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      02-20-2013, 08:42 AM   #34
shah269
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Same here....I have a few patents as well...though I can't talk about mine. I work for the defense industry so we are very limited to what we can and can't talk about. But yes..no joke...I would give 100 of what I have for 1 of you!
A guy or gal who knows how a machine shop works! What can and can't be done in the real world?

I have kids....like i said 45yo guys who still live at home with mom and where mom makes them lunches....who design in the virtual world and then look at me and act all confused when I say "Ok now stop watching Star Trek...how the hell can we make that chamfer or that part?" Or my personal favorite…”So….titanium….that grows on trees I hear? Can we maybe use something a little less spendy? And does not take an act of god to weld?”

I know they mean well….and they really do…but they all have masters in engineering and well all they know is the math and the design and have very little (god I hate saying this) “real world” experience. But I guess that’s what keeps me employed….I’m the “Engineer to Human Translator”.

And I can live with that…that I can live with…because these guys as much as they drive me nuts at times with thinking of a thousand reasons why a project can’t get off the ground Vs. the 1 technical reason why it will…nothing infuriates me more than the, and please forgive me here I don’t mean to sound rude, female engineering managers.

Because of federal regulations you need a given number of women in a given number of slots. Ok I understand that. But can we please have competent women in these slots? What did my friend in HR tell me a few months back? “Have vagina? Will promote!” WTF! That’s a job that someone with skill and tact and understanding should have! So on one hand I have engineers who are afraid of taking risks and on the other I have a number of female managers who are technically lost.

Oh the stories I could tell you….and god I wish I could…..but can’t due to the sensitivity of my job but well one of the best was when a female Project Manager when looking at a 155mm battery (those are big cannons boys) “So after each shot they have to lower the tube and shove a new bullet in from the front? Doesn’t that take time?”…here is a woman…a project manger…..of 10 years of which she had spent 2 of them on of all things….155mm artillery…asking me if a cannon is loaded like a musket. And I wouldn’t feel bad if she wasn’t paid just under $200k and had a 50 person team under her. All I can say is that thank god we were in DC, there were some cute Booth Girls from South Africa and I had a nice glass of bourbon in my hand…because if I had thought about that statement too long my head would have exploded.

Maybe I’ve been doing this too long….12 years is just too long…it’s time for a career change I think…I’m getting a bit…jaded…which is never very good.
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