Career advice?

[whatnow]

Hi all, I hopping to get some advice, or at least a different perspective on my current employment situation. Thanks in advance for any replies. I am a fairly new graduate, and I have a BS in Electrical Engineering Technology from a good school. I accepted a job with a fair sized company (a factory) to be their in-house electrical engineer (I’m actually the first to have this position). I do various projects and many are related to PLC programming and industrial automation which I enjoy very much. One problem is my company’s “engineering department” is not very well defined, and I get little support or structure. I am capable of working on my own, but I fear without having an experienced electrical engineer above me I will end up teaching myself bad habits and get stuck in a skill plateau. This is really my main worry. I don’t want to get into a situation where I can’t improve the skills I’ve worked hard to acquire, and wind up obsolete before my time. Another difficultly is financial support. Many of my projects are new developments. And developing things requires purchasing components, software, etc… ANYTHING that I want to purchase must be signed off my three tiers of management ending with the president of the company. And I do mean anything. $2.60 worth of nuts from the local hardware store.. yup. It also will usually take about a week to get things OKed to purchase. Now, I don’t expect to get everything I want, or to buy all brand new stuff if we already have spare parts in storage. But I think the current situation is a bit ridiculous. I’ve worked for this company for a little over 3 months now, and I still do not have a computer. Mind you, I was hired in with the intention of doing PLC programming! When I ask about the status of my computer nobody can seem to give me a straight answer. I have done computer work (programming, documentation, research, etc..) with my personal laptop, and the maintenance department’s one laptop (which is in high demand). I could go on, but I think I’ve gotten my point across. I hope I don’t come off as whiny or needy, but I’m really starting to think I made a bad choice. Does any of this seem reasonable to you guys? Do I expect too much? Should I bail?

[Ken Moore]

Generally speaking, at the companies I've worked for, when you have a new project you want to implement, the first think you have to do is justify it. You have write up something that says, I want to put in a system/machine/controller etc... that will do the following, blah blah, blah. The cost to implement this will be $$$$$ dollars, and will take so long to implement, and will require about some many days of down time, which will cost an additional $$$$ in lost production. By doing this we can increase up time and allow some amount of additional widgets to be made. This amount of additional widgets at $$$$ per unit will increase company revenue by $$$$$ per month. At $$$$$ per month increased revenue, pay back on this project is some months. You submit this to management, and they decide if they want to spend the money or not. Once you have done this document, and get management to sign off on it, you are given the funds to implement the project. You do not have to get additional approval for the individual purchases (within reason, sometimes, one additional approval is required for large single item purchases). If the project comes in on budget, and obtains the goals defined, your golden, if not your in the red. If your current employer will not give you a budget, and micro manages every penny, I would look for other options if I were you. But, before you do anything rash, at least make an attempt to clarify the situation, try to talk it out. If your position is new, and they do not have any other engineering types, they may not know exactly how much authority to give you yet. If they are used to working with hourly only, that might explain the micro-management of the purchasing process.

[brianafischer]

Unfortunately from my experiences/observations... A lot of larger companies are dumping experienced employees for "fresh hires" to cut costs. More experienced employees are "too busy" worrying about job security to help younger employees that could replace them. If you really want a mentor I suggest finding a small company to work for. Since less overhead is involved, more time gets spent on the improving efficiency and employee learning projects. However, the pay is generally less. I know there are no facts here, but just some observations from multiple internships/jobs and peers. On the flip side... The best way to learn something is through experience. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. It is only fear that prevents learning/innovation. However, a production environment is not the best learning environment due to "shutting down a line" and damaging "customer material". As far as learning on your own, it is something that I have been faced with, my advice: Consider requesting a training budget and attending some training. Also, don't be afraid to pick up the phone and annoy the hell out of technical support. Allen Bradley distributors seem to have the best support, if you use AB products... http://www.rockwellautomation.com/services/training/ READ THE PLC BOOK: http://claymore.engineer.gvsu.edu/~jackh/books/plcs/ Buy/Read automation books: from http://www.newnespress.com/ Buy Nuts and Volts if you want to learn about circuits Read, read, read... Join the IEEE, ISA Attend local automation events (contact sales and tell them you want to learn about their products so you can BUY them) Use discussion boards, already like you are doing now... Finally, I would suggest voicing concerns with your manager. This is probably the biggest mistake that new graduates make. You have to let your managers know that you are uncomfortable with your current situation and what could be done to improve things. If nothing gets done after that, then speak up a few more times. If no change occurs after all of this, than I would suggest moving on.