On Jun 24, 2005, at 2:25 PM, Paul Bowers wrote:
> The adoption of computers and software was the
> singlemost biggest (pardon my French) change for engineering in
> history.
> Feel free to argue with me about this.
Computers made a huge change for engineering--arguably for the better,
but that's not a foregone conclusion. The engineering function really
hasn't changed, but more engineers are doing what drafters and
engineering assistants used to do. This isn't altogether bad--preparing
your own reports and doing your own 'board work' can be a good thing,
provided the quality of the design work doesn't suffer. Trouble is that
it's putting newbies without the organizational and communications
skills needed to be good designers, because schools don't teach
organization or communications or even first principles of design all
that well. The management assumption is that CAD or FEA does all that
stuff now. But it doesn't. Engineers used to learn the practical parts
of their jobs from more experienced staff, but experienced staff has
been going away for quite some time, I think because management thinks
that the tools make the engineer, not the other way round.
> What is so wrong with being "in the trenches" past the age of 40?
Nothing at all. It just doesn't happen very often.
> Is it status? The perceived peer pressure to "have people working for
> you"?
Neither. It's a fact of corporate life. You don't get 'ahead' as an
engineer, just as a manager. My experience is that somewhere between 40
and 50, engineers tend to veer toward a management track. I didn't and
I'm very happy that it's worked out that way, but I know a lot of
people who went down the other path and in doing so lost most of their
engineering skills because that didn't use them.
Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=b6v-5AhY_coqtxJGkATc-xSElgjvLzwP09tN3VrUxe_leQ11D70yTmOjMMgIPxxn22oa3CCzNOs_">chrisw@skypoint.com</a> | this distance" (last words of Gen.
.......................................| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania1864)
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