Listen to this episode if you: are an early career engineer, are contemplating a career change, or just like engineering career stories.
This Week in LinkedIn Lunatics:
1. Ruin your marriage on day 1
College Questions
I am a high school student about to enter my senior year, and I plan on majoring in Chemical Engineering. Is it worth getting a minor in college? Does it depend on the field you want to pursue within Chemical Engineering?
2. Question to all Civil Engineers?
Why do civil engineering students have to take Dynamics? I mean I can understand why we need Statics, Solids and Fluids but what’s the point of taking Dynamics? It’s not like we’re going to use this in the real world and the only other major that has to use for their coursework is mechanical engineering students? I just don’t think it’s that important and can replaced by at least an engineering elective 🤷🏾♂️
Career Questions
I have seen many people discuss about how important an internship really is when you are still in school going for your degree. But my question is this, I have about 4 years of CNC machining. By the time I graduate, I will have about 8-10 years in the field. I have adequate experience with CAD/CAM and GD&T. Should I still look for internships when the time comes? I go to school full time and I work full time at an aerospace machine shop.
2. Is it normal for an intern to have to copy their manager on every email?
I’ve been working part time at a smaller company for a decent amount of time. Now that it’s summer, I’m going full time. Even though I’m well past being a beginner at my job, my manager still requires me to copy him on every email I send, whether it’s asking other people on the team questions, reaching out to people on other teams, or asking for people to review certain things. My manager is very hypercritical of me and recently this has made it extremely stressful to send any emails at all, because I don’t want him to see them and think I’m asking a stupid question or that I’m “bothering someone” or find some mistake that doesn’t exist. In addition, he will respond to emails that are directed at me which is also very frustrating. Is this a normal experience for engineering interns?
So as I mentioned in the title and EIT who used to work for reached out (through another person) to ask if I could be their reference. He was a nice guy and smart but I wouldnt call him very good at his job. The guy seemed very aloof and had horrible time management. He would show up late, take long lunches, and then leave early. He was also pretty slow at completing tasks, where it got to the point that people stopped giving him work because he would take too long and sit on budgets. Ultimately he was let go, which I think was appropriate as he was give multiple (like 4 opportunties to show improvement).
In the couple of years since he was let go, he passed his PE but hasnt found another job. Part of me just wants to tell him Im not comfortable using him as a reference. But at the same time, the engineering community where I live is pretty small, so Im torn between being so harsh.
Could use some advice.
Hey guys,
At my land development firm (~1000 employees) we have a group of experienced engineers that do primarily plan review. Every project goes through them and they check plans and calcs for constructability, safety, and look for VE opportunities. It seemed interesting to me as an alternative path to climb the ladder in lue of project management.
I wanted to see if other firms have a similar role and how many years of experience the typical engineer in this position has? If you’ve been in this QC position, how have you liked it
I’ve been talking to this woman at my work for several months. However this other coworker of mine told me that she found out we’ve been talking and she’s now basically threatening me that she’s gonna tell my gf.
I obviously don’t want my gf to know this and I also don’t want the potential problems this may cause at my current office and my career in general. What should I do here?
Something I can’t help but notice is Mechanical Engineering doesn’t have any “high earners”. Basically every mechanical engineer earns somewhere between 70-130k, companies don’t seem to be willing to pay a super experienced guy 200 or 250k like they are in many other fields.
I also notice there’s basically no Mechanical Engineers that ever post in threads like these:
7. How do you rebound after a bad week?
Went over budget on a report (PM let me hear about it when I already knew). Plotter stopped working mid print for a hard copy submittal at the end of the day. Because I spent so much time on the hard copy submittal I didn’t get anything else done that I wanted to. CAD was a POS. All of this happened on a Friday… just a bad end to the week.
How you do bounce back on Monday?
8. Guilty about working from home
Hey guys. How do you overcome the guilt of working from home. Our work policy is maximum 2 days a week working from home. I have a bad cold so I’m probably gonna work from home today, tomorrow and Friday. I’m pretty sure I’m being irrational about getting in trouble but how do you get over the worry of this?
I usually work from home once a week, sometimes twice.
I’m an EE and the due to the busyness of the program, i usually just work from home once a week
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https://www.patreon.com/ENGRingSuccess Top tier supporters – shout out each episode of the month for $10 monthly donation. Follow along on all social medias: https://engringsuccess.com/link-in-bio/ To submit your question, email daniel@ENGRingSuccess.com Subscribe on YouTube to watch short excerpts of podcast episodes addressing specific topics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj86alc3a7_A_PibgYpkWFg Daniel is a Mechanical Engineering graduate of Trinity University’s B.S. in Engineering Science and currently works in Commercial Management in the Engineering and Construction Consulting Industry. All views expressed on this podcast are his own and do not reflect the opinions or views of his employer. Music by Maxgotthetracks: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Pclog68AY
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