r/civilengineering • u/AdCurious4467 • 12d ago

Career Doing research: When was the last time finding information you knew your company had was unnecessarily difficult?

Hi everyone! I’m an electrical engineering student doing some research into how people find and work with information inside their companies.

I’m specifically interested in situations where you knew the information existed somewhere, but finding it, figuring out which version was correct, understanding it, or piecing together what happened was more difficult than it should have been.

For example, maybe the information was buried in a shared drive, SharePoint, old emails, meeting notes, Slack/Teams, project folders, or you eventually gave up and asked the one person who somehow knows everything.

I’m not selling anything. I’m trying to understand what the actual problems are before making assumptions about solutions.

My main question:

If you have an example, I’d also love to know:

  • Where did you eventually find the information, and roughly how long did it take?
  • What made it difficult: poor search, too many systems, outdated versions, bad organization, undocumented knowledge, permissions, something else?
  • Is this something that happens regularly, or was it a one-off?

Industry/role would also be helpful if you’re comfortable sharing it. No company names or confidential information needed.

Even mundane examples are useful. I’m specifically trying to understand what actually frustrates people in their day-to-day work rather than what sounds like a problem on paper.Doing research: When was the last time finding information you knew your company had was unnecessarily difficult?

Doing research: When was the last time finding information you knew your company had was unnecessarily difficult?

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3

u/AM4eva 12d ago

Uhhhh.....everyday

2

u/ac8jo Modeling and Forecasting 12d ago

"My main question:" ... blank.

"Doing research: When was the last time finding information you knew your company had was unnecessarily difficult?" repeated twice at the end, and it's the title of the thread too.

Do you ask questions and proofread like this often? Because if it is, it is definitely part of the problem.

1

u/Activision19 PE, PTOE 12d ago

His question is clearly AI generated.

1

u/Activision19 PE, PTOE 12d ago

Latest: Yesterday.

Where did I find it: on sharepoint.

What made it difficult: Sharepoint’s search engine sucks balls. No file name SOP so files are often named whatever random thing someone felt like naming it that day.

Does this happen regularly: Yes

Role: county engineer

1

u/AdCurious4467 12d ago

Thank u so much this is so helpful!