View Full Version : Why engineers suck
They make more work for me. Needless, pointless work that serves no purpose than to give them more numbers to play with. If these numbers actually meant something or had a baring on what was going on it would be a different story.
Case in point, shale is BAD for concrete. It creates pop outs and weak spots. I do a test which checks for shale in every production sample I take. If it fails I stop production immediately. Then I inspect the stock pile, and if it needs to be done I have the pile rejected, or I have the offending material removed. I don't ever bother running a shale test on samples taken of shipped material, because if it passed the production sample it will pass the shipping sample. If it failed the production I removed the problem and it will pass the shipping sample too.
I should also mention that while there is a spec on the acceptable leval of shale but the test is pass/fail. There is no wiggle room it's either good or it's bad.
I have had this engineer with a customer for the past year who has been asking for shale results on ALL samples. I have told her numerous times I don't do that test on shipping samples. And when I send my monthly report to her I include a note stating that all the production samples passed and if they didn't what actions I took to correct the issue. This is no longer acceptable. I just got a call from my salesman saying she was on the warpath again and someone who no longer even works for the company told her we would be doing shale checks on all samples collected.
So now I need to do a test that doesn't need to be done, to provide numbers that serve no purpose. I ing hate engineers.
Charge for extra labor, supplies, and and time, and a inconvenience surcharge as it could possibly slow down construction?
Charge for extra labor, supplies, and and time, and a inconvenience surcharge as it could possibly slow down construction?
Doesn't work that way. They're a customer and even if we could charge for such stuff it's a buyers market right now so basically what the customer wants the customer gets, because there's another quarry out there willing to bend over backwards for the priveledge of getting ed in the ass.
Lenilya
05-08-08, 04:35 PM
Sentry goin' up!
They make maps impossible to win. I hate it when a quarter or more of each damn team is made up of them making it nearly impossible to breach and the game just ends in a stalemate. Especially on maps with retarded choke points like section three of Dustbowl, the first capture point on that one is retarded since spies can't even get past them since there's no long way around them and people clog up the only way through it and a sentry almost always blocks the stairs.
Well lilum we agree about something, it is a spoken rule in my industry that techs hate engineers and engineers hate techs, but chief engineers like techs because they do things there engineers will not do.
I hate electrical and mechanical engineers the most,
Dr Mr engineer,
I know you are very proud of this unit you designed, it is awesome that instead of fixing the technology that makes a unit inefficent you decide hey lets make put twice as much copper in it and make it twice the size and call it good, and though like myself hope that nothing that I create and work on never dies and needs to be replaced, I do know that it'll happen so why put electrical parts so bloody inaccesable? Really i need to remove the entire top panel to get a relay out and remove another relay in the proccess? I feel that its a big eff you to me the person that has to repair your stuff since its not as good as you thought it was.
Thank you in advance for not listening to me,
deuce
Ngreth Thergn
05-09-08, 09:38 AM
And to think...
I took the Electrical Engineering Major path in college (never finished)
I could be hated just as much as I am now in that job!
Is this where I bitch about the guy who put the RAM under the drive cable in the first PC design 30 years ago and the innumerable jackasses that have followed suit in the intervening years?
I mean really? under the cabling? that was the best you could do?
Funny thing is yesterday afternoon when I entered the days data, I forgot to record the percent shale in my samples. I should probably go back and do that.
Raerchek
05-09-08, 11:05 AM
Having just finished my first year of school toward a Civil degree I apologize :( Having been out in the real world working for nearly 20 years before going back to school, one of my major goals is to not get lost in the academic nonsense and just produce stuff that works well for everybody. I know I hated meaningless reports and rediculous design placement so hopefully I can remember that.
And to think...
I took the Electrical Engineering Major path in college (never finished)
I could be hated just as much as I am now in that job!
No sir I hate sony employees more then engineers, unless your a sony engineer.
Love always,
Velvetrose
05-09-08, 07:03 PM
SO...if one were to want to go to college to BECOME an engineer...what type of engineering would be best?
<VR's 16 yr old son wants to be an engineer...hes planning on going to Georgia Tech>>
Most diverse? Mechanical... then again I was told by the head of the engineering society back home that if Mechanical ever got too tough for me, to go civil.
Better be damn sure he likes math and physics, otherwise he will fail. Not just likes, unnaturally loves math and physics. Gets a sick joy out of deriving the kinematic equations using calculus.
Georgia Tech isn't exactly a cheap/easy school either... Best of luck with that.
I think chemical engineers top the salary surveys, but I took a materials course as an elective and have no idea how anybody could stand it. I loved my computer engineering courses to death, though, robots are just plain fun. I defy anyone to say otherwise.
(These days my business cards say software engineer, but nobody considers that the real thing. It's shale all the way down.)
Raerchek
05-09-08, 09:45 PM
Civil is probably the least intense, but very broad. (roads, bridges, dams, buildings, earthworks, water and sewer, etc., etc.) Mechanical is pretty much anything expected to move on a regular basis. A bit more focused, but the mathematics of motion are more complex. Electrical is.. well... kinda like magic. nobody really understands what they're talking about.
Anyone looking into schooling should be aware that the math starts at Calculus your Freshman year and goes up. Expect to start with General, Calculus based Physics and then move up into applications of Physics (statics, dynamics, mechanics) and more intense fields like thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, material properties and electrical principals. The last couple of years are very focused and use everything that has come before. Foundations, Steel Design, Concrete Design and so forth.
On top of that, there's a lot of time spent on Engineering tools like Auto CAD, Excel, SAP 2000, Working Model and other software suites. And, Engineers are expected to be cost controllers so budget, statistics, management probability, etc., etc. Scared yet? :) Expect to spend a bare minimum of five years chasing this degree.
Velvetrose
05-10-08, 09:39 AM
Most diverse? Mechanical... then again I was told by the head of the engineering society back home that if Mechanical ever got too tough for me, to go civil.
Better be damn sure he likes math and physics, otherwise he will fail. Not just likes, unnaturally loves math and physics. Gets a sick joy out of deriving the kinematic equations using calculus.
Georgia Tech isn't exactly a cheap/easy school either... Best of luck with that.
I am not really sure whos kid he is 'cause I still count on my fingers...He LOVES math.
He's not like a genius or anything but he's taking advanced math classes...he is in honors pre-calc now.
Fortunately GA has the Hope Scholarship, it pays 100% in state tuition if you have and keep a B average.
Case in point on why you can't really count on that all the time...
Solid Mechanics: Test Average 1 - 45, Test Average 2 - 55, Test Average 3 - 40. We were all praying for a wicked curve, I skirted out with a C when I was slightly above average.
Studied my ass off for that too, it was just a bad, bad class. B average in engineering is something you pray for.
I am not really sure whos kid he is 'cause I still count on my fingers...He LOVES math.
He's not like a genius or anything but he's taking advanced math classes...he is in honors pre-calc now.
Fortunately GA has the Hope Scholarship, it pays 100% in state tuition if you have and keep a B average.
Be careful about the Hope Scholarship - You DO have to pay what they give you back on the following years taxes, or at least I did. Consider it a student loan of sorts.
Kehvrynne
05-12-08, 08:55 AM
And to think...
I took the Electrical Engineering Major path in college (never finished)
I could be hated just as much as I am now in that job!
/waves at the House Ogre
Give my regards to Denmom!
As for engineers...
feh. I've long held the belief that they should be forced to actually work in the field on the devices they design.
Ngreth Thergn
05-12-08, 10:50 AM
Case in point on why you can't really count on that all the time...
Solid Mechanics: Test Average 1 - 45, Test Average 2 - 55, Test Average 3 - 40. We were all praying for a wicked curve, I skirted out with a C when I was slightly above average.
Studied my ass off for that too, it was just a bad, bad class. B average in engineering is something you pray for.
My favorite college class in engineering directly was called "Statics" which was the physics and mathematics of non-moving objects.
The teacher was a medical doctor!
My reason was probably the teacher and the excellent way he taught the class. You were expected to do the reading. The only time he opened the book in class was the first day to show it to us. After that every class that was not a test day was filled with examples to help you understand what you had read in the book between classes. I learned the most of any class I ever took.
My least favorite... economics... because the teacher had is buy our "book:" from kinko's. This book ended up being the transparencies that he read to us every day. Not a single thing outside those transparencies was ever spoken during class. And he added attendance to the grade... so I could not just skip the class and read what he read to us every day on my own.
Caowyth
05-12-08, 11:17 AM
Whoever designed my Apple iBook needs to be shot too.
I have to take the whole damned thing apart to replace the hard drive. Fantastic. And it's not like they made it easy for their own people by some magical method. No no no, they decided to put it at the worst possible place for everyone.
Your statement Caowyth made me remember anothe one of my most hated engineer phrases. "Our computer models show us..." When I was building tooling I heard that phrase enough to want to stab them in their eyes with their own Eversharp pencils. Because the tool they designed was never able to be constructed in a way to create the part they were designing.
Sales people suck. Are the test results for the engineer or going to him for the sales person?
As long as my tests are good and the customers aren't complaining my sales person could care less what the numbers are. It's the engineer that thinks she needs numbers for a pass/fail test.
Sales people suck. Are the test results for the engineer or going to him for the sales person?
I have a salesman that gave himself the title of sales engineer, talk about worst of two worlds!
Instead of just lying to you like a salesman, they BS you with more complicated numbers.
Loreleli
05-13-08, 05:28 AM
Be careful about the Hope Scholarship - You DO have to pay what they give you back on the following years taxes, or at least I did. Consider it a student loan of sorts.
Really?
I had the Hope Grant and it was tax free. It was not treated as income.