20 years of engineering

[McEngr]

Congrats Dleg!

I wish I could have a long standing "good fit" job resume like yours... I've really tried not to be the victum of this economy.

1st job: Mtl bldg company 3 yrs 8 months. OKC, OK [laid off] (3.67)

2nd job: Mtl bldg company 1 yrs 11 months. OKC, OK [left to move near my wife's family in Oregon] (1.92)

3rd job: Mtl bldg company 1 yrs 8 months. Port, OR [very bad management, left for consulting firm] (1.67)

4th job: Civil/Structural/Survey firm. 2 yrs Port, OR [laid off and bankrupt firm] (2)

5th job: Started own engr firm on the side while working for modular bldg manufacturer. 1 yrs Salem, OR (1)

I'm hoping that any future employer will not hesitate as long as I explain my circumstances. It's been very turbulent for me since moving to Oregon.

 

[DVINNY]

Dleg,

that is cool, you're not old. Happy 20th!

In the spirits of where the thread has gone:

13 years so far (1997 graduated)

1st Job: COAL Company, Industrial Engineer, ended up being Underground "section boss" fill-in, "Fire Boss", 1 year, 10 months.

2nd Job: Civil Eng. Consulting Firm, Design Engineer, -> Project Engineer, 5 years 3 months

3rd Job: Civil Eng. Consulting Firm, Project Engineer, -> Project Manager, 5 years 8 months

4th Job: CURRENT, Gas Transmission Company, Project Engineer/Manager, 5 months so far...

 

[Ble_PE]

As for my work history:

1st company: Precast bridge company, Structural engineer, 8 months

2nd company: Consulting structural engineering company, Structural engineer, 1 yr 2 months

Current company: Large EPC company, Structural engineer, 3 years 7 months & counting...

 

[snickerd3]

wow, there are a lot of career moves around here. I've been right here at the same place since graduation. Just moved up the ranks from Eng I to Eng III over the years.

 

[Old as Dirt Geo]

OMG I really am old as dirt, I've been an engineer for 27 years (11/1983) working for both construction companies and engineering firms.

 

[willsee]

OMG I really am old as dirt, I've been an engineer for 27 years (11/1983) working for both construction companies and engineering firms.

I was born 11/1983

 

[frazil]

^ ouch! :lmao:

 

[Dleg]

LOL! We hired a junior engineer recently who had graduated from MIT, and he was born while I was starting engineering school.

Actually, this is very interesting to see people's career moves. Probably should change the title to encourage more participation.

To put mine back in the format others are using:

1st job: Oil well service company (wireline logging/services): 4 years, 4 months

--- 3 months "vacation" ----

2nd job: A&E firm (construction management/civil design, seaport): 2 years, 11 months

3rd job: "State" government (environmental regulator): 12 years, 5 months, and counting

4th job: soon, I hope!

As far as the question goes of how a lot of moves look on a resume, I have a few thoughts. One, I think it always looks good to have stayed in most jobs for substantial periods of time (say, 3 years). Second, if you move around a lot in your first 5-6 years, I don't think it looks bad. Also, it never looks bad if you had to leave because a firm shut down or laid you off due to the economy.

About the only time I would start to really question a lot of moves would be when it seems like a long-term pattern, like say over a 10 year span, you've worked for 6-10 employers. That can raise a red flag - as in, it must be the employee, not the employer. (I know someone like that here and that person has developed a bad reputation for just that.) I suppose there are reasons for everything and I am not saying that is always the case, but the burden would definitely be on you to explain it, and your resume would probably get thrown in the discard pile more often than not.

Lastly, I think there is a lot of value in an engineer who moves around "some" during his/her career. Sure, someone who specializes in one thing over a long career will be irreplaceable, but then again, they won't be able to do anything else, really. Someone who moves around more often will have proven the ability to take new things on and master new skills, and I think that is important to a lot of employers.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

About the only time I would start to really question a lot of moves would be when it seems like a long-term pattern, say over a 10 year span, you've worked for 6-10 employers.

When I was at the A/E firm, a guy got fired "for cause." Shortly thereafter, he added me to his contacts on LinkedIn. I was bored, and started perusing his work history. He had 12 jobs in the last 10 years, and I know exactly why. This guy's personality was grating, he was slow at his work, and the product he produced was substandard. So basically, his work sucked, but he was slow and annoying to make up for it. He actually requested that I write him a recommendation for the short time we worked together on his LinkedIn profile. I ignored his request.

My work history:

1st Job: Conveyor OEM controls engineer: 2 years, 2 months (including two 3 month internships while in school)

2nd Job: Material handling equipment controls engineer and PM: 3 months

3rd Job: Conveyor OEM controls engineer: 4 years

4th Job: Electrical engineer at A/E firm: 1 year, 2 months

5th Job: Forensic Engineer: 6 months (current)

I was laid off from the first 2 jobs and quit the next 2.

 

[Flyer_PE]

To update mine:

1st Job was working directly for the nuclear utility. 8 years total, the first 5 in engineering, the last 3 running Electrical Maintenance crews.

2nd Job A/E firm doing electrical analysis and design for nuclear facilities. 6 years total under three different company names.

3rd Job A/E company doing electrical analysis and design for nuclear and fossil facilities. 6 years and counting.

I would agree that the only time changing jobs becomes a problem is if you have more than 5 or 6 employers in a ten-year time frame. That will vary with industry conditions though. I lost track of how many different telecommunications companies my dad worked for in the early 80's. When they broke up "Ma Bell" and de-regulated, the long distance and other companies sprung up like weeds. A couple of years later, they were disappearing almost as fast. Seemed like he would go to work for one of them and within a couple of months, they had him traveling around shutting down the sites.

 

[chaosiscash]

1st job: Working directly for a DOE prime contractor in the nuclear industry, 3yrs

2nd job: A/E / Glorified jobshop specializing in DOE/DOD work, couple of short stints at different sites, 4 years

3rd job: Small consultant company, place onsite basically doing the same job as Job #1, Just over a year, contract should be good through Sept, and after that, who knows.

People move around a lot in my industry (we coined the term roadwhore), so I think a lot of folks don't mind seeing a lot of jobs on a resume. The other half of that is, we trade on our reputations/qualifications, and its a small world, so if a person is a problem employee, their reputation generally precedes them.

 

[bigray76]

Well...

1st job: 12 years 6 months - construction primarily doing cost estimating, but stints in purchasing and field cost control... currently in charge of over $500M in preconstruction efforts; brought in over $300M in hard money lump sum work in my career as well.... annual volume in work across my desk that I am responsible for = $1.2B.

2nd job.... we'll see what the new year brings...

 

[gt2004]

6 years for me this month.

My first position was a system engineer/cause analyst at a nuclear power plant. I was there for 5 years.

I started working for the power transmission group as an operator this year.