Hi..
Some Background. I have been in my job in a medium-sized factory (~150 employees) for about a year and a half now. Before that I was doing the same kind of thing, mainly software and test equipment for microprocessor devices.
I am a Junior in a Test Engineering Department (6 people and a manager) focusing on Qualification and Test Equipment design for power supplies. I am a young, ambitious person who listens carefully to my elders and learns a lot from what I do. I prefer to jump into something I don't know and just get on with it.
Another Junior (A couple of years older than me) who's dad is the boss of another department (hmmm...) who doesn't know as much as me, still asks basic questions like what gauge cable to use for a certain current, how to use a mosfet to switch a relay on, why do we need back-EMF diodes etc, is paid more than me. He is on his phone a lot and doesn't put a lot of effort in.
He has been developing a product with a PIC in, when I am drilling holes in plastic and metals, and not being used to my full potential.... He asks me for help with his PIC code constantly (which is only switching FETs on and off depending on a certain input) and this is his first big PIC project when I have done a lot of smaller PIC projects (more complicated ones in my spare time and at my previous job) without any help... Somehow he's more senior than me, even though I don't know a lot about electronics, I have the enthusiasm to want to learn more, whereas after a College course, he doesnt know why we need bypassing/filter capacitors on ICs...
I recently had an appraisal, and I was told I'm doing well just keep doing as I'm doing. I have asked what I can to for a better pay (Currently £15,000, about that of a window cleaner in the UK).
Every time one of the production test jigs goes tits up, I'm the first call of the boss to look at it and fix it, which is a good thing...
Enough ranting. How do you deal with a shitty job? I keep telling myself to grin and bare it every day, and that soon another project will come that's a lot better. There are no jobs in Electronics in my area, and I look every day.
Sorry if this doesn't make too much sense and is all over the place. That's how my life feels at the moment.
Leave!!
Reading your posting gave a horrible feeling of "deja vu"!
Although I am at the other end of the working age group to you,I experienced a very similar workplace environment.
My time with my two major employers was 24 & 10 years respectively.
I walked straight into the second one without a break,but eventually Management sent the "hatchet man" through the staff,& I ended up with a "Voluntary"(hah!)Redundancy.
I picked up a few jobs over the next few years,some good,some bad,mostly OK.
In the job that reminds me of yours,there was no recognition of the Technical ability of anyone but the "In"group,who were mainly pretty much lacking in that regard.
Although I was employed as a Technician,I was regarded as,& used as, a non-technical "Assembler".
I kept finding places where the "accepted way of doing things" did not in any way conform with industrial practice,with large amounts of additional work being required to deliver an inferior result.
Suggestions were not welcome,with the "in" group thinking it was a challenge to their status.
After a while,I got used to them thinking I was an idiot,& started to think,"Maybe I really
am a silly old Sod!".
I eventually quit,& it was like taking a yoke from my shoulders-----should have done it the first week!
In my next job I had to use my brain again,& although it was hard,I was effectively my own Boss.
It was great (& necessary) therapy after the previous one.
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