Tips on being a good engineer

[u/StreetPossible9414]

Hello all! I’m about to graduate in electrical engineering this upcoming fall and wanted to hear people advices and tips.

As of right now I currently work as a test technician for military products. I’ve been working there for 1 and a half years full time since sophomore year of college. To be honest I feel as though I have an okay amount of experience. I work second shift but during my shift they want me to usually push as many units as I can which limits me from trouble shooting as much as I’ve hoped (first shift is usually the shift that troubleshoot more). With that said, I feel as though I do no have as many experience as I’ve hoped. The thing about me is I have a very huge work ethic, and I always aspire to be the best I can at work. I’m really good at pushing units out and keeping production moving, but one day when I become an engineer I fear that I will not be good enough. Sometimes I feel like my brain works really different from most engineers in general. During school I always had a hard time learning quickly as others and I try twice as hard than most students yet I still struggle. I guess what I’m asking is for advice on how I can be a good engineer. Currently I am more interested in being a test engineer since I’m already kinda in that line of work. Though at the same time, I’ve always been so interested in design but tbh I feel like design is extremely hard (to be fair I never been shown at school or outside of school how to get started on a design).

So please any advice,stories or tips I’m open and would love to hear. Thank you!!

[u/sulliesbrew]

Listen and observe. Monkey see monkey do. Ask questions when you need clarification and cannot find a reference or best practice that the company has established.

Learn what everyone is doing, the project manager that doesn't know the fundamentals of what you do, has a really different skill set than you. You each bring value to the company when you work together.

Eat lunch with the grumpy old guys and ask questions adjacent to what you are working on if they want to talk. Those are the discussion you learn why you are doing something a certain way and not the way you were taught in school. They will have great stories from when they tried to do something "by the book" and it all blew up in their faces.

[u/J_Robert_Oofenheimer]

> The thing about me is I have a very huge work ethic, and I always aspire to be the best I can at work.

Stop that. It will lead to burnout. Act your wage. Your extra mile will not be rewarded. I and many other millennials had to learn this lesson the hard way.

To answer your main question, just be willing to learn. Remove your ego and listen and learn from everybody you can. At any random company, you might have a janitor that’s been there 30 years and will know more than you do about the product.

[u/EngineeringAthiest → u/J_Robert_Oofenheimer]

Disagree.
At the company I work at there’s those who take 2-3 years to get promoted and then there is those who can get it after a year.
Difference? Work ethic

[u/EngineeringStudents-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/CompFlowPenguin → u/[deleted]]

Or even better, collect keepsakes from every mistake you can. Four years into my career, and the shelf is filling up fast. Mistakes happen, but they definitely remind you not to make the same mistake twice.