What do engineers do on a day to day basis?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was just laid off from my job as a project engineer at a small manufacturing company. It’s kind of a blessing in disguise, because I really wasn’t happy there, either with the job or with the company. As a project engineer, I did a lot of talking to the customers, which I really not suited for.

So, I’m starting my job search, and I want to find another engineering job. I need to know what other things engineers do, both so I know what to look for, and so I can know what to say in interviews that I’m looking for. Because right now if an interviewer asked me what kind of job I was looking for, I would say “something where I don’t have to talk to customers, and I can just sit quietly at my desk working on CAD drawings or spreadsheets or whatever, and no one bothers me.” But that is probably not the answer that they would want to hear. I’d like to be able to say something more concrete, like “I was a project engineer and that wasn’t quite right for me, but I think I’d be very well suited for X.” And I just don’t quite know what that X would be.

So if any of you engineers out there wouldn’t mind describing a little bit about what you actually do at your job, or if you know of whatever websites or resources that could help describe engineering jobs, I would really appreciate it. I have plenty of resources and connections on where to find jobs, I just need to figure out what kind of job I really want to look for.

2

For starters, what sort of engineering degree do you have?

3

Whoops, I forgot to put that in the OP. I have a BS in mechanical engineering. I graduated from Texas A&M with it in December 2006.

4

I’m a chemical engineer, so what I do each day isn’t going to be too helpful for you.

Most of the MEs I work with are in maintenance; they deal with the day-to-day problems of our chemical plant – figuring out why the pump isn’t running, why the seal failed, etc. Very hands-on, out in the field, and not much computer work at all, really.

The MEs who do lots of computer work are either the drafters (update P&IDs on CAD), or the guys who spec out equipment. The latter are all seriously experienced engineers, though.

However, I’d suggest that you join whatever professional organization exists for MEs. You’re in Houston; there’ll be an active chapter there. It’ll probably offer monthly meetings where there’s a speaker or tour or something. But more importantly, there’ll be other MEs, and the first thing everyone does is say “What do you do?” Great way to learn about what’s possible.

And since you are in Houston, which has lots of engineering opportunities, I’d recommend avoiding small companies. If you get hired at a small company and it’s a mismatch, there’s usually no opportunity to shift into a different position. At larger companies there are usually other jobs you could shift into – and more likely you’ll be able to see those jobs, to know they’re out there.

5

This is really hard to answer, as there are so many different engineering jobs, even in “just” mechanical fields.

You could be in design, in testing, in technical support, in quality control, in regulatory conformance, in process management, in manufacturing /industrial engineering.

In design, you will be spending a lot of time with CAD packages, checking things like fit, tolerance, or running finite element analysis SW to check stress & strain, etc etc. You will have team meetings to review work to be done, status of ongoing work, or results of testing of prototypes based on work already done. You may spend a lot of time writing specifications.

You may have a customer focused role where you spend a lot of time working with people in customer firms helping them use your product, and integrate it into their process/product. This means lots of meetings, conference call, travel for site visits, etc. etc. This also means dealing with problems where the customers are pressuring you for a fix.

In testing / regulatory compliance, you would spend time testing prototypes to find problems, collecting data, analyzing performance, having meetings to share results, and writing. Lots of writing: test plans, test result reports, regulatory endorsement applications, etc. etc. Project managers will pressure you to get things done fast, design teams will pressure you to pass their prototypes.

In manufacturing / industrial, you do some design of tooling and process, but lots of trouble shooting, improving, and tweaking. All this is based on what a large number of people tell you. They will often be annoyed and looking to you to make their life better.

Bottom line, you will have to interact with at least your team every day. You will have to attend some meetings. If you have a relatively junior technical position, or you are one of very few high-experts in a rare, difficult, and arcane field, you may have your manager go to all the meetings and be left alone to do mostly technical stuff.

As soon as you start progressing in your career, you will have to have some form of interaction with your customers, even if they are only other teams in your company.

Right now, I think your best approach is to figure out what are your strengths and areas to develop, what you like and dislike, and try to find a role that fits them. Since engineering is such a broad scope of activity, your chances are good you will ind something. But you likely won’t get out of interacting with at least your team, and, more than likely, other teams in the company.

Good luck.

-trupa, B.Eng (Mech), MBA, former tech support engineer, product engineer, product manager, for specialized mobile phones.

6

Ah, okay. I’ve not much experience working with mechanicals; and what I do is probably not very similar at all.

Lightray and trupa have given some good advice. Another resource you might check out is www.engineerboards.com . I’ll bet some of the other ME’s there could give you some more tips.

Good luck!

7

Thanks Lightray, trupa, and **NinetyWt **for the advice.

Also I somewhat exaggerated the sitting by myself in the cubicle thing. I know that pretty much any job anywhere will have meetings with other people at the company and I can deal with that. And I can also handle dealing with customers sometimes, just I definitely want it less than with my old job. And I’d probably also be better dealing with customers if it’s at a job I like.

It sounds like design or testing/regulatory would be what I’d be most interested in. But I will read more about all of that, and check out the professional organizations in Houston, and engineeringboards.com. Thanks again for the help.

8

Drive trains, of course.

9

Rimshot.

10

I’m an ME by training, and I think by genetic disposition as well. Including positions during college, I’ve worked in the aerospace, oil, utility, and environmental fields. MEs are typically “jack-of-all-trades” engineers that can work in most industries.

Trupa gave some good examples of what MEs might do in different jobs. There is also the variety of technical topics that an ME might do - HVAC, mechanical component design and testing (mechanisms, gears, etc.), heat transfer, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics (boilers, piping, and pumps) - all those topics you took in school.

Houston is a good place for MEs to do chemical plant maintenance work. My brother’s worked in a refinery for about 20 years with an ME degree, mostly on the maintenance side. There are also lots of pumps, boilers, heaters, and so on that the ChemEs might do, but MEs can deal with equally well. Oil companies also used to look for MEs for oil production (drilling, pumping, etc.), and probably still do. I worked for an oil company way back when, and also interviewed several oil companies when I was first looking for a “real” job.

In general, energy is a good field to be in, and probably more so in Houston. Power companies are an ME’s paradise - pumps, turbines, boilers, fuels, valves - and with the issues of climate and renewable energy coming at them, interest in those fields is a real plus.

I’d also suggest looking at government positions, but the state governments are in dire straits these days and are very unlikey to be hiring. Although my understanding is that Texas is better off than others. Keep it in mind - there can be some very interesting positions in state and federal jobs, and they often sorely need technical help.

Engineers - or I should say most successful engineers - write. And write. And write. You’ve got to be able to tell management and customers what you did and what it means to them. If you can write, make sure you let them know, and preferably give them a sample of your work.

Good luck with the job search.

11

Don’t have anything to say to answer your question (I work in civil engineering), other than to give you a bit of hope.

I worked as a Project Engineer for a small firm and felt the way you did (dealing with customers is not my strong point). I left and tried a completely different sort of job working for a product supplier.

I hated that job even more! (Woops)!

I landed a new job with a different company working in their CAD department making MORE money than I did as a Project Engineer. I pretty much love my job now!

So, good luck!

12

Here’s a link to ASME.

Engineers in my department, which is oil and gas production related, do various jobs. Usually the “lead” or “project” engineer deals with the customer. Others do DVP’s - lots of paperwork to verify design quality. (Design Verification Packages.) Mathcad is used a lot. Others do FEA analysis.

I’m a mechanical designer. I work with my engineer to create drawings for manufacturing (internal and external) to produce. Engineers check drawings, and deal with customer’s specifications and obtain interfaces for stuff that interacts with our stuff.

I’m sure you’ll find a niche! Good luck!

13

Chemical engineer checking in.

I started out in manufacturing, but I was miserable after six months. Now I’m working with an environmental consulting company. I primarily do air permitting and reporting. A ME in our company would be doing design or construction quality assurance, I would guess. There are also lots of little niches in consulting that you can get into.

14

I’m a chemical engineer and work as a SAP consultant; I’ve also worked as a lab tech (both RnD and Quality). My brother is a mechanical engineer and works as a construction foreman; he’s also worked as a draftsman.

15

Be careful what you try to avoid. You may end up like me and have it become your career focus.

My short story. 1970’s - I hated the semi-conductor and computer programing aspects of electrical engineering when I was a student so focused on a specialty of power when I got my BSEE. My goal - to work in the field with transmission and substation equipment management.

My first job landed me in a situation were I had to use mainframe computers to do power load flow studies. I became known as the computer engineer guy. I made the best of my situation and used what little Fortran training I had to write code to make my smaller projects easier. Before I knew it I was coding for the entire engineering department. When the PC integration of the 80’s and 90’s began it pretty much locked me into my present mode - business system development. I was interested in competitive intelligence so eventually I was able to find a position where I’m designing competitive intelligence business systems for a small company.

So, in trying to avoid a “computer associated” job I manged to get my career 100% focused on it.

My advice to you is to use your resume and your cover letter to demonstrate that you are a competent project manager while emphasizing that your true strength is your “ability focus on complex analytical tasks”.

“ability focus on complex analytical tasks” = “wants to be left alone with his work”.

16

Thanks for all the advice. Y’all have given me a lot to consider.

That’s interesting sparky!. Doing the CAD stuff was my favorite part of some of my classes at school. I might start applying for those jobs too.

BubbaDog, the “ability to focus on complex analytical tasks” is exactly what I’m looking for. I’ve always had problems knowing what to put on my cover letter, other than generic stuff about how I’m a hard worker.

Public Animal No. 9, I’d thought about looking for some city jobs, I hadn’t thought about state or federal jobs. I’ll keep that in mind, though I won’t pin my hopes on it. Also, I think I am a decent writer. I was actually a copyeditor for an international architecture journal in college; I have that on my resume so they know that I do know how to write. I don’t have any real writing samples though.

Thanks everyone else for your advice too. I am definitely making progress in the job hunt.

17

Likewise, emphasize the parts of the job that you liked when you’re describing that job on your resume. If you’re interested in, fr’ex CAD work, give preference to describing the drafting work you did, rather than the customer interaction stuff you weren’t so fond of.

And, of course, in the interview if asked about the stuff you didn’t like, don’t overplay it. Better to answer “Yes, I did that, but what I really enjoyed was…” No one is surprised when an engineer doesn’t seek out customer interaction jobs, but with any emphasis they’ll start thinking you don’t want to interact with anyone… and those are the type of engineers you put up with only if they have some ultra-vital skill you need. (I say this having interviewed engineers who talked too much about how they didn’t like dealing with customers, coworkers, people in general. Don’t be that guy.)

(nb., if someone else is reading this, and you’re an engineer who likes the people skills – bring attention to that. And maybe get an MBA.)

Ack. One thing I’ve learned from suffering through SAP is, although maybe “Germans are good engineers”, they’re crap programmers.

18

My work as an aerospace systems engineer is roughly as follows:

Writing spec and test documents
Reviewing the same from others
Project management tasks (meetings, reporting to bosses, delegating, etc)
Responding to customer service questions for our products
Budgeting and Business-casing design proposals (95% of which die right after the hours/cost quote)
Drafting and releasing designs

Because so much work is teamed, 75% of all of this is straight phone/email/meeting delegation and communication. 25% is actual “productive :)” work modeling, coding, drafting etc.

Project management and team-oriented experience is what would be best to show to a potential employer. Very few are looking for a full time isolated modeler, they go to contractor firms to get those.

19

I’m in manufacturing, and I’ve never met a tube jockey that’s an engineer. All of the real CAD work is done by non-engineers. Yes, even the product design, which is led by engineers. When product engineering needs a change, they submit what they want changed to the CAD designers. The CAD designers are only responsible for accurate representation in the system; the product engineers are still responsible for all of the engineering.

In fact, CAD operators have a fine tradition of being well-paid, salaried (or sometimes exempt but paid hourly) workers without a degree of any sort, or if much, a low order technical degree.

Of course as engineers, we all use the CAD data. But then there are also a lot of other users of the CAD data that are non-engineers, such as the kinematics experts and the IT people (although their use is mostly management).

Granted all of my experience is in huge corporations. I guess it’s possible that a small company would utilize a high-paid engineer to do a comparatively low-paid job if the intent were to avoid the highs and lows in the employment cycles, or their engineers aren’t paid all that much.