I guess my thinking is not as revolutionary as my mother led me to believe…
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My biggest frustration with an engineer in management is the tendency to use technical jargon when speaking to non-technical people.
This carries over to email as well. There’s nothing better than getting a hand-off in the form of a multi-month email chain of dozens of engineering emails. Somewhere in there is a supply chain action item I’m supposed to discern.
I often wonder if this is deliberate.
Failing upwards. The recurring theme amongst management and politicians alike.
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It’s a non-issue for me, as I despise all engineers and managers.
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Though I suppose that wasn’t a very nice thing to say even if it’s true, and certainly don’t mean it personally to anyone. Also don’t mean to further derail the OPs thread.
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During my 10 years in Occ Health and thousands of employees coming through, the only people who have ever actually taken us up on getting a copy of the HIPAA policy have been engineers. We don’t even keep copies so we have to print them out when an engineer comes through. And they will set there and read the damn thing before they sign the acknowledgment form.
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I have observed stuff like this too. I am still convinced that a lot of the engineers are autistic. I always thought the mechanical engineers were the least weird (maybe a few gear heads slipped in), and the software engineers were on a different level haha.
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I work in the HVAC industry currently (on the office side) and it is easily the best industry I have worked in so far. I have met many great technicians the last few years. As you said, good benefits, decent pay and as long as you don’t get flustered, even the summer is manageable.
That said, I am not a technican. You guys are tough. I am not sure I could handle working outside in the heat or snow like you. I chose the office for a reason.
You are right, we are unstaffed as well. I could easily walk onto a roof and be put to work. Even without having a clue what I am doing.
To be fair, the young engineers really ruin your expectations before meeting older engineers. Older engineers, IME, are usually great people. Its all the young ones who are fuckwits
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Its the responsibility engrained into the job… gives you significant paranoia about signing everything.
An engineer at my work can draw a picture on a napkin with 3 dimensions, and if he/she signs it - any worker is allowed to go make/alter real parts using that napkin as work instructions. Engineers have more powerful signatures than doctors.
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That might be true for politicians, but in every successful company I’ve ever worked for, the very brightest and best are the ones who make it to the top.
There is a popular perception that “management” is always useless, which I would explain like this:
A company is like a tree full of monkeys, all at different levels, some climbing up, some falling down, doing all sorts of different things. If you’re on top and you look down, all you see is smiling faces. If you’re underneath and you look up, all you see is arseholes.
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So I’m a college professor and actually posed this question to my students in class today. The short answer is it depends…depends on factors like what field you want to pursue, the quality of the instructors (how much are they gonna try to help you), your willingness to work hard (show up to class, actually do assignments, build relationships with classmates/professors, etc).
I won’t force my kids to go to college. If they wanna pursue a trade, go into the military or something, I’ll probably support it. But in general, in today’s market, I do think college is often the right choice.
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If I encounter any new form or document then I will skim the entire thing, just to make sure there’s no weird “gotcha!”, especially if a significant amount of money or possible responsibility on my part may be at stake.
Great question to pose to college students! I appreciate the perspective you bring.
I am starting to get a solid picture that a degree will hurt the wallet in the short term, but generally pays for itself in many ways for years.
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I think a recurring problem in public education today is that kids don’t know why they’re being forced to learn something or go to school. Since they don’t have clear motivations they don’t perform as well as they probably could, and that can lead into a negative feedback loop depending on personality type.
It’s something I occasionally think on, especially since I fear for my hypothetical future children. How do you get them inspired to achieve or pursue a goal while simultaneously leaving them open-minded enough to pursue other goals if the first goal doesn’t work out?
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Really good question. Two recent reads provide good insight on this: Range (Epstein) and Beyond Order (Peterson).
Got a couple of Political Science degrees (BA/MA). Planned on going to law school, took the LSAT, did well, bailed.
Work as a software engineer now, make a solid wage (low six figures), work 30ish hours a week, have solid benefits, virtually unlimited PTO, and am completely remote. Political science didn’t get me here but I found the education and lessons learned along the way incredibly valuable. That being said I went to an in-state university, on a scholarship, for my undergrad and did my master’s for free in a foreign country. If I was saddled with 6 figures of debt I probably would think differently. All that being said, I don’t really like my job that much but I am a) too lazy to find another one and b) not really interested in pursuing another career, at least not a desk job.
I’m curious. How do you become a software engineer with a poli sci degree?
I actually have a buddy with a BS in Biology and he works a remote software engineering job for $250k/year. As long as you’re able to do the job, it seems the companies do not care.
(not intending to take away from @heretolog’s response)
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Did a 12 week bootcamp (was very low quality) and had some friends show me some of the ropes.
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