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Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers

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Re: Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers

#31

Post by shagymoe »

I'm so glad I failed the "Professional Engineer" qualification test just after I graduated. I had the worst cold/sinus infection of my life, barely maintaining consciousness during the test and losing consciousness between sections. I failed by one point with a 74%.

Had I passed, I would have likely been stuck in mechanical engineering for life due to salary lock-in. Instead, I got an average job, learned systems admin and development on my own time and was able to transition to a sys admin position after only 2 years as an ME.

I continued learning development and made a career as a software engineer which was an infinitely happier path for me.

Re: Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers

#33

Post by jmole »

s5300 wrote: post #21

Going mechanical engineering in the U.S. is such an incredibly poor ROI at this point, it’s ridiculous. My observations have led me to believe MBAs presume everything can be outsourced to India or Soviet satellites. Unsure of where that’s going to lead us, but I know a lot of salty MechE’s who genuinely wanted to be MechE’s for whatever reasons they had, but just can’t pass up the salary increase to be had in… other…

We don't have the manufacturing capability in the US to make use of a boatload of really good MechE's here. There's sort of 3 paths I've seen among ME's I know: 1) Product Design at large tech company who can make consumer electronics in the millions overseas, 2) SMB work/freelance – doing odd jobs for themselves or small businesses: making specialized manufacturing equipment for low-volume high-value US MFG, doing small runs of "designer" accessories for tech (e.g. phone cases), or specializing in a niche field that interests them like mountain biking, and 3) switching to a better paid field like EE/CS after they discover that mechatronics is on par with biomedical engineering in terms of demand for engineers who know a little about everything, but aren't super deep in one particular area.

Re: Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers

#34

Post by eikenberry »

Why compare those of us who write software with engineers? It makes more sense to compare us to say.. composers, poets or something. Writing software is an art form and has nothing in common with engineering other than some uncreative types trying to come up with a more official sounding name.

Re: Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers

#35

Post by haliskerbas »

barbazoo wrote: post #20

Let's pay respect in ways other than money too. Money isn't everything and the goal isn't to have everybody ranked by income as a proxy for how useful or how much "worth" they are.

In the United States at least, the system is based on capital. And money is a proxy for everything.

Re: Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers

#36

Post by Existenceblinks »

Yeah, most of them have, in my country, called Licensed for Professional Practice while software engineers don't. If developers were to stay comply with standard quality, we would get license cancelled very fast. For example, look at how frontends don't like to talk about engineering metrics like memory / size / perf etc, it's as if this is literally a fashion industry.

Re: Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers

#37

Post by PenguinCoder »

barbazoo wrote: post #20

Let's pay respect in ways other than money too. Money isn't everything and the goal isn't to have everybody ranked by income as a proxy for how useful or how much "worth" they are.

Can't pay my bills with "Thank you"s . Give me money.

Re: Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers

#39

Post by iancmceachern »

shagymoe wrote: post #31

I'm so glad I failed the "Professional Engineer" qualification test just after I graduated. I had the worst cold/sinus infection of my life, barely maintaining consciousness during the test and losing consciousness between sections. I failed by one point with a 74%. Had I passed, I would have likely been stuck in mechanical engineering for life due to salary lock-in. Instead, I got an average job, learned systems adm…

For others' context I took the EIT and passed, but have never taken the PE. I've had a long, good career as a ME, systems engineer and general product designer for the medical device industry. I don't make bay area software engineer money, but close. There are lots of us MEs that are able to do well, be happy, designing things like surgical robotics, implants, medical instruments, devices, etc.

Re: Tell HN: Thanks and hats off to all the non software engineers

#40

Post by ThunderSizzle »

haliskerbas wrote: post #35
barbazoo wrote: post #20

Let's pay respect in ways other than money too. Money isn't everything and the goal isn't to have everybody ranked by income as a proxy for how useful or how much "worth" they are.

In the United States at least, the system is based on capital. And money is a proxy for everything.

There's a lot more to life than materialism and money, if that's what you want. Sure, money can help, but money can also be a curse - even before your rich.
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