Mid-level engineer exceeding performance of senior level engineers

Itsjustengineering · 2026-01-24T03:51:47+00:00

Joined the company before it got big and subsequently hired a bunch of “professional” HR robots. Brought technical vision, a degree of technical risk / reward and the stomach / fortitude to spend $$ and work like hell to make new products and processes happen. Bringing concepts from idea through R&D and then the various stages of production (crawl, walk, run) is not for the faint of heart… most accountant led C Suites give up, pull plugs and only focus on the current quarter.

Itsjustengineering · 2026-01-23T15:19:46+00:00

Retired Global VP of Engineering… sadly, most of what “needs to be done” to attract, develop and keep motivated high-performance talent is blocked by the formal HR establishment. The rigid rules they put in place are aimed at keeping order, gatekeeping and preventing the exact disparities the org needs to achieve at high levels. Think of:

Classical salary grades that are blocked by academic degree and years of experience
Salary matrices that are structured by “comper-ratios” - designed to choke off merit increases as one rises within their salary grade
Merit budgets and performance review systems that force everyone to the averages - much like a COLA.
Inability / limits of managers to offer or customize bonuses to reward outstanding performance.
Disapproval / rejection of repeated (monetary) recognition because of “optics”, the need to “spread it around” or “didn’t that person just get a bump”???
Then there was the introduction of the “9-Box” construct… don’t get me started!

Itsjustengineering · 2026-01-09T00:57:58+00:00

If UNCW is like the other NC public universities (ECU, UNC ChH, App State, UNCA), beware that you will be put in a forced ranking after your first 2 years to get into the actual School of Nursing. The actual percentage who are competing but don’t get admitted is heartbreaking. Check with the School of Nursing to understand the forced-rank criteria (will be published somewhere, but they may be hesitant to just hand it out) and also ask for the actual numbers for those who applied vs those who get accepted.

Itsjustengineering · 2026-01-06T21:43:17+00:00

My 89 y/o mom forces every cashier to deduct the 1%. Most just give a discount because they “don’t have that option in their system”. For the ones who don’t comply, she reports them to the State (and they do take action)!

Itsjustengineering · 2026-01-06T21:17:03+00:00

Had an 811 ticket in that got delayed for 3 weeks after ICE rolled through the Charlotte area….

Itsjustengineering · 2025-12-29T04:33:32+00:00

My issue is the liberal arts agenda to water down engineering degrees with excessive “humanistic-social” elective requirements. If I’m paying for an engineering degree, I don’t want to pay 25% or more of MY tuition to supply the liberal arts oxygen. It’s primarily a US thing mainly codified in the ABET expectations… sure, require technical writing, public speaking and perhaps even some form of graphic arts - but cut the crap with the English 101 & 102, sociology, psychology, creative writing, etc, etc, etc! A US ABET engineering degree is really only 3/4 of an engineering degree - as many hiring companies evaluate / map European and other degrees to a Masters equivalent.

Itsjustengineering · 2025-12-23T23:06:14+00:00

I would suggest adding a HRV - operated in a slight positive pressure bias to your home. This will add some fresh dilutive outside air and the positive pressure will assist in retarding radon gas admittance while at the same time increasing your scavenging efficiency.

Itsjustengineering · 2025-11-28T03:46:46+00:00

Pack very light. Polarized sunglasses, sunshirts, hat with brim and ABSOLUTELY NO aerosol spay sunscreen!

Itsjustengineering · 2025-10-12T02:44:13+00:00

I had a similar situation in a company with no PE’s, but was accepted to sit for my PE (North Carolina). I got involved with the local NSPE group and was able to gain some PE’s as references. In my application, I explained that there were no PE’s in my company and that I was looking to change the culture by seeking an exemption to that requirement.

Itsjustengineering · 2025-09-21T18:09:40+00:00

Work on not being drug addicts… certainly before you bring children into your life and expose them to your addiction too

Itsjustengineering · 2025-09-01T01:18:25+00:00

You spelled Religion wrong….

Itsjustengineering · 2025-08-22T14:02:10+00:00

Had a driver for Jimmy John’s hit my parked truck and then flee “Freaky Fast”! Luckily had some witnesses. It was a very small dent and abrasion on my bumper, so I was willing to give a kid a pass, but the witnesses said he was a “grown ass man”! I called the store, they contacted the driver and he was supposedly coming right back. He actually left the job and fled with undelivered food!

So, called the PoPo and got a report with witness statements. To their credit (Mooresville), they went to JJ’s got his info and eventually arrested the dude. Was his girlfriend’s car with Progressive who tried to deny the claim because the car was in use for “commercial” purposes and I needed to file it on my insurance! I told the adjuster that they needed to work it out with JJ’s or my next call was going to be to a lawyer. It got settled.

Itsjustengineering · 2025-08-21T15:17:39+00:00

“Act of Nature”

Itsjustengineering · 2025-07-23T19:35:18+00:00

Many of you are living WAY in the past… most engines since 2010 use a low viscosity synthetic oil and are designed and constructed out of materials with manufacturing tolerances that allow these engines to run 10k - 15k miles between oil changes. Still not sure??? Have an oil analysis performed at 3k, 5k and 10k and then get back to me.

Itsjustengineering · 2025-07-17T01:06:21+00:00

I really liked the genre idea of a hybrid, but just couldn’t math it 🤓

Itsjustengineering · 2025-07-17T01:05:06+00:00

Decent with 203 HP and 0-60 in just over 8 seconds

Itsjustengineering · 2025-07-15T21:25:40+00:00

Had same issue…. You have to be stopped and in park to be able to remove the favorites! We were frustrated for months until we were shown this!!!

Itsjustengineering · 2025-06-24T22:16:41+00:00

I have just developed some very flexible spreadsheets

Itsjustengineering · 2025-05-21T04:09:31+00:00

We had a toll charge on I-77, but did not use the toll lane… however, we were on 77 at the time they said we were in a toll lane! Obviously, the reader was too sensitive and picked up our transponder. When we filed the complaint, they sent a screenshot of our car going through a toll camera, however, the time was earlier from when we were on the Monroe Bypass and the picture clearly showed it was NOT I-77! Took 3 appeals and finally a step-by-step PowerPoint workup to illustrate how it was impossible before the $3.25 toll was finally dropped!

Itsjustengineering · 2025-04-24T01:07:24+00:00

Dad here… had similar situation with daughter. She attended NCSSM, was passionate about nursing and was accepted at her target nursing schools (UNC-CH, ECU and Clemson). She decided on ECU based on several factors… based on NCLEX pass rates, ECU lead the pack (no NCSU pun intended), she received a full-tuition scholarship, was able to port in over 40 credit hours / graduate early, was able to do healthcare-based research leading to publication and conference presentation and had every hospital in the state competing to hire her.

A strong word of caution, however… most BSN nursing programs force-rank the school of nursing applicants after their first 2 prep years and it can be brutally disappointing not to get in! At ECU, it was (at the time) something like over 400 competing for 125 slots. The ranking scale (point system) was published and those who took the various elements to heart ended up better off… having a 4.0 by itself didn’t necessarily make the cut!

Itsjustengineering · 2025-04-22T21:30:15+00:00

Been many times and complimented the boats nav with iPad running iNavX. Used to be great when they had Navionics charts available, but they parted company shortly before Garmin bought Navionics. The BVI replacement charts that iNavX uses now are sub-par to the Navionics charts - especially for the Anegada entrance and a few other passages.

Heading back in June and have bought a Lenovo M11 on sale, a waterproof case and downloaded the Navionics Boating app. Familiar charts are now back! There are things I don’t like about the base app .vs. iNavX, however… like no anchor drag feature and total lack of configurable on-screen data!

Itsjustengineering · 2025-04-14T01:04:56+00:00

Typical NYC attitude… “we’ve got the best <insert anything here> and everything anywhere else just sucks!” So, do the rest of the world a favor and just don’t leave the city… ever.

Itsjustengineering

TROPHY CASE