In the last week an opportunity came up here at work that I think would be excellent for my career. Per company procedure, I need to apply for the job through the company website. So my first question is this: Do I need to put a lot of effort into polishing up my resume and tailoring it to...
I have always included the power dissipated by the fans in thermal calculations and CFD models of electronics enclosures. Recently I had a customer ask me to justify why I assumed that the fans dissipate 100% of the input power as heat in the CFD model I did of their system. So I sat down and...
Let's say I am designing a structure that is bolted to something else. I am interested in finding the stresses in my structure, but I don't care about the stresses in the something else it is attached to. Let's say for example I am designing a cantilever beam that has a flange at the end where...
I have always modeled bolted supports using fixed boundary conditions. For example, lets say I want to do an FEA model of a cantilever beam type structure that is bolted to the wall. I would start by using beam elements and fixing the end that is attached to the wall.
Recently I wrote a...
Let me start by saying I have zero practical experience with random vibration and only a very fuzzy knowledge of the theory. I have successfully designed isolated systems to attenuate shock and harmonic vibratory loads.
What I am dealing with is one of our current products that consists of...
About a year ago a head hunter called me about a job that I was really excited about, except for one thing. They were looking for an ME with a very strong EE background. I knew going into it that I had some practical EE background beyond the 2 EE courses I was required to take in school, but I...
My background is in Structural Dynamics with a heavy focus on R&D and analytical methods. For the past three years I have been involved with a huge R&D effort. I pretty much drove the entire effort from proof of concept all the way through development. The system was fairly complex and...
This summer we hired a guy right out of college. The ink on his diploma is barely dry. I was assigned to be his mentor, and frankly the guy is driving me nuts. Sometimes I wonder how he managed to make it through engineering school. He does not have any projects of his own. I am the...
If you are working as an employee for a company and have direct dealings with clients, is it illegal to tell your clients that you are starting your own company and you would like them to leave your current employer and give you their business directly?
Am I alone in not understanding why I should be willing to sacrifice my free time "for the good of the company"? It seems like from what I have read in many posts here and the attitude of many of my co-workers at my current employer that if you have chosen the field of engineering then 60 hour...
How does one go about getting a PE license in a manufacturing environment? I reside in CT and have worked as a degreed engineer for 14 years. I currently do some part-time consulting and at some point in the future I would like to go at it full time and I feel that having a PE license can...
