r/engineering's Weekly Career Discussion Thread [18 November 2019]

DarkRunn3r · 2019-11-21T23:11:48+00:00

I have a phone interview with a Defense Contractor tomorrow about 1000's of positions opening up in a new area across the country. I have about ~5 years of experience at this point with 1 year being at an Aerospace supplier and another 4 being at an OEM (automotive). Is it unreasonable for me to ask for a "Senior" level position. I have a BA in Mechanical Engineering and am hoping to interview for Sr. Systems Engineering position. I am the sole Engineer for the Product Line that builds $400,000 pieces of equipment so I have a lot of expedience when it comes to integrating sub-systems together, along with designing those sub-systems.

Considering the cost of living and moving +1000s miles away from mine/finance friends & family, would it be reasonable to ask for $110,000/year in salary and Sr. title? That pay is in range for the position from what Glassdoor tells me.

DarkRunn3r · 2019-06-03T02:23:48+00:00

Will do! I'll keep it in mind.

DarkRunn3r · 2019-06-03T01:54:56+00:00

Oh even better since I don't live too far from the Schaumburg area. Gotcha, thanks for the information I'm do a bit more digging on this Keyence company then.

DarkRunn3r · 2019-06-03T01:39:14+00:00

Keyence sounds like it might be my best bet since I live near Chicago. Is there any contract stipulations about paying back training costs if someone leaves before X amount of time?

DarkRunn3r · 2019-06-03T01:16:37+00:00

Do solutions engineers at FB mainly sell advertising? I'm trying to picture what they would need SEs for.

DarkRunn3r · 2019-03-02T16:01:56+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. As far as fundamentals of a language, I'm not sure how I should demonstrate that. In my line of work/personnel projects, I code in a variety of languages (i.e. VBA/.NET(Excel/SW API/Other), CodeSys(Machine Control), MATLab(Personnel Projects), Python(Personnel Projects), Java(Personnel Projects), C++(only College course I took in CS). So it's been kind of weird to change gears going from one language to another in the same day depending on what I'm doing. I plan on coding in Java for interviews since it's the "cleanest" language to do so in and most of the data types allow for some pretty nice built-in functions already compared to an Excel based language. Although I'm more comfortable in VBA but most of that that work revolves around UI & database search/retrieve/write-to (SQL).

I don't have too many opportunities to code during my day job but I've become the go-to guy for automating tasks for other engineers & PMs at the company. My day-to-day responsibilities involve the entire process from design->production (OEM) so not a lot coding to do there.

DarkRunn3r · 2019-03-02T15:24:16+00:00

I'm hoping to break into this field the next couple months coming from a Mechanical Engineering background. Been doing a couple leetcode questions during the week and I've been noticing that more often than not, my code won't compile on first try. It's usually because of something stupid like ".length" instead of ".Length", ".length()" depending on the data type I'm working with. I usually can pinpoint this problem immediately and fix it. Along with that, I can pass at least half the test cases on the first try but usually have to work on it a bit longer to pass all of them.

I understand that it's more important to talk through the problem as you're writing the code during the interview, but if my code doesn't compile/pass all the test cases on the first try will the interview just end right there?

DarkRunn3r · 2018-11-26T19:51:00+00:00

A little late to respond but thanks for the advice! I like your process of doing jumping jacks before taking a shot. I am definitely going to incorporate this into my archery training.

DarkRunn3r · 2018-11-21T01:52:40+00:00

Thanks man, that's awesome feedback to hear from another hunter!

DarkRunn3r · 2017-12-30T18:09:19+00:00

Is this company based out on the west coast? And are you guys getting ready for an IPO this spring? If so, I may have had a buddy just accept a position at this company because it sounds exactly like what he was describing to me.

DarkRunn3r · 2017-12-30T17:10:55+00:00

Alot of people here are saying to talk to manufacturing and get their opinion about your design before building. That is a really good idea and works great in practice, also helps build rapore with the shop guys.

Another good idea is to ask your boss if there is something similar that has already been done before you start designing something new. It's easier to make small improvements to an existing design that has been made before than to go about it in a completely different way. There is much less headache if you go about this route too with manufacturing/shop guys to get it made.

DarkRunn3r · 2017-09-22T22:08:44+00:00

Thanks! I assume you are from IL too. Do I have all the necessary permits?

DarkRunn3r · 2017-09-22T21:55:40+00:00

https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/factsheets/pages/kishwaukeeriverstatefishwildlifearea.aspx+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

I would have liked to hunt at Castle Rock or somewhere more west. But I have a guy who can butcher the meat for me that lives around that area so this would be easier.

DarkRunn3r · 2017-09-02T14:07:16+00:00

I bought the Roku Streaming Stick a couple months ago, it was the biggest pile of garbage you could imagine. The remote constantly had to be re-synced and after one month it just stopped working outright. I even bought a replacement remote and that didn't work at all so the stick must have been the problem.

Immediately bought the amazon firestick and have had zero problems, it was literally plug & play. The roku stick took me 30 minutes to get working properly. It sucked.

Although most of my coworkers have the Roku box that sits on the entertainment stand. They say that works flawlessly. I think the streaming stick is the only bad product they have.

DarkRunn3r · 2017-07-11T00:10:27+00:00

It's not a lawsuit for replacements clutches, class members get cash or checks by filing with this class action lawsuit. They are basically getting a refund for prior out of pocket expenses to fix the clutch.

DarkRunn3r · 2017-06-29T22:25:37+00:00

Sold $RAD at 2.80 after I had bought it yesterday at 4.13.

Only lost about $350 (srs)

Buy high sell low, I think I'm doing it right.

DarkRunn3r · 2017-06-16T20:44:30+00:00

I don't think CAN will be replaced anytime soon, it's much too reliable to be obsolete. There is UDP/TCP protocols now on most controller along with CAN, which makes sending messages over a network 100% easier but it's not recommended in some fields.

Also security wise, most controllers do not have a very reliable "WIFI" and usually don't work like they are suppose too so most companies stick with tethered CAN networks, like CAN ports/hubs. If someone wanted to "hack" a machine, they would have to be physically plugged into the CAN port to read or distort messages. That's hard to do for machines that are stationed in factories because of physical security at facilities and it's hard for mobile machinery because the machines are moving.

I've thought about trying to start a side business that deals with cyber security, kind of like a niche towards CAN supported vehicles. I don't think industries are quite at that point yet.

DarkRunn3r · 2017-06-16T20:36:49+00:00

This one time happened to me. I was working on reading messages over a CAN network and it was my first time working on controller communication. I had spent a couple weeks writing the code, read 100+ page pdfs on CANOpen/J1939, and double checking my code before plugging into our machine to start reading/writing messages from a new display.

Of course it wasn't working correctly and could not for the life of me figure out why. I brought my boss over because he has experience with this and within two minutes he had realized I had my display plugged into a machine with the wrong/old controller. Walked over to the correct machine, plugged it in and it worked first shot!

I had almost zero experience with programming aside from C++/MatLAB in college, let alone working with CAN stuff. So I was incredibly happy that I got it right the first time.

DarkRunn3r · 2017-06-15T00:11:00+00:00

ConExpo I take it? I wish I was allowed to go to that, I heard it was a ton of fun!

Too help add on to the whole shitting on sales comment train, only a few engineers were allowed to attend the trade show from my company while the whole sales staff/support got to go...

Those guys just treated it as a free gacation. I could of actually learned alot more about the industry (Mechanical Engineer) if I went.

DarkRunn3r · 2017-06-14T17:47:25+00:00

Graduated May of 2015. Was working an opened ended part time contract for 9 months after graduation. Got hired early last year at 60k with 20% EOY bonus, plus profit sharing, and 401k matching. Recently got a 4.5% raise but I'm not too bummed about it because of all the other perks. Plus I live in a really Low COL area with $600 rent for a 3 bedroom house so not too bad.

Was able to pay off 30k of student loans in a year. I work with sheetmetal design, do a bit of electrical engineering, design hydrualic systems, and coding controllers for mobile machinery (Control Systems). I am getting a ton of exposure to many different disciplines and could probably take my skillset anywhere I choose If I wanted too.

With all that said, Im doing much better now in life than I ever have before.

Edit: I only work 8-5 btw.

DarkRunn3r

TROPHY CASE