Biggest giveaways of an inexperienced engineer

[Chris_R]

A few months ago I graduated from my masters in electronic engineering and now finally after months of applying, have landed myself an EE job.  It is a graduate job so I expect that they expect to train me up lots but when I start I don't want to seem as if I'm a complete dunce with no industrial experience (even though I am)

So basically I have a month before I start and I'd like to do some reading up.  What I want to know is are there any obvious mistakes that I would be making as a graduate engineer over someone with a bit more industrial experience.  It's a small company so I'll be covering many different parts of design (analogue, digital, pcb design and programming) so I'm open to suggestions on all of them.
My forte is programming, followed by digital, analogue and then I have little experience with pcb design so if you have any suggestions I'd prefer they be about pcb and analogue design.

[TheWelly888]

My advice is that your employer knows that you are inexperienced and will be supervising you more closely to avoid any mistake causing problems further down the line.

Please have no hesitation in asking your new colleagues for any help with anything you are not sure about and make sure that you understand the answers and remember them! ( keep a notebook handy! )

Remember all of your colleagues have been newbies themselves and in a few years time you WILL be looking after newbies yourself!

You will learn a LOT more in the real world and some things you learnt at uni may turn out to be useless or plain wrong so take that in your stride.

Good luck with your career!

[Mechatrommer]

1) dont expect u'll use everything u learnt in U there. i bet you are going to see bunch of books/manuals/regulations specific to the company bussiness, thats your next textbooks!
2) never say we cant do this, cant do that, this thing cant be done etc etc. esp to older/seasoned guys of engineers. there is no such thing as unsolvable in engineering.
3) everybody that you are going to meet there are... human anyway, so dont be afraid and act like a human as well (friendly, funny, good manner etc etc)

[baljemmett]

2) never say we cant do this, cant do that, this thing cant be done etc etc. esp to older/seasoned guys of engineers. there is no such thing as unsolvable in engineering.

That reminds me of a dedication plaque I noticed in Stratford-upon-Avon recently:

[Bored@Work]

Forget about faking experience. They will call you out within seconds.

What is more important is that you get the non-technical, interpersonal things right. Figure out who are the ones always sucking the boss' dick. Figure out if there are cliques that don't like each other. Be careful whom to trust. Be careful what you tell about your private live.

Take part in your group's social activities (and even if it is only a regular pub visit). Follow newbie rituals, e.g. buying everyone a drink, or bringing cake (ask what is the common procedure to introduce yourself). Avoid voicing opinions on the usual delicate topics (politics, religion, raising children, guns, sex, drugs, rock'n'roll).

Yes, a daily shave is usually required. Not smelling like smoke or even weed is a good idea. That Death Metal t-shirt might have to go, maybe even the long hair and the dreaded baggy pants. Same for annoying piercings in the face (here is a hint for all those piercing fans: They look ugly in your face. You want some? Get your private parts and nipples pierced, like the tough guys do, and don't show us). Get the dress code exactly right.

Don't annoy anyone, especially not by trying to tell how things should be done (even if you happen to know how to do it better), or standing in the way. Listen a lot, talk sparingly. Carefully formulate your questions (they should show you thought about it, and aren't a lazy git babbling like a baby).

Expect to do boring, annoying tasks. Do them without a complaint, and do them well. But be careful that your colleagues don't get in the habit of abusing you for you doing their work. Don't wait until tasks finds you. Look out for tasks, and if you think you can do them ask if you should do them. Don't sit around idle.

Be kind to everyone. Never show any disrespect, especially not to those in ranks below you (lab technicians, secretaries, security guards, ...).

Get all the paperwork and bureaucratic stuff right. Figure out if and how to record your working hours and how to book them on particular projects or customers. The company has long in advanced vacation planning? Live with it, play by the rules and plan your vacation long in advance. If you need to keep a lab notebook do so, and don't question it. Figure out what the rules are about using the phone or your own cell phone for private calls during working hours, same for the web and e-mail. Figure out the rules about blogging, social websites, etc. and follow them.  

[Balaur]

In my work, I had the opportunity to train (or work very closely with) 8 fresh engineers, right from the school benches or during their internship. In fact, beginning January, I will have the pleasure of welcoming another one.

I'm speaking from my own experience and without knowing anything about your specific case, but here are my observations.

- DO NOT EVER try to hide your own inexperience. Be very straightforward about your shortcomings, about the things you don't know and even admit openly that you never heard about something. If your interlocutor loves his profession, it may be annoyed at first (or not) but it will try to teach you and to explain the important stuff to you. Instead of going by yourself and learning things that may apply or not to the case you will encounter, please give the opportunity to the others to give you their experience, with the possible advantage that they will teach you specific knowledge about the task at hand, optimizing your effort.

- Please think again about the first item. I've encountered a lot of very experienced designers that are very candid in their approach and make sure that everybody has the same comprehension or the same reference base before moving forward. It is very easy to detect when somebody says "Yes, yes, yes, I got it" without any real understanding. These people will work by themselves for weeks/months, permanently terrified that somebody will see through their ignorance and will finally come up with some stupid shit that will require a lot of effort to correct.

- If you are given a task, thing about it for some time (a few minutes - a day, according to the task complexity). Then, please ask your trainer/manager to take a few moments to allow you to present him your projected approach. It only takes a couple of minutes of his time, but you'll start on a solid ground.

- Regular checkpoints. Try to register your status with your manager from time to time. In addition, don't bug your colleagues, because they have their own things to do, but try to check whether your efforts and your approach is coherent with what others are doing

- In the same vein, try to prepare a weekly short status report that you may send by email, if this is OK with your manager as well

- Be very methodical. Use notebooks, Microsoft OneNote, whatever, but take notes and document your efforts, approach, status, whatever. If other people are trying to learn you something, respect their efforts and write down whatever they will tell you.

- Again on the methodical part, when approaching a task, please gather all the documentation, ideas, concepts, notes, whatever in a central location (I like OneNote, but you may use a paper folder, a notebook, whatever). Go through the documentation and highlight the interesting parts. If you encounter something critical, note this immediately on some important list. It is a very common situation to go through the datasheet of a component and encounter some stuff such as: "Please use a 666K value for the R13 resistor otherwise your unit will catch fire and your soul will be damned forever). Before committing a final design or a solution or a program, go through the important list and check whether you did all the gotchas.

Anyway, these are just my two cents.

Cheers and good luck

[Alex]

That Death Metal t-shirt might have to go, maybe even the long hair and the dreaded baggy pants. Same for annoying piercings in the face (here is a hint for all those piercing fans: They look ugly in your face. You want some? Get your private parts and nipples pierced, like the tough guys do, and don't show us). Get the dress code exactly right.

You must have experienced some interesting recruits!  Very good advice by the way.

[Mechatrommer]

2) never say we cant do this, cant do that, this thing cant be done etc etc. esp to older/seasoned guys of engineers. there is no such thing as unsolvable in engineering.

That reminds me of a dedication plaque I noticed in Stratford-upon-Avon recently:

maybe my point is too short. instead of saying "it cant be done", its better to tell that... "its all that i can think about", "it is all i'm capable of"... "any better suggestion?" or even the magic word "i dont know!". sometime a seems to be hard to solve problem has a workaround, even in "non-engineering" and "simpler" way. so dont think too much of your engineering "techy". i got caught by a seasoned eng. regarding this, its been like 10yrs, but the lesson is still fresh in my mind like yesterday.

and lastly, after a year or two working, you need to take a holiday to re-think what you have done all this year, whats right whats wrong whats to be improved etc etc.

[Hypernova]

Ah... jobs, I'm getting my piece of paper (MEngSci) this Wednesday and i haven't got any good news yet. Been applying since the semester finished.