that a rope can also be pushed in a pure vacuum, without gravity, e.g. space?

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Best engineering advice?  Well, the best advice I've been given in the work world deals with company politics.  Learning those 'political' processes can help you arrive at a faster and more correct engineering solution.  And the CYA philosophy wowks in compant policy as well.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Another take on TheTick's superb quote: "Decision is clean cut, easily mended, blended, repaired or removed.  Indecision is ragged edged with loose threads and jams everything associated with it.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

While in college, I interviewed with a "small" construction company.  Professor advised me "Don't ever work for a small company!  They're here today, gone tomorrow!"  I didn't take that advice.  But six months later, the largest employer in town started laying off people.  Meanwhile, I'm back working for that original small company.

Advice #1:  What seems like good advice isn't always so good!

Once upon a time, a truck was carrying a very huge load.  There was an overpass over the highway that was just slightly too low for the truck to clear.  So the driver and the highway patrolman and a few assorted others scratched their heads wondering what to do.  Then a 6-year-old boy said "Why don't you let the air out of the tires to lower the load!"  So they did, and got under the overpass and all seemed well.  And then the poor ol' truck driver had to sit out there for the next three days airing up all those &^%$# truck tires (lowboy + dolly, of course) before he could take off again, and then had to wait another day for his oversize permit to be re-issued, all the while footing the bill for the bucket truck and an escort vehicle.

Moral:  Sometimes what seems like good advice isn't really so good.

Other unrelated advice:  If you DO have to check your own work, try to do it a different way.  Lay it out on CAD one time, and work out the geometry to check, or vice versa.  Work out the integral, then use Simpson's rule to check.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Another time you can push a rope is if you do it very quickly!

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Some people always said, "Just do it, don't ask!!!"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

karlbamforth - a square peg will always fit in a round hole if  you hit it hard enough

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

:

fall down 6 times
stand up  7 time

:


pozdrawiam

cad - designer
i-deas 11nx  sworks 2006   ug nx 4.0

IMB InteliStation M Pro

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Projects always get done, keep working and stop worrying."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Advice from my father (also an engineer) when I
was considering careers:  "There are two types
of jobs in the world.  There is the type where
you take a shower before you go to work, and
there is the type where you take a shower when
you get home from work.  You want the first kind...."

TL

The more you know, the more you
know you don't know....

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

In reflection on working for my uncle (an engineer) during college...

Don't be afraid nor ashamed to pick up and use a shovel.  It is as important as using a computer, your brain, or a book full of information.

AND...

It's not the size of the wall that will stop you.  It's the size of the sledgehammer you're using to break through it.

Think about it...it has only taken me 15 years to start realizing the importance of those thoughts.

Later
~NiM

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Best advice ever, from my college geotech. professor:

You work with dirt, you make dirt.......You work with money, you make money.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Never trust an engineer who writes with a pen."

Not 100% true, but keeps me thinking about it...

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

If you can't pull the tree stump out with your cow, you don't make a bigger cow.

You go and get 2 cows.

The corollary: You go and get a tractor.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

oldrunner (Structural) wrote: "Write your letters and reports “idiot” style."

Would some one mind explaining this?

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

KISS?

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"The lazy man works twice as hard."  

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Which translates into "rework costs more than taking the time to do it right to begin with".  One of this morning's topics of discussion...

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Strider17

I gave my son (now also am engineer) the same advice when he was in grade 9.

The occasion was take your child to work day and I was working on the reconstructing of a sewage treatment plant. We were standing in the control room watching some workers wearing hip waders up to their waists in sewage working on some equipment.

Nothing like a practical demonstration to drive home the point.


Boffintech

Write your reports idiot style. Most information can be translated at a grade 7 or 8 reading level. This will make sure that your information gets through to the majority of the people. While most people, especially those reading engineering reports, can read at a higher level this is the level of the most information transfer and reading comprehension.

You can check reading grade level with the spell checker in Word. Simply check the box in the spell check options to show the reading ease score after a spell check.

To lower the score use simpler words and simpler sentence structure.

This post has a reading grade score of 8.0

Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
A saying in our office is that we never have time to do a project right, but we always manage to find the time to do it over.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

********************************************************
RE:"oldrunner (Structural) wrote: "Write your letters and reports “idiot” style."
********************************************************

I was taught to write letters as if the audience was a judge and jury.  Make your points clearly even if you think your customer/vendor already understands the background.  This way if a dispute arises you can refer to a a previous letter that clearly explains your position.  Believe me, it works.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Well guys,
Having checked all 255 replies up here, nobody mentioned a cute saying which is also good advice.
  It came from a department head after a young engineer had messed up a project, twice, very rapidly.
  " Speed is neat son, but right is final."
Brian Evans.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I can add the following:
- The first step of success is failure
- To success, love your work
- To have interest, learn something new everyday 7 leran others with what you know
- To enjoy your work, brainstorming & challange

cheers
SmartEngineer

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Well, after all these years, now I get a great advise.

Go into optometry.
- a professional occupation
- most optometrists work for themselves
- great pay
- about the same amount of schooling required
- you work with "non-sick" people (just people with vision problems)
- a baby boomer mass that is getting older and weaker eyed

I wonder if it's too late?

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"When failure is not an option, success can get expensive."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

“Science is too long, and life is too short"

SmartEngineer

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"The biggest problems are always at the interface..."

--Me

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I like the following:

Never look back unless you can laugh, never look forward unless you can dream - it was in Eddie Jordan's office.

Beware of ROAD employess => ROAD = Retire on Active Duty employees

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

This advice was a follow up to doing what I thought was best.

"and Oh yeah, don't F--- it up."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Years ago ... before I became an old engineer ... I was field assigned to a refinery with a senior (chemical) engineer who was a retired Marine Colonel.  We were kicking around in the gravel one day when I asked him a question.  "Lets do the math" I said.  "Your career in the Marines must have put you through Vietnam, and perhaps Korea.  So tell me, how does a old Marine Colonel get to BE an old Marine Colonel?"  

He thought for a moment.  His mind working.  Then he spoke.  

"Son.... never defend an undefendable position."  



I thanked him and have taken this advise to heart ever since.  

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

The best I have ever learned and heard in the project is:
" Any decision you have made in the project design stage , you will going to see it at the site"

From this I did learn that to be careful any making decision in project life till I make sure no worry would be at site.

Cheers

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

One I think I saw elsewhere on this forum and now often find myself quoting:

"Luck is the residue of design..."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

From an old manager of mine when I was doing some analysis work, “your guess is only good as your model”.  

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

From my FEA days:

Put crap in, get crap out - not always said in such nice words though!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Garbage In Garbage Out" (GIGO) is the time-honored original.  Even nicer words.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

A designer's greatest asset is the lead time between design and production.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Never measure the hardness of the same piece of steel twice.  You'll get two numbers and won't know which one to use."- from one of the more practical of my ME professors.  In other words, "A man with one watch knows what time it is.  A man with two watches is never sure."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Gosh, so all that time spent on gauge R&R is a waste of time?

He may have been a good ME prof, he certainly didn't understand statistics.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Finish the drawing, and then put it in your drawer. Take it out the next day and fix the mistakes."

--my first boss.

Charlie
www.facsco.com

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

It's okay, Greg, he didn't mean it entirely seriously.  He was a great guy, nearing retirement age, had a sense of humor, one of the two or three old professors that didn't have PhD's, and had probably done more engineering than the ones that did.  Once on the day before a holiday, the school was trying to avoid any cancellation of classes by profs, so he announced that "Friday, the class will meet unassembled."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Now that is something I'd like to have .... "unassembled meetings".  Maybe more "real" work could be done!!  LOL!!

~NiM

From Dave Barry (comedian/author):
"If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be 'meetings'".

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

An engineer I used to work for said that generally we can take care of the technical issues but that communication is where most of the problems creep in.

Another engineer (commenting on the FE exam)said that you should now the basics of your "bad" subjects (in my case, electricity) so that you can at least answer the easier questions.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Sorry Pals

This is the most precious tool for me:SEARCH FOR HELP AND STICK TO WHERE YOU CAN FIND IT.

If you can not find help from inside your company, try to see if you can find that from your client side.

If you can not find help from inside your department, try to see if you can find that from other departments.

It works magic for me.


Respects
IJR

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Well, hopefully, you get to the point pretty quick where you're the helper, not the helpee.  Sometimes it takes more work on your part instead of looking for help from someone else.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

---------------quote-------------------------
The best carrer advice for an engineer is...

Marry a rich woman....
---------------------------------------------

Beware! I have also heard this one:

"those who marry for money usually end up earning it"



and for saving money by DIY projects...

"materials cost $xxx, tools cost $xxx, and the only way you can write off the time spent doing it, is if your time is worthless"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

One more...

"the key to good management is to keep the people who hate you away from the people who haven't decided yet"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?


One told to me before the advent of CAD etc, but probably still true:

'Beware of drawings: not only do they contain drafting errors, they contain all your design errors too!'


Cheers

Harry

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Pilots have a saying about what is useless:

- the runway behind you,
- the altitude above you,
- the experience you never gained.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Another one from pre-cad days, but still applies:

A good designer never blames his tools.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

That's plain stupid. I've seen engines designed on 3D cad that had no concept of solid modelling - every line was literally a 3d curve in 3d space.

Now, suppose nobody had pointed out that this was an inherently crazy approach and that there was much better software on the market?

Oh, and what are you supposed to do when your software has a bug in it? Grin and bear it, and charge the lost time ot the customer?



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

It means that a good designer uses whatever tools are at his disposal and compensates for them where they are lacking.  He is aware of how to accomplish what he needs using those tools.  Wether a design is done in wireframe or in solids doesn't matter, the design itself does.  Of course, unknown software bugs are an exception.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

That also follows in machine shop practice.  A good machinist can produce good results with outdated and worn out equipment.  The skill of the operator is often more important than the cost of the machinery.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Learn how to develope "thick skin" because somebody is going to make light of your designs, what you say, or even how you dress.  Also, if you can dish it out learn how to take it because somebody is going to come along and dish some on you one day.  I have a designer that doesn't take constructive advice well.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Don't confuse...
numbers for data,
data for information,
information for knowledge,
knowledge for wisdom.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

1. Many times, real equipments or systems don't have ideal conditions, so be pratical, very practical and make things work.
2. As a balance with the first advice, be pratical, but, think on things maintenance too.



RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Beginning a new job I always seemed to run into new concepts and ways of doing things. Stumbled into strange ways, words and work and found the 3 T's to be most helpful.  Terminology, tools and techniques. Once these were mastered the jobs fell into place.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Only put a small proportion of what you know in your presentation. That way you will be able to answer most of the questions. If you put all you know in the presentation you will be able to answer none of the questions.

HAZOP at www.curryhydrocarbons.ca

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

...or you may have given the impression that you don't know anything.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

There was this sentence at the beginning of a book I read one time:

"Keep it simple. As simple as possible. But no simpler... -Einstein"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

In theory, there's not much difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

In order to get ahead in a company, do the jobs that no one else wants to do. In order to get paid more, work for a different company.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Constants aren't; variables won't.

Maui

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

This is more managerial or team-oriented:

Always try to work yourself out of a job. Make it so others below you can do your job. They'll rise up, your boss will see what you've accomplished and you will be given newer, greater opportunities for it.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

A lot of advice on design, but missing my motto:

"iterate, iterate, iterate..."

I can't count the number of times I've been presented with a schedule by management that had 0 time between the prototype being completed and production manufacturing kickoff.  Unless your industry is so refined that the engineers are really technicians, design failures will occur.  You can either plan on them happening in your prototypes or they can happen in production.

-b

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Hope it doesn't offend anyone but one we learnt at my last place the hard way.....

'Never trust the engineering judgement of someone who feels the need to remind you they're an engineer"

Also:

"You can never design anything to be idiot proof, they'll just find a bigger idiot"

Ken

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

  Most of my drafting instructors were fond of tellings us, "When you start a new job, forget every thing we taught you about how WE want things to be done and learn to do things the way those that write your checks want things to be done. That doesn't mean do things WRONG, it just means remember where the money comes from."

  "When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." Robert A. Heinlein

  "Never pet a burning dog..."  

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

aardvarkdw--taken to the extreme, means you would have to abandon all your sense of ethics and morality to do something you know is wrong even though the bossman who signs your checks ordered you to do it. Not even 18 yr. privates in the military are allowed to abandon their sense of ethics and morality to that extent.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"That doesn't mean do things WRONG"

Taken to the extreme, it still doesn't mean do things WRONG.  It means not everything you learned is absolutely RIGHT.  More importantly, it means gaining an understanding of A way to do something vs. THE way to do something, which means gaining a sense of what is absolutely wrong vs. right, and what is variable.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Not necessarily restricted to engineering, this story does a good job of showing how people blindly follow the status quo and why it could be ridiculous:

That’s the Way We’ve Always Done it

Put 4 gorillas in a cage. Hang a bunch of bananas from a hook in the center, just out of reach. Put a stepladder in the cage.

Eventually, one gorilla will use the step ladder to reach the bananas. As soon as he gets close, blast all 4 gorillas with cold water from a fire hose. The one going for the bananas will back down and all of them will cuddle into the corner.

Sooner or later, another gorilla or perhaps the same gorilla will go for the bananas again. When it gets close, blast them all with the cold water from the fire hose again. They will start to make the connection.

Now, replace one of the original gorillas with a new gorilla who knows nothing about the fire hose. None of the original gorillas will go for the bananas anymore because they know the consequences. The new one will eventually go for the bananas. The other gorillas will beat the tar out of him before he even gets close, not wanting to get hit by the cold water.

Now replace the next original gorilla with a new one who also knows nothing of the fire hose. When this one goes for the bananas, it will likewise get the tar beat out of it by the other gorillas. Even the first replacement gorilla that has not seen the fire hose will join in on the festivities although it doesn’t know why.

Keep up the process until you have replaced all the original gorillas and now you have nothing but gorillas that have never seen the fire hose. In fact put the fire hose away- you won’t need it anymore. Now, each gorilla has at least once gotten the tar beat out of it for going for the bananas and will never go after them again. No gorilla will ever so much as think about the bananas and no gorilla will even know why. They’ll just know that “that’s the way we’ve always done it”.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Don't let you highs get too high and don't let your low's get too low

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"Always make the font in graphs bigger than you think, then increase the font size two more"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

From a professor who transferrred from industry to academia:

"Your job as an engineer is not to solve problems.
It is to define what the problem is and THEN solve it."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Avoid re-inventing the wheel!! Go to previous projects, see how it was done, improve it as neccessary, finish it!!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

TRy to be up date and learn with what you have done wrong

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Don't be afraid to make a mistake. If you're afraid to make a mistake, you'll be afraid to make anything.

Just don't make the mistake too spectacular. wink

----------------------------------
  I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

People of integrity expect to be believed, and when they are not they let time prove them right.

"Some clients you need to waste their money in order to prove you're working." - book "A Civil Action"

A rule of life, a lesion will continue until the lesion is learned. (this one gives me shivers)

Apply the 80/20 rule to everything.

The number one enemy of great, is good - Jim Collins "Good to Great"

Who before what - Jim Collins "Good to Great"

If you have to do something horrible you have to do that day. Wake up and eat a live frog then you can continue with the rest of your day knowing it won't get any worse.

When you want to complain about how hard your life/job/whatever is, imagine yourself griping while standing in a children's cancer ward.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

when something doesnt work:

check to see if its plugged in

check to see if its grounded


these next ones everyone might not agree with.  i am very new to the engineering world, but this is what i've learned:

never be afraid to deny fault in a situation.  there is nothing worse than taking the blame for something you didnt do.  your co-workers may not like you as much, but most people dont like the boss.

never be afraid to accept blame in a situation.  there is nothing worse than others getting blamed for your mistakes.  in your time of need, you will find yourself alone.

listen and consider everyone's opinion, but in the end, do what you think is best.  if you get blamed for something, at least let it be your mistake, not someone else's.

be sure to correct people when they need it.

be sure to praise people whether they need it or not.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

periodic, that reminded me.

Always make sure your Requirement is real & is fully defined and makes sense.

My Design Prof first pointed that out to me, he was on the F20 Tigershark program at Northrop so learnt it the hard way.  I frequently fail to keep it too, despite my best efforts.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

What a tremendous thread!

Here is some brilliantly rendered wisdom about not wasting time:

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in a quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say  - Pink Floyd

"If you don't go where you want to when you want to, when you do go you'll find out you've gone" - Bert Munro

"...the future's uncertain and the end is always near" - Morrison

Moral? You're an engineer.  If you're not happy, either professionally or in life, figure out a way to fix it and start right now, before it's too late.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Cowboyme,
Great response! That was pretty uplifting.

Ed

www.engineerboards.com

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

On the other hand,

If you can't take a joke you sholdn't have joined.

Frequently invoked at my last employer.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

The Hard vs. Smart argument, or more accurately, that there is an argument has always fascinated me.

There is an old story called the Genius and the Idiot that I've always remembered. To wit:

There was once a town in which lived a genius and an idiot.  When it came time to elect a new town Mayor, everyone knew the genius would be elected so as a joke, someone also nominated the idiot.  Well, they split the vote and it was decided that since the genius, being a genius, would obviously take charge, there was no harm in both of them serving as co-mayors.

Now the idiot was very happy and threw himself into his new responsibilities with all his heart.  The genius however, knowing that he was smarter than everyone else felt that the day-to-day minutia was below him.  So he went about enjoying the trappings of his office while the idiot toiled away totally oblivious to his surroundings.

The town was destroyed because almost nothing got done and what little did get done was done by an idiot.

Moral?  There is precious little difference between a genius who does nothing and an idiot who works very hard.

Story from "a Dissertation on Roast AArdvark and Other Reflections" - T.S. Alexakos  

 

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Not exactly advice but also from my last place :

"It's good enough for government work"

Doesn't that reassure you your tax dollars are well spent!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Got this one in a chinese fortune cookie:

"He who expects no gratitude shall never be disappointed."

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"It's good enough for government work"

You don't appreciate this idea until you do contracting for the Corps of Engineers.  You'll have a Specification which conflicts with the Plans, which conflict with themselves.  No minor little detail conflicts, big huge glaring done-by-two-people-that-didn't-talk-to-each-other conflicts.  You can't ask questions because no one can answer them in less than a month.  The person handling the job will know nothing whatever about the type of work proposed, yet be such an expert that you can't tell him anything.  The only way to bid such a job is to throw so much money in the bid you can't possibly lose.  And then ponder why your taxes are so high.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

JStephen - You try to run a "company" as big as the government and get as much done without a few flaws.  Let me know how you do.

Eddy - I heard the secret to fortune cookies is to add the words "in bed" to the end.  Give it a shot!

Oh yeah... Advice.  Know your customer; whether it be the next higher in command, your cohort in another department, or the end-user.  Know what they want and how to best deliver.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

And if "in bed" doesn't work for your particular fortune cookie (it works for most but not all), try "with a chainsaw".

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

So is anyone going to put these in a book or pamphlet and hand it out to new graduates!

Or on second thoughts would that scare them off before they've even started.

As for advice, despite what the written spec or requirement might say if at all possible get input from the end user, they might come up with some really great ideas/needs/requirements that aren't in the spec.  (Obviously you have to be carefull about any financial/timescale impact and you can't put everything in but hopefully you get the idea)

Ken

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I work in a consulting company and my boss likes this one:

"Everyone who goes there is capable, and least partially, so really, getting hired comes down to who likes you."

I'd like to think the best people get hired but it's pretty obvious that the social aspect always wins, even (especially?) if the product/service isn't superior.

Makes me realize, it's easy for engineers to forget that those soft skills are sometimes more important than elegant designs/systems.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

My boss told me something the other day that I thought was very helpful in being successful at whatever engineering job you have:

"Stop spending so much ^&%$%^&@ time on the Internet, and get some of your ^&%$%^&@ work done!"

:)

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Do your best, expect the worst...

Putting Human Factor Back in Engineering

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?


Integrity is what you do when nobody watches...

Putting Human Factor Back in Engineering

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"The tool you make is only as good as the heat treatment that it receives."

I have given this advice to customers for well over ten years, and will continue to do so for the balance of my career.

Maui

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Advice I wish I'd gotten:

Design engineering is the process of discovering what the company thinks it sold and what the customer thinks he bought.

Regards,

Mike

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

You can't polish a turd!

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

That's why we drink coffe...BTW interesting task.

Putting Human Factor Back in Engineering

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Enjoy life while you can, don't wait till you're too old to try to reach for your dreams.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Just read this one:

Each generation seems to inherit not only new knowledge but also new ignorance. Thus far, our generation has been supremely confident about our new knowledge.  The really interesting question that remains is the exact nature of our ignorance.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."   
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

I was working engineering support for the first time after about 3 months at a new company.  I literally was running around trying to get stuff done so it didn't have to be passed on to the next guy.  I got a call from the Refurb group with an urgent support issue, so I ran into the shop & said "OK, what's up?" to a group of maybe a dozen people, including my manager, another manager, and their boss.  My boss later took me aside and gave me this sage advice..."Take your time to get to know the guys you're working with.  You'll get more information and better participation in the future if they know you care about them as people.  If the work gets passed on to the next person on Support, that's not a problem."  It seemed like a kick in the seat then, but I've passed the same advice on to others since then.

Jim Sykes, P.Eng, GDTP-S
Profile Services
CAD-Documentation-GD&T-Product Development
www.profileservices.ca

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

When you are asked how long it will take to complete a project you have just been given:

If you are not sure how to do it, take your best guess and multiply by 8.

If you are sure how to do it, take you best guess and multiply by 4.

Daily disruptions and minutiae always make things take longer than you think they will.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

The above are good for 'calendar dates' for actual work hours (I assume 'man hours' is too un PC) they can be reduced slightly.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

2
Any fool can produce a complex solution to a problem. It takes real genius to make it simple.

FOETS
"social drinker with a golfing problem"

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

The secret to art is knowing when to stop

www.illustrativedesigns.com
Product Designer of Contract

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

A ringing phone is a request.

Walk like you've got somewhere to go.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

"If you understand what you're doing, you're not learning anything."

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

Best advice: stay in school and become a medical Dr. instead!

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