So, I work for a medium sized engineering company.
Recently, they have promoted a few people with Interior Design degrees to supervise/manage dozens of engineers.
These designers were hired to create CAD drawings 6-7 years ago (so its about time for a promotion I guess).
I mean, Im sure they did a good job creating CAD models, and have an understanding of things like what component goes where, but lets be honest - they probably do not know the very existence of a thermo table or how to use one.
Or is being angry over this reading too much into it - at the end of the day, how many actual engineers know much about thermo tables once they are in the real world anyway?
Just wanted to hear what you all have to say about that, or what your experience has been with something like this. Bunch of engineers I work with are quite frustrated to be working under designers (“They didn’t go through the hell in school we did!!” or "What could I possibly learn from them???). Would this frustrate you or would you be indifferent?
I manage a multi-disciplinary technical team. I’ve done the nitty-gritty technical work. But managing a project and managing a team involves a different skill set than performing the nitty gritty.
In most companies, the managers are not engineers. Project and Program Managers use a different skill set than engineers who do that actual engineering work. They’re more concerned with schedule and cost issues than the technical nitty gritty which is the engineer’s responsibility.
It depends on the company, and their expectations of different types of managers. There is technical management, functional management, and program management, and only the first really requires a strong technical background. The rest certainly benefit from it, but it is possible to design those latter two roles so that it is not needed. Whether or not that describes your company I cannot say, as there are certainly many people thrust into management roles for which they lack vital skills.
I read the first post the wrong way. I thought the people with interior design degrees were doing interior design work with the company, but I see that they’ve been involved with the turbine work, just doing the drawings for it. It wouldn’t matter as much to me in this case. It’s not like these guys are trying to do the same work as the engineers. Management is a different animal. This scenario isn’t limited to just the engineering field; it happens all over.
Pretty much this. A good non-technical manager knows how to trust his/her engineers, even if they don’t know the technical details of what the engineers do. In fact, some of the worst kinds of managers are those who think they know better than those who are specialists in their field.
The engineers who disagree with this in principle (rather than in specific cases of poor non-technical management) should get over themselves.
It’s usually bad news to have a non-engineer managing engineers, but I’ve had a few managers without an engineering background that did a good job at it. They knew to stay out of the way when it came to technical decisions.
Call me old school or whatever, but I am ok with it up to the extent of “Operations management.” Companies need to understand to leave ALL aspects of R&D to engineers who spent 4 years of their life studying it, and not just picking it up on the job. If Werner von Braun was reporting to an accountant, I doubt the V-2 would ever be more than an idea(think how much it would slow him down reporting his decisions to someone who has no training at it).
I guess what I want to get at is also the “engineering fraternity” is not as solid as it could (should?) be. I mean, do you think a theater artist would ever truly respect a civil engineer directing his play? Or a graphic designer at an advertisement firm paying heed to the mechanical engineer’s opinion? Then why are we engineers becoming even more open to “outsiders” as time passes?
Organizations like Tau Beta Pi are trying to push for more of the camaraderie, but for some reason I dont think it will ever be that solid. Lets face it - we engineers all went through something that “they” did not - kind of like how Jeep riders have that silent nod amidst themselves. We engineers definitely share the bond, but we dont care to place efforts to acknowledge it.
It’s all relative, and engineers are actually pretty solid when it comes to being respected for their technical know-how. The fact that you need a degree in engineering to do engineering work means that by having a degree in engineering, you already have the “club membership” and the respect that comes with that. Contrast to software work, where people can get a programming job without the degree, and that the respect awarded to the entire group is diminished because of that.
Accountants also do some very important tasks that take years of work to learn. And the vast majority of people aren’t capable of seeing that their work may not be the end-all be-all of the business, so the finance/accounting/business are not alone in acting that way. Engineers working on “cool” projects that add no value is a similar form of shortsightedness (not that most would admit that to themselves).