Goochie

I'm after a little career advice........

Having left uni with a Mechanical Engineering dgree, I worked at a place that installed assembly lines in car factories. It was great fun and I would still be there if it weren't for their decision to relotate all design work to Bulgaria and make the UK design team redundant 18 months after I started.

So, I moved to my current place where I've been for another 18 months. However, it was never really what I wanted to do and hasnt evolved as they promised me at interview. I've been pushed into more of a sales based role which, is not where I want to be.

I've spoken to my boss about this and he said "well, we dont have enough design work for you to be doing that all the time" - fair enough but still not my idea of fun.

What I'm after is the benefit of someone's experience and some thoughts on wether moving on now could be seen as too soon by any potential new employer. Any thoughts/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Big Daz

My personal theory has been, give a job 2 years and if its not what you want/expected etc then move on. Has worked for me up till now (Mechanical Design Engineer) I moved every 2 years approx for my 1st 4 jobs and have been where I am currently for 4 years now - If interviewers ask, just tell them you felt the need to progress your career to the next level & you think their company could be the one Works every time
Daz

Goochie

Dave..... I'm actually considering applying for a job that is both CAD server/system admin and design engineer rolled into one - with a view to making a similar move to yourself.

Graz

If your not happy and can find new work easily then move on, it's the only way. If your current company don't want to lose you then they should be bending over backwards to find you interesting work. As mentioned changing jobs every 2-3 years is not uncommon for graduates. Most CVs I get for people in their 30's have at least 3-4 different jobs listed, sometimes more.

Having said that I've been at the same place for nearly ten years but I'm rapidly reaching the conclusion that it's time to move on. We were taken over by an American company a while back, they've brought in their own management etc. and lets just say there has been a bit of friction. Stupid really as they are relying on the UK design team for several of their future products, probably not a good idea to **** us all off Added to that I feel I have reached the pinnicle of my skills here, a couple of chaps above me have the ultimate say so in any design decisions, unless they leave I can't see that I can move any further forward. So time for a change

Goochie

similar here for me really, its a small company where I'm responsible to the Projects Director - who in turn reports to the MD who has the deciding vote on design issues.

ajm

Ditto. Did a 4yr masters in mech eng, went to work for a defence company doing design work, got bored within a year and started moving towards IT in the same company via a somewhat random route.

I think at least 75% of the people doing the same degree course as me went straight into, or ended up in, IT!

This was in the IT boom though, the market isn't what it was!

Its strange that engineering companies are not desperate for engineers/designers given that so many have been lost to the IT industry over the last few years

Goochie

I think its the lack of engineering design work available that makes it hard to find a decent job. Many places are doing what my first company did and moving some if not all design work overseas along with manufacturing.