Engineer with some free time? Tech Writing Assignment

[Monkeyman87]

Hi,
I'm an EE student in my second semester, and my technical writing professor has given me an assignment. I need to interview or conduct a survey of several people in my career. Then create a summary of the career using my "primary research." I could go research this and find a good bit of information on the web, but my professor wants all information to come from directly from people in this career. I have several questions below, and I would really appreciate it if you could take some of your time to answer them. If you think any of my questions are unrelated, just skip them. This is not limited to electrical engineers I can use anybody's input.

Thanks,

Sam Bixler




1) Do you feel that employees in your workplace lack the skills needed
to communicate effectively?

2) What are some legal issues that may come up in this career field?

3) Are engineering companies producing the highest quality products
possible or are corners cut to boost price competitiveness?

4) How do you feel about the increasing number of engineering jobs being
sent overseas?

5) Is engineering a high stress career? Please explain.

6) What are some recommendations for upcoming engineers that you
think will help them to "be the best of the best" in this career?

 

[Optikon]

been working in the field for 6 years (out of school)

1) Generally speaking, NO. but there are exceptions on occasion.

2) Intellectual property is probably the biggest.

3) No one creates the highest quality possible. Corners are cut in many instances. The good companies cut corners that do not affect their products and / or customers.

4) I feel OK about it - you get what you pay for, proven time and time again.

5) High stress compared to what? Generally, I would say no. It has it's moments like every career choice. But hey, in my opinion, it is less stressful than say a surgeons job but more so than a landscaper. ;-)

6) Get "hands on in the field" as soon as possible.

 

[Monkeyman87]

Thanks Optikon

When you refer to intellectual property as the biggest legal issue do you mean engineers have problems claiming ownership of their work because the company they work for wants ownership?

 

[Russlk]

1. Most engineers can communicate effectivly in their field.

2. In 40 years I have not personally been involved in legal issues relative to engineering. Some problems that I have seen:
A. Small company takes on large contract with no money up front. Customer goes bankrupt, small company goes bankrupt.
B. Vendor agrees to supply part that exceeds state of the art. Does'nt work, vendor goes out of business.
C. Company makes deep sea surveillance (sp?) device. Toss prototype overboard, it doesn't come up. After the third time someone says " why don't we tie a rope on it so we can pull it up and see what went wrong"!

3. Companies that stay in business make parts with quality that customers are willing to pay for. There is always a tradoff between quality and price.

4. I don't like it but it is something that has to be faced and delt with. We will always have American engineers but perhaps not so many.

5. Any career can be high stress, it depends on the person and how he/she deals with it. I have always tried to minimize stress. I may not have risen as high on the corporate ladder as I could have, but I expect to live longer, and I have enjoyed engineering.

6. Trying to be the "best of the best" can lead to high stress, I don't recommend it. Try to be the best you can be, but if it is too stressful, find something else to do, that you will enjoy. I talked to one of my retired neighbors who said he had worked for the railroad for 40 years and hated every minute of it. Don't do that.

 

[Optikon]

Thanks Optikon

When you refer to intellectual property as the biggest legal issue do you mean engineers have problems claiming ownership of their work because the company they work for wants ownership?

I'm saying that intellectual property rights quickly ends up being an exercise for the lawyers. Patents, who has the rights? Selling the rights etc etc... all live in the legal realm and not so much the engineering(only the design itself) So this is my only experience with legal issues in my engineering profession. As already pointed out however, there is a great deal of the profession that works with contracts, contractors etc all having to deal with the legal aspects of this.