Engineering Lessons

Image courtesy of Kriss Szkurlatowski; 12frame.eu

Ten things I wish someone had told me about engineering:

1. Contractors and salesmen have all the money. – There’s a reason why contractors and salesmen drive nice cars, live in big houses and take nice holidays.  It’s one thing to design a building on paper, it’s another thing to actually build it or sell the equipment that goes into what was designed.  When I started in the training program at Buffalo Forge, I never understood while all the goals of the American trainees were to go into sales.  Guess what!  I get it now.
2. Architects have huge egos. – I’m sure they all start out as nice people, but somewhere along the way their egos take the place of their common sense.  Sadly, it’s the ones with huge egos that seem to go on to the greatest financial success.
3. Technical, marketing and management equals’ success. – From my experience most successful engineers excel in one or more of these three traits.  Most can be successful at two and on the rare occasion you will meet an engineer who excels at all three.  These are the ones that usually end up running their own successful engineering business and have employees who enjoy working for them.
4. Upper management isn’t always smart. – We naturally assume that people who climb the corporate ladder are smarter than those lower on the ladder.  Not necessarily correct.  These people are ambitious, but ambition does not always equal smart.  Who makes the call to move workers from one office to another at the cost of $900,000 only to move them back again a year and a half later at, I’m guessing the same cost, over even more.  Someone smarter than me I suppose.
5. If you want it, ask. – Early in my career I worked at company for three years and never received a single raise.  Thinking that I would receive one when I deserved it, for the longest time I never gave it a second thought.  And this particular company never offered.  The attitude was, why buy the cow when the milk is free?  Finally, I thought I should at least inquire as to what the process was for getting a raise.  It turns out the process was to ask, as two weeks later I got my raise.  If you think you deserve something, ask for it.  The worst they can say is, no.
6. The most important university course you will ever take is oral and written communications. – I believe that successfully completing university is proof that you have the ability to learn and problem solve.  Chances are the majority of the “stuff” you learn in university will not be used in the working world.  However, the one thing you will use is every day is your oral and written communications.  When you can speak convincingly with enthusiasm and confidence, you will open a lot of doors.  So when you’re given two minutes in your oral and written class to give a talk on the sex life of a water buffalo, make something up quick and say it like you mean it.
7. Engineering is ninety percent art and ten percent science. – It’s true that engineering can be a lot of numbers and formulas, but you soon find out that there is a multitude of ways to use those numbers and formulas.  There’s a hundred ways to design a bridge, or build a building or cool a plant.  All of them right.  As the artist, you get to pick which method you like and stay within the boundaries of the laws of physics and thermodynamics.  Remember, an engineer is just an architect with rules.
8. Perfection in engineering is arriving at a solution through a series of negotiated trade-offs. – Similar to the previous comment, there is no one right answer to every problem.  The trick is to find the solution that will accommodate all parties involved and not compromise the safety of the public or your professional principals.
9. When you’re ninety percent done, you’re about half way. – If you feel you are done well ahead of schedule, be nervous, it seldom happens this way.  Being done early only means it allows someone else to make a change that will affect your progress.  Eighty percent of your work always takes place in getting that last twenty percent to the finish line.
10. The most difficult engineering challenge you will encounter is people. – Engineering is easy.  Every problem has a solution.  However, it may take more time and more money than first envisioned.  It’s the owner of that time and that money that will prove to be the most challenging.  Some owners will understand, some will be downright belligerent and rude.  If you’re honest and up front, the most you can ask for is that the personalities you will deal with will be reasonable, respectful and exercise common sense.