Help me understand the expectations of this job?

Question

Help me understand the expectations of this job?

nds88 (Mechanical)

(OP)

21 Oct 22 17:41

Hello I have been working for 4 years in design and it has its ups and downs. I have to find another job, though. I applied for a posting for a general ME asking for someone with experience in design, analysis, and manufacturing. The posting was rather general in nature and the company is a large defense contractor working with Navy submarines. In the 3 interviews, I was asked about my analysis and design background with some basic knowledge check questions. The hiring manager described the job as "mostly production support" and asked me "does that still interest you?" I replied that it did, but truthfully, I don't know much about production support. In researching a bit about production support after the interview, I have read elsewhere that this is commonly seen as an undesirable job and it is much disliked by most who have done it. I am wondering if the job posting intended to throw in some interesting stuff to mask the undesirable truth of being "mainly production support?" or is that not likely? I like technical work and analytical work, but I have never been against working with people. I am feeling analysis paralysis about this offer. Can you help?

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 1 · 2022-10-21 18:27:49

Production support would most likely involve trying to solve specific production problems; most of our production problems were silly procedural violations and plain numbskullness problems. Unless you are doing transitions from EMD to production, which might require coming with novel production processes or approaches, general production support would rarely involve finding new things or challenge your design skills, IMO. Use it or lose it might be the applicable scenario; if you aren't doing design, not only are you falling behind in experience level, but you're also not exercising the little gray cells as much as you should to be competitive.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

SWComposites (Aerospace) · Answer 2 · 2022-10-21 23:50:52

Production support as a designer/analyst usually means you will likely be dealing with rejection tags (defective parts) and production will pressure you to either a) sign off on "use as is" or b) give them a very simple repair/rework since "we have to ship the part in 4 hours".

Production support as a manufacturing engineer involves a) coming up with ways to reduce process cycle times, b) figuring out how to minimize defects (without spending much if any $), c) yelling at design/analysis to hurry up with the rejection tag disposition.

nds88 (Mechanical) · Answer 3 · 2022-10-22 00:18:31

Thanks for the replies. Honestly, I don't understand the prospective about design experience. Although I enjoy analytical thinking, my only real goal is to be able to afford a house and support my family while having some work life balance. I haven't even really seen many job postings for design in my area so I don't really have opportunities for another design job.

GregLocock (Automotive) · Answer 4 · 2022-10-22 00:23:09

When I was a design engineer (not for long luckily) the favorite bit of my job was production support, aka sorting out stuffups. We actually got told we were spending too much time on the assembly lines!

Cheers

Greg Locock

New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 5 · 2022-10-22 03:04:37

Quote:
my only real goal is to be able to afford a house and support my family while having some work life balance.

Sure, that's one option, but it's also the road to frustration, because if you can't love your job, it becomes work, and you'll possibly start self-medicating.

[edit]
I've never taken a job purely for money; I just think that you can't really do well at something you don't like, so it's possible that your salary will lag your peers because you will lack the motivation to succeed at it.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

MintJulep (Mechanical) · Answer 6 · 2022-10-22 07:17:13

In that environment"production support" mostly means that you will be writing ECNs for whatever drawing errors are found during manufacturing.

Yawn.

Avoid.

Come Join Us!

Posting Guidelines

Help me understand the expectations of this job?