Converting Graduates into Engineers

By Michael Veegh

Guidance and real answers for students contemplating a career in engineering and for recent graduates wanting some help in their quest to become Professional Engineers. Based on the author's personal experiences, starting in high school, through university and 30 years thereafter, while working as a civil and structural engineer first in South Africa and then in the United States of America. Once working, there were many “Aha!” moments that shape the work philosophy of an engineer. Those are the basic principles which guide you through complex tasks in the most efficient manner. They are hard-earned and sometimes expensive lessons that teach you what no course will. One of the more important lessons, that it is cheaper to learn from other people’s experience than from your own, is what this book is all about. These writings allow you to acquire one engineer’s insights without incurring the underlying costs and pain, to add to your own and to those you are able to glean from other sources.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Veegh
• Release date: Dec 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301694747

Michael Veegh

Michael Veegh is a licensed Professional Engineer, born 1961 in Austria. He grew up in Switzerland and later South Africa, where he attended the Deutsche Schule Johannesburg. In 1983 he graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg with a BSc (Eng) Civil degree and went to work as a structural design engineer. In 1985 he relocated to San Jose, California and started to work on long span bridges. In 1993, he finished an MBA at the University of Rhode Island. He is the founder and president of Construction Technologies & Engineering, Inc., a firm specializing in structural and construction engineering, with an emphasis on long span bridges. At heart, he is an engineer, designer, builder, inventor, problem solver, history buff and writer. He is married to Jean, has two boys and lives in Rhode Island, in a house he designed and contracted himself. When he can find the time, he likes to run, swim, play soccer and ski.

Book preview

Foreword

Do graduates have enough guidance with regard to the transition from student to junior engineer? There seems to be a large group of people who struggle with this transition

This was a topic of discussion in an online forum for engineers. It became apparent that some graduates were adrift and looking for some help from more senior engineers who seemed unwilling to share their knowledge. Others complained about not being mentored and not being offered a formal framework for developing the skills necessary for succeeding in their profession. A fair number even left engineering to pursue other careers, having failed to make the connection after graduation. All this at a time when engineering skills are needed more than ever, especially in developing countries.

In response, I have written down some of my early experiences as a student and as a graduate engineer, plus personal insights gained over 30 years of working in the industry. Starting in high school, how and why I ended up choosing engineering as a career, getting through university and finding that first job.

Once working, there were many Aha! moments that shape the work philosophy of an engineer. Those are the basic principles which guide you through complex tasks in the most efficient manner. They are hard-earned and sometimes expensive lessons that teach you what no course will. One of the more important lessons, that it is cheaper to learn from other people’s experience than from your own, is what this book is all about. These writings allow you to acquire one engineer’s insights without incurring the underlying cost and pain, to add to your own and to those you are able to glean from other sources.

This text was written for anybody contemplating a career in engineering and for those trying to find their way after graduation. The engineer throughout is referred to as he so as to maintain a uniform style. Of course, many engineers are women and she is just as applicable.

If you find this book to be useful, or have any comments, please let me know. Referrals are always appreciated.

December 12, 2012

Michael Veegh, P.E.

P.O. Box 218

Portsmouth RI 02871

United States of America

Email: [e-mail]

Website www.cteg.com

1. Deciding on Engineering

As many other teenagers growing up, I had to decide on a career path for myself. I was not quite sure but had an idea that engineering might be it. My father was a mechanical engineer and I liked building things. For my 12th birthday I was lucky enough to get a basic Bosch electric drill. At 14, a friend of my father’s built a woodturning lathe for me. I had an interest in woodworking and astronomy, which led me to tinker with telescopes, finally building one from scratch. I was making sketches and drawings, doing research, grinding optics and building a mounting from whatever materials I could get my hands on. In effect, I was a budding teenage engineer without realizing it

Fig. 1

My teenage telescope, a 6"/ f7.4 Newtonian reflector

To help with my career decision, I took an aptitude test offered by the Department of Labor and Training and scored well on mechanical insight, mathematics, language and data entry. I liked the first three, but data entry as a career suggestion did not seem very flattering. It is however a useful skill and handling large amounts of numerical data did become important to me later on.

After some thought, I came to the conclusion that a career choice should be centered around something you love to do, a passion, because you will be doing it for a very long time. If it is the wrong choice, life would be miserable, because I would be working just for the money and dreading every day. Yes, I was fortunate in that I had a career choice to make. Later in life you realize that many people lack such a choice and are forced into work situations based purely on monetary considerations.

As a young man, I had the opportunity to visit a motorcycle factory. The production process was based on the assembly line. As we went from station to station, I quickly realized these people were doing the same basic activity all day long, every day, for the rest of their career. I was quite depressed leaving this factory. It was interesting from a technical perspective but the worker situation scared me. Every day, they checked in their humanity at the door, did their work, put in their time, not one minute more and then went home again. Life for them occurred entirely outside of work. It became crystal clear to me. For myself, there was no other path but to go to university. Fear is a great motivator.

Fortunately, during my final year of high school we were offered the opportunity to attend an engineering week at the local university (U. Witwatersrand). For one week, during summer recess, we lived in the dormitory and were introduced to most branches of engineering, both in the classroom and in the field. We covered mechanical, electrical, civil, mining and chemical engineering.

We visited a gold mine and witnessed the drilling and blasting deep underground, the ore processing above ground and finally the pouring of the gold ingot, which represented the mine’s total output for one day of operation. This was followed by a visit to a steel mill. When they opened the door to the furnace, the heat in my face at a 20m distance was quite unbearable. I decided early on to forego a career in steel making.

This was followed by tours through the labs of the various engineering departments. The structures lab was doing buckling tests with near frictionless pinned ends to the columns. The hydraulics lab was doing erosion studies of a waterway using a scale model and running water. The electrical lab showed us armatures, magnets, windings and motors, which failed to inspire me. It seemed rather abstract. More on that later.

For me, the best part of this engineering week was the project assignment. We all had to build a model bridge using wooden ice cream sticks, superglue and a sharp knife. The span length was given as 350 mm, to match the dimensions