🚀 go-pugleaf

On 21-Dec-92 in Re: I don't want to keep lo..
user Ed Moore@vcd.hp.com writes:
>If we engineers must expect to have many jobs rather than a few,
>then perhaps we should pursue education in breadth rather than in depth.

Yah!  A little of this, a little of that.  It makes sense.

When I co-oped at GE (and then worked before coming to grad school) I was a
Finite Element structural and processing analyst.  (Wheee.)  When the company
I worked for folded, I obviously searched for another job.  Do you know that
the only position I was considered for, anywhere, was an analyst?  Are you
surprised?

I know several very talented engineers who are locked into FEA.  I know a
few, at GM especially, who've been doing the same COMPONENT for 5+ years!!
This is a phenomenal waste of a resources...that's why I went back to grad
school - in order to broaden my horizons.

Interdisciplinary studies (I share my office w/ 2 other Mech E's a Civ E,
a Chem E (I think, I never see him), and an Architecture student are highly
effective in sparking ideas.  The "cross-pollenization" that occurs is really
great!

We need more company managers (like Ed Moore's HP bosses) who recognize that
a well-trained and CROSS-TRAINED staff is far more useful than a whole room
full of specialists.



David Hunt - Graduate Slave |     My mind is my own.      | Towards both a
Mechanical Engineering      | So are my ideas & opinions. | Palestinian and
Carnegie Mellon University  | <<<Use Golden Rule v2.0>>>  | Jewish homeland!
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Email:  bluelobster+@cmu.edu    Working towards my "Piled Higher and Deeper"

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