> >I have seen many instances where an employer for example,
> >wants a CAD designer with an engineering degree.
> Engineering is an interesting trade. Unlike the law or medicine, you
> rarely find engineers practicing hands-on past the age of forty. And
many
> engineers become middle management in their 30's and forget most of
their
> professional skills.
OK, here we go. Seatbelts fastened?
Why is it necessary for people to become managers? What is the appeal in it, aside from (perhaps) money and "status"? Are these two things more important that doing what you enjoy and doing it well?
Some say that rejecting a promotion is a CLM ( "Career-Limiting Move"), but I maintain that we need less managers, not more. Confident, skilled and experienced people need to stay where they are and keep the machine working, not move up the chain where the main functions are Powerpoint slideshow creations, meetings and flights of fancy. I've been groomed for that in the past, and it sucks. Plus, intelligent and motivated people tend to manage themselves.
A lot of the best people dropped out of the business when computers forced everyone to drop the board. "You're old and no longer useful to us" was the message. Many just went into different fields, a lot simply retired. Try calling back an old-timer and see if he can comprehend much of the stuff that goes on today. The worst part is that what we actually do ("deliverables" as compared to finished product) is THE SAME THING. Only the way to get there has changed, and I'm not so sure that the new way is any better than the old, if we ignore the coolness factor of high technology. Then again, my 13 year-old son thinks paying $120 for a pair of sneakers is worth it.
There is an approximately (this is approximate only) 0% chance that CAD and other computer-aided technologies will go away anytime soon. The younger people coming into the business know little about what was done 20 years ago and the logic behind it.
Computerization (I love computers - my dual processor, twin monitor RAID0 setup which I'm using now is quite the toy) has caused a loss of perspective. Now we need "administrators" to attend to the machines, outside vendors to supply us with the (ever-increasing priced) tools so we can work and it's really easy to bame things on the machine. For example: "I guess the attachment didn't get through". "We had a server crash". "The software doesn't work as we expected, so we had to kludge together something". "A virus ate my homework." Do any of you older farts think lame excuses like this would wash 20 years ago? Now it's normal.
That's my rant for the month, but hey, May is coming up!
Paul Received on Sat Apr 24 17:32:00 2004
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