Hi dmf; I'm a "senior design engineer". I should explain what that means. It's probably true that 90% of the useful engineering design in this country is done by about 10% of the engineers. The reason for the discrepancy is that the majority of engineers are remarkably stupid, or don't even actually design anything. The reason that Dilbert keeps reporting to the same company that treats him like dirt is that, in actual fact, Dilbert couldn't design his way out of a paper bag, even with the assistance of a candle, a razor blade, a lighter, and a boot filled with p:&& with instructions on how to empty it, written on the heel.
Half of all engineers are unable to produce a design that works. Another 40% can make something that works, but only by severely gold plating it. That is, they don't understand when things are needed and when they aren't, so they overbuild things. Most engineers who have worked too many years on non-commercial projects are gold platers at best. The best engineers are those who are so good, that in addition to designing a system that works, one that doesn't have a lot of unneeded garbage on it, they will also research several alternatives, and pick out the one that gives the best trade offs. The majority of engineers have barely enough skills to get a prototype running, much less design something that is cheap enough to compete at a world class level and be manufactured in high volume.
A substantial percentage of engineers end up doing something other than engineering. A lot of them end up in software, where their mistakes are more easily corrected, and their lack of imagination doesn't run up the cost of goods sold. Another group of lousy engineers end up in sales. But the worst engineers probably end up in management.
Generally speaking, if a guy tells you that he had any number greater than 10 people working for him, then you can be almost certain that he has no engineering skills, or that his skills are out of date.
But you can find real engineers if you know how to recognize them. Real engineers don't just know the rules of thumb, they know the theory behind the rules of thumb, and can figure out the consequences when those rules are violated. So they are not bound by the rules, nor completely freed from them. This is part of the beauty of real engineering.
Real engineers are not people oriented, and they can be a little rough in their human relations. They tend to be prima donnas, and they make at least $100,000 per year (in electronics), unless they are so fresh out of school that they haven't got any contacts yet. Typically, real engineers work as consultants, but not always, some of them work for the same company for decades. But they almost invariably avoid letting a company put them into management positions.
-- Carl
P.S. Try #reply-11393031 for a description of how real engineers live. (Warning, it isn't pretty.) |
