New grad / engineer who feels like he knows nothing!

[Mech_J]

Hi all,

I always hear about people coming right out of school, thinking they know everything and can do everything.

Sadly, I feel the exact opposite, and I didn't do poorly in school either. I graduated with a pretty high GPA (3.84 out of 4.00), passed the FE exam without even looking at the supplied reference handbook before hand and I even walked out of both morning and afternoon sessions about an hour early. I also had an internship for two years (full time summer, part-time semester) and did some research.

Anyways, I started my first job, been here about a month and a half and I honestly feel like I don't know anything and am not even sure I should be an engineer. I work at a company that does stuff like servos and actuators and they hired me on as an entry level mechanical engineer. The problem is, they ask me to do certain tasks and I honestly feel like a lot of it is way over my head and college did very little to prepare me for this.

The one guy tells me not too worry to much and that they know I am just out of school and don't expect much. I am just wondering how other people felt at their first job, if they had this feeling, how long it took before you felt like you had a good handle on what you were doing, and if you have any advice on easing this transition.

Also, how was the transition from not knowing anything to being an experienced professional engineer? Did you just do something to the best of your ability and then the more experienced guys ripped you apart and pointed out what you did wrong and you just kept doing this process over and over again until you were doing everything right? Or did you rely on a lot of standard specifications, like by ANSI or whatever, and read more advanced books / journals? Or some combination?

Sorry for the long post, but any advice is welcomed!

 

[YMZ PE]

It depends on the culture of the companies you work at as a young engineer. When I first started I felt very similar to how you feel now - overwhelmed, under-guided and putting a lot of pressure on myself. The first job I took, I was the only engineer on the team and was expected to magically know how to do hydrologic calculations without any guidance beyond my textbooks. It was such a terrible experience that after a few months I threatened to quit without having a backup plan.

My first job out of grad school, I put together a proposal, performed an investigation, and wrote a recommendation report within my first month with no guidance either. I was exhausted, and resented it later when I saw how little responsibility was placed on the new hires that came after me. But I came to realize that the manager I worked for had a sink-or-swim mentality. He'd figure out how far he could push you, then step back if he found you couldn't handle the pressure. I guess I should feel honored he believed in me enough to put me through the ringer on so many occasions. That could be what your company is doing with you now: testing you.

My current job is one that I had no experience in - construction management. But after five years' work experience in other fields, I feel very comfortable in my ability to learn new things, and I've been a stellar performer at my new job since my first week. While the standard practices have changed, the skills I've gained in logical reasoning, research, and most importantly WRITING, have prepared me for pretty much anything my career can throw at me. I can't stress enough how important it is to be a good writer. I sincerely believe if you can write well and know how to defend an argument, you'll succeed in any career.

My take: work as hard as you can at the things you struggle with, try to fine-tune the skills you have, and never lose your humility. It'll pay off after a few years. It doesn't hurt to switch companies every few years either while you're young - it might be one of the only ways you'll experience affirmation. A lot of engineering managers aren't great at expressing appreciation for how their staff have improved until after they've left.

 

[Supe]

Be glad - you are aware now that coming out of college, you don't know shit. It's the ones that think they already know everything that will have the problematic path forward, not you.

Fresh college grads aren't expected to know anything yet, and one month is nowhere near enough time to even remotely evaluate your current position. Keep your ears open, ask lots of questions, and give it a year or so before you reevaluate.

 

[kevo_55]

My company expects to start turning a profit on new hires after about 1 year of employment.

Since I do billing every month, I see it every time I need to write of 20 hours on a job that is worth only 5.

I would be glad that you understand that you don't know everything. Maybe just trying to learn as much as you can and put a good amount of effort into your work is the way to go.

 

[Peele1]

Engineering schools teaches you how to learn. You will only use 10% of the actual material that you learned in college on a job. In a professional/engineering setting, organizations (should) hire people who fit into the organizational culture, who have the potential to learn what is needed.

Where I work, probation period is 6 months - it can take a few months to really find out if a person is going to make it or not.

Some places are very keen on using and quoting standards and references specifically, other people resent it when they say that "the distance between thing A and thing B must be 9 feet", though the ANSI/NFPA standard is actually 8', and you tell them so...

When you do something wrong, ask why, ask for feedback, ask for help. Ask your boss how you can help them meet the goals that their boss as set for them. Ask how you can get a gold star, and how you can ask the boss how you can help them get a gold star.

 

[knight1fox3]

Engineering schools teaches you how to learn. You will only use 10% of the actual material that you learned in college on a job. In a professional/engineering setting, organizations (should) hire people who fit into the organizational culture, who have the potential to learn what is needed.

Some places are very keen on using and quoting standards and references specifically, other people resent it when they say that "the distance between thing A and thing B must be 9 feet", though the ANSI/NFPA standard is actually 8', and you tell them so...

THIS! Basically getting an engineering degree demonstrates that you have what it takes for a fast-paced and highly technical learning environment. You won't use absolutely everything you learned in school (save for a few main core classes). A lot of what is done in a classroom is mostly theoretical as opposed to practical application. But as YMZ also stated, your college experience should have given you vast capabilities in logical reasoning, research, and technical writing (remember all those lab reports?) by engaging these theoretical concepts. The school I went to did well in all those areas. They also emphasized the importance of technical writing skills. Some of the individuals I work with have horrendous writing skills that simply amazes me some times. I agree with what others have said, keep your eyes and ears open. Learn their processes and procedures and always ask questions when unsure about something. Eventually you will get in the groove of things and will be given more difficult tasks where you will really be able to apply the focuses of your education. Not to mention you are gaining invaluable engineering experience.

 

[solomonb]

MechJ-- You are doing just fine! We don't expect you to be a Rocket Scientist the first year, year and half that you are with us. We do expect you to be able to ask pointed, probing questions, asking WHY every time that you don't understand and HOW the answer is relative to the matter at hand. You are doing just fine-- don't panic on this--- you are a smart guy-- there is some correlatiion between GPA and job performance. Whatever task you are assigned, make sure that you understand the assignment, ask WHY and HOW several times after you begin and then go for it. You may come up with an answer that nobody thought of, and your reasoning was very rich and robust.

Remember, everyone else at the firm was at this point sometime in their career as well. They may not be willing to admit it, but they were. Start a half an hour earlier than the others, stay a half an hour later than the others and put your shoulder to the wheel-- you will do just fine. DO NOT put a lot of artificial pressure on yourself-- you are doing just fine.

 

[Boomer01 PE]

Like others have said, school is just a way to fine tune your skills and weed out people. Most, if not all, of you skill set will come with on-the-job-training.

 

[Jonhnny123]

I agree with everyone else. It's perfectly normal to feel like you don't know anything when you start your first job. I had to have my hand held for every step of the first project I worked on. Several years later, I'm one of the experienced engineers showing the new guys what to do. The key is absorb as much as you can. And the fact that you're aware of this and not cocky, is a great sign. You'll be OK.

Another thing mentioned a few times was technical writing. Think of it this way - how you write your reports/spec/design changes/etc is how you'll be judged by many people. If you're able to write clearly and concisely, while still being technical (when necessary), you will be held in a higher regard than those who can't.

If technical writing is a weakness, you can at least start to improve that immediately. The engineering ability will come with experience.

 

[Jaylaw_PE]

Even if you understand basic engineering, every company operates so differently it will take you 6 months to feel comfortable every time you switch jobs.

My experience when i graduated in 2004 was that i was SCARED to ask questions because i didn't want people to think i was stupid. The result was that i never learned what they were talking about and ended up looking stupid after working there for 3 years, which is a lot worse than looking stupid after a month or a year.

Basically what im saying is ASK QUESTIONS, if you get a funny look at least you will get an answer. and if someone thinks it was stupid, who cares. you arent going to spend your whole career there and people probably won't remember anyway

 

[Mech_J]

Thanks a lot for all the advice guys.

My engineering coursework was very writing intensive. We had two technical communication classes and I wrote a lot of design reports and lab reports, we also did a fair amount of presentations for our capstone senior design course. I honestly didn't know engineering courses required as much writing as they made us do, but I suppose it was a good thing after reading your replies.

I will be sure to keep my ears open and I always ask questions because like I said I feel like I don't know anything and I want to learn.

Your replies helped me feel a lot better about where I am at and what I am doing. Thank you all.

 

[guitarjamman]

I have been working for about 3 years now at the same company and it took about half that time to truly feel comfortable in my shoes. The first few months were very interesting to say the least - I graduated with this preconception that I would rock the engineering world, throw your problem at me and I will solve it; turns out there really are too many cut and dry problems out there. It is never a "apply this equation and viola, there is your answer. A+ for you" atmosphere out there....took me a while to accept that I knew squat - and a little piece of advice, no one like a know-it-all.

The only bit of advice I could give you is just what everyone else said, ask questions! If you're not asking questions, they either think you are bored or worse yet, not working. But the key to bombarding people with questions is never ask the same question twice - a sure way to get people annoyed. I will hold you hand a thousand times, but be sure to listen when I tell you something and take notes.

 

[inktomei]

I've been out of school for 4.5 years and I remember fondly what it was like that first year. I felt like an idiot most of the time (I graduated with a 3.8 so I had no trouble in school) and I wondered why things were never cut and dry in real world projects. My mentor never held my hands but showed me just enough to stress me out. I pretty much learned that when you don't know something, don't be afraid to ask questions but PAY ATTENTION TO THE ANSWER.

Just hang in there and enjoy the learning experience.

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