Paul:
What's the difference between engineers and lawyers? An engineer tells you how
you can do something, a lawyer tells you that you can't.
George McKinney
What's the difference between Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers? -
Exposure and Perception.
TV and Hollywood (and I bet Baliwood too) love to tell stories about
Doctors and Lawyers - the storylines are simple and everyone can
understand.
We have no real promotional body - that's the root of our problem. What
do we have? - an Engineering week that only some engineers actually know
about and very few participate in. If it wasn't for the Discovery
Channel (that only engineers, math and science majors watch anyway) we'd
be completely ignored. There hasn't been a good engineer on TV since
Star Trek's "Mr. Scott". In today's world kids feel Math is not
important - Schools and University's are bending over backwards to come
up with programs that exclude Math - and we say nothing.
When I go to a party and have to introduce myself, I say I'm an Engineer
working in Oil and Gas Design - short and sweet - If I tried to describe
what I really do I'd be getting nothing but blank faces - they would not
understand - Engineering is too broad. I bet you do the same. Let me
take that a little further - no one in my family - not my Wife, Mom,
Dad, Brothers, Sisters or any of my close friends really know what I do
I was at a conference a few years back and the topic came up - How do
you make money in Engineering? - My response "Sell all the companies
assets and invest in Microsoft". Even with the tech bust if you look at
the numbers since 98 you'd probably find that would have been a more
profitable path for most engineering companies. Why is it like this?
My clients are Oil and Gas companies, all making money like never before
We should be saying - yes we are talented people and we would love to
work on your project - we will do it at cost + 15% (15% is actually
cheap - our new health plan requires a minimum 18% profit or our
premiums will go up). Anyone think for 1 second the oil companies would
stop all the new projects. In our society people respect you if you
make money - we need proper respect to further our industry. If we
stopped doing proposal work for free we would see respect very quickly -
Our clients would be more interested in relationships instead of who's
cheap.
We need a strong organization to promote Engineering and we need to work
together.
As far as lawyers risk/reward goes - if there was a project out there
where I could work for free but earn 20 lifetime's pay for a good job
I'd be on it in a heartbeat.
PRH
Three lawyers and three engineers are traveling by train to a
conference. At the station, the three lawyers each buy tickets and watch
as the three engineers buy only a single ticket.
"How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" wonders one
of the lawyers. "Watch, and you'll see," replies one of the engineers.
They all board the train. The lawyers take their respective seats while
all three engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them.
Shortly after the train departs, the conductor comes around collecting
tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "Ticket, please." The
door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand.
The conductor takes it and moves on.
The lawyers see this and agree it is quite a clever idea. After the
conference, the lawyers decide to copy the engineers on the return trip
and save some money. When they get to the station, they buy a single
ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the engineers don't
buy a ticket at all. "How are you going to travel without a ticket?"
asks one perplexed lawyer. "Watch, and you'll see," replies one of the
engineers.
When they board the train the three lawyers cram into a restroom and the
three engineers cram into another one nearby. The train departs. A few
moments later, one of the engineers leaves his restroom and walks over
to the restroom where the lawyers are hiding. He knocks on the door and
says, "Ticket, please."
Paul Hawco
Mechanical Engineer
Neill & Gunter (Nova Scotia) Limited
http://www.neillandgunter.com <http://www.neillandgunter.com>
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Received on Fri Mar 05 09:42:00 2004
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