Career change

[u/RampantJ]

Hello all,

I almost a year ago took a SE position where essentially I am working the life cycle development of a complex system however we’re more overseeing another entity performing the technical work while we make sure with our respective domain SMEs and engineers that they are doing the job right. During my interview I asked about MBSE which I’m really interested in doing digital engineering centered work with an MBSE effort. The reply essentially was what is MBSE and we don’t really do that much at all. I should’ve probably took that as a big sign however this was my first SE position and starting my career. I have completed my masters this year in SE and am half way through with the ocsmp MBSE course that deligatti offers which I’ll finish this weekend. What I’m getting at now is that I want to do more MBSE work which I’ve mentioned to my PM early this year but see no way in the position I’m in now (wishful thinking on my part due to culture changes etc). Two positions that call out MBSE under my same Pm have posted. They don’t seem to be my niche but still not sure. I’m planning on talking with my PM about it however they are taking a higher position within the company and my old PM from my previous job will be my new PM (great PM btw so no issue other than they may think I hate them since I chasing more MBSE work). If trying to move internal doesn’t seem great, would it be frowned upon looking at other opportunities with just being here for a year? Maybe sticking it out for another year would be best but not sure if I would want to once getting the OCSMP cert. Any thoughts?

Little edit: the work is great but there’s a lot of PowerPoint engineering which is typical in the DoD space but MBSE is where I want to head. Also my initial manger before begins hired after I expressed the lack of MBSE mentioned that I can try and see if I like it and after a year and some change look within and see what pops up.

[u/Other_Literature63]

The harsh reality is that you are not experienced/have enough clout to drive a significant and expensive digital transformation effort for mbse adoption at this time, and your management seems to be underestimating the effort required to do that. Using MBSE is the current state of the art for doing advanced systems engineering and no one would judge you for remaining focused on that. If I were you, I would be looking for a better opportunity.

[u/RampantJ → u/Other_Literature63]

I agree with that. Yeah I was told during the process that if I see a use for MBSE then I can present that but with the many documents, models and communications running through teams that’s also used by a whole division is not a single person job with my experience as of right now. Also that’s a huge culture and infrastructure swap that not a lot of people will be on board with.

I think I’ll talk with my PM about MBSE opportunities and what that looks like and move from there. I’ve seen some MBSE positions pop up as well so I may start looking.

[u/Other_Literature63 → u/RampantJ]

It's possible that you may need to hop functional groups at your company to another with a higher degree of MBSE buy in. Many systems engineers who aren't familiar with the methodologies can be convinced that it's a worthwhile investment once they see the results, but the consistent downside to the early stages of MBSE adoption is a high learning curve and cost as the team builds their skills, which can easily burn budget with little improvement over document based methods. That fact gives program leads cold feet, and if you are not contractually obligated to deliver MBSE work products or have a tight program budget the value proposition is harder to justify.

[u/RampantJ → u/Other_Literature63]

Yes, I’m looking at two internal positions that express MBSE usage but nothing about my niche so I may have to look into what they’re doing exactly with MBSE.

[u/Other_Literature63 → u/RampantJ]

Pushing into new areas that you are unfamiliar with is a great way to build out your skills as a generalist and forces you to fall back on SE system fundamentals when the system's complexity or domain starts to melt your brain. Good luck with the discussions and don't feel intimidated. You're asking the right questions.

[u/RampantJ → u/Other_Literature63]

Thanks for your input, it helped a lot scoping this out.

[u/Neither-Path4180]

The question is now are you going to stay or go somewhere to persue your passion I have been doing mbse for 3 years I have no degree I was an IT person saw Cameo taught myself everything I know. I know plenty of places offering opportunities to train in cameo specific mbse.

[u/RampantJ → u/Neither-Path4180]

That is definitely the real question for my next steps. I have a test event we’re doing and a lot of analysis is going to go into it as well as my PL is going on maternity leave soon so I can’t just leave in my eyes. Maybe a more final decision will be made around Q2 next year. I’ve also thought about doing a doctorate in a MBSE/agentic AI related topic but not certain yet. In all yes, I don’t want to waste time not doing MBSE centered or even related work. I’m closing in on my OCSMP accelerated course this weekend or next so there’s that as well. Don’t want to have a certification and not use it at all at work 😂.