by Doug Coulter » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:08 am
Doesn't hurt to be a cute chick when it comes time to self publicize either -- in a mostly-male profession. She tends to work at a greater level of generality than a really fundamental engineer did back when I was coming up, in other words, sticking together bigger chunks than we did, of already engineered things to put them to new uses, rather than working one bit at a time. Short, quick, simple re-mixes of existing stuff. I guess that's where we all wind up as things progress, no need for many to really understand electron flow, etc.
In my experience here, the younger ones are the harder working ones, I know I was, and when we had extra-productive people here, they tended to be college age -- kinda had something to prove.
And proved it. The phenomenon is well documented in science as well as engineering.
I have certainly found out in my own career that knowing how to communicate is as much key as knowing your stuff as an engineer. I sure made a ton more money after I figured it out. What good are brains with no money and no challenging projects? Gotta be a little bit of an idea salesman to put it all together.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.