Joseph "Cullen" O'Connor, PE’s Post

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Analyzing Engineering Analysis

Words are tricky. Their definitions creep and mold into all kinds of interesting places in ways that we often don't realize. What do I mean? This is a point that's being driven as I try to sift through and apply for jobs. I'm finding that words can mean very, very different job descriptions that are categorized together. Let's take a look at a few: 'Mechanical Engineer' Do you mean someone who solves the equations about whether a structure or mechanism will work? Or the person who makes the design in the first place? What about all the people who deal with fluid flow? Hey! What about all the people in facilities or construction work? 'Systems Engineer' Are you architecting the system? Working with requirements? Figuring out the concept of operations? Validation and Verification work? Which? (Plus, I know software engineers have a different view on systems work from how they write job descriptions but I'm not one. So, I don't know 😁) 'Senior-level' Is this 5 years or experience or 25? (yes, this is the variance I've seen) Maybe this seems too technical (thanks for hanging in there!), here's my point: This is complicated, frustrating, and time-sucking to work through. If you don't work to establish and maintain a common language in your organization, you're opening yourself up to this type of waste.

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