Kevster
12-03-2005, 03:42 AM
Some of you may know that I'm a communications engineer for a global telecom company formerly known as Infonet. I've been there 6 years and we were aquired by British Telecom just 10 months ago and I was intitially concerned about my job, but not so much now.
I wasn't aware I've made a name for myself as some kind of miracle worker until Thursday when I was asked to look at a critical problem some other engineers have been working on for the better part of a week. Quite literally, within 10 minutes of looking at the problem I had it fixed. I did it right in front of a VP and my manager, who stood there with their mouths hanging open. It took me about an hour to explain in front of a white board what I did and why the other engineers failed to see it and were looking in the wrong places. So Friday I just happen to be meeting with my manager for my annual review, and in it he wrote, "He is the best troubleshooting engineer I have ever seen in my 20 years in this field". I was a little taken aback by this, because there are many things I don't know (yet). He told me that what I had done the day before was just one example and he wished he could get some of the other people in my group to step up technically, especially since I told him that I wouldn't be available for as much OT this year because of other family stuff going on. Now I can only hope this equates to a nicer raise...
For all you engineers out there still in school - I was never one of those geniuses at the top of my class, but I was excellent in the lab. Don't neglect those skills as they can take you just as far.
I wasn't aware I've made a name for myself as some kind of miracle worker until Thursday when I was asked to look at a critical problem some other engineers have been working on for the better part of a week. Quite literally, within 10 minutes of looking at the problem I had it fixed. I did it right in front of a VP and my manager, who stood there with their mouths hanging open. It took me about an hour to explain in front of a white board what I did and why the other engineers failed to see it and were looking in the wrong places. So Friday I just happen to be meeting with my manager for my annual review, and in it he wrote, "He is the best troubleshooting engineer I have ever seen in my 20 years in this field". I was a little taken aback by this, because there are many things I don't know (yet). He told me that what I had done the day before was just one example and he wished he could get some of the other people in my group to step up technically, especially since I told him that I wouldn't be available for as much OT this year because of other family stuff going on. Now I can only hope this equates to a nicer raise...
For all you engineers out there still in school - I was never one of those geniuses at the top of my class, but I was excellent in the lab. Don't neglect those skills as they can take you just as far.