Re: Technical vs. management track

From: <Christopher>
Date: Tue May 15 2001 - 10:57:00 EDT

>Why is that so? I think this is very unfortunate. How can this be changed?
Look around you--what attitudes do see on the part of your management? Do people tell you to provide the very best design or do they say get the job done cheaper and faster? One thing to remember is that most engineers and designers work for organizations who aren't in the engineering business--they're in the construction or manufacturing business and their prime concern is getting product out the door. Engineering is a necessary expense, but product is what makes the money. Engineers are generally expected to aspire to management positions, and the decision is usually made about age 40. After 5 years working with budgets and marketing goals, an engineer's technical skills get rusty.

In the legal profession, lawyers work for more experienced lawyers, not MBA's; likewise physicians work for physicians. Mentoring is part of the job. How to change things? I don't know. Philosophically, I think in a organization where engineering is the chief business, it would be different--not that business considerations would ever take a back seat to technical prowess, but the balance would be better. But that isn't the way that mechanical engineering is typiclaly practiced.

>I would like my success
>to be measured in terms of how good I am at that, not by the number of
>people who report to me. What do you think?
I think that's praiseworthy--but keep in mind that your view of success is likely to differ from that of the people who employ you. I got lucky--I've been able to stay technical all my career. It's meant frequent job changes and a few lay-offs. Not counting contract positions, I'd worked for 7 different companies by the time I was 45. The last lay-off was a (well-disguised) blessing that got me into private practice, so my business _is_ engineering. I'll never be rich, and I work like hell, but I never enjoyed it more. The business of engineering is an interesting one, and once it isn't muddled up with some manager's pet projects and a lot of corporate foolishness, it's very refreshing.

Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant from <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=k_JNB-o9YgSJNKZ4OzKezuMJvzxYa0lpiDS-7aXgp02mGsDYqrcPGU6_cZoTUViNcQpMniooKtCW">chrisw@skypoint.com</a> | this distance" (last words of Gen.

___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)

<a href="http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw">http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw</a> Received on Tue May 15 10:57:00 2001