Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Featured Guest Blogger: Robert Mote

Motagg’s Blog by Robert Mote

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A graduate engineer has been working for two years in the drawing office and has reached breaking point. Comes to you and ask for advice, should I stay or should I go?

What would you say?

This happened to me when I was a graduate engineer going into my first drawing office role. I had been looking for work for eight months and snapped up this job as the first opportunity. It was an engineer-in-training arrangement which seemed to be another excuse not to pay me a fair wage. There was no mentoring or training, only the sense of being dumped in the deep end. I did not mind the deep end part, that was refreshing and stimulating but I did have a problem in that I didn’t understand the engineering business; the business did not reflect anything of what I was taught in university.

Also, I lacked the vision to believe it could become so different in time as everyone I worked with said they had been doing what they were doing forever. Forever? That hit my panic button!  I really didn’t want to find I would be doing the same thing forever too! I had a choice right? I felt like a square peg in a round hole. Technically, I enjoyed the challenge of understanding the seismic design and specializing in seismic connections but the environment was stacked against me. I was put to work in the Quality Assurance section, required to check unit conversions and eventually the theory of seismic design principles in everybody’s calculations. The reality was, I was too young to have the respect of my elders (who did not understand the code properly anyway) and they seemed to shrug their shoulders all the time. The engineers would look at their watch and say, give it another five years maybe, laugh and say patience lad, patience…..Everyone puffed on a pipe in those days.

There were the enlightened ones, Gordon, Harry and Danny, who taught me, but indeed they inspired me to look for bigger prizes and bigger questions. I appreciate they took time to listen and think on my situation without labels. Should I stay or should I go?

After two years of begging the question, I finally planned to go back to university. Four months before the course was due to start, I had a fight with the Company director over trivialities in my expenses. A case of the straw breaking the camel’s back, so I quit.

I was offered freelance work, immediately and locally. My pay was doubled. I worked for a small consultancy and they quickly recognized I really understood the seismic connections issue so I was put into the frontline to liaise with the fabricators and check the engineer’s designs. What a great job! And they doubled my pay again! I wished I had discovered this opportunity sooner. Here I was now, in a role that I enjoyed and surely only came once in a lifetime, and now I was facing another change I didn’t want now. The company was offering a longer assignment. Should I stay or should I go?  

I was committed to my post-graduate course but I never forgot it could be so different. This was the reason I came back into the civil/structural profession after my post-graduate degrees and I am glad I did. I discovered I love the teamwork, the technical challenges, the constant learning and sharing of knowledge, the opportunity to travel and the next surprise in the road.

I often hear the question from the graduates I mentor and young engineers I have worked with. If you ever are in the position of asking should I stay or should I go? I generally counsel to go. From whatever position you are asking that question, change is always positive. If you have to ask the question, you are looking for change.

Usually the biggest desire for change is disillusionment, over-zealous managers, lack of corporate training, lack of respect, isolation and boredom. I realised that was me, 25 years ago. But for the Gordon, Harry and Danny’s of this world, I wonder where I’d been?

I wonder though, there are people who still manage to work for the same company for twenty five years or more, and as much that a part of me envies their stability, in this day and age, I can only think wow! Did they ever ask themselves should I stay or should I go?

Whatever your role is as an engineer, team-building, communication and collaboration are critical components for building a great career. It doesn’t really matter who you work for, so long as you have a soul nearby that can inspire you. Do your part and reach out, raise your hand, break the silence, get outside the cubicle. I counsel, the opportunity to master your calculations and find your pride is the greatest gift you can give yourself in your career. And the willingness to change.

The future does not promise stability for many of us so you need to know you can demonstrate your skills, in a heartbeat. I do that with my calculations when I go for the interviews. They see works of art, a variety of visually based calculations and I watch their jaw drop as they try to mask their surprise. It really opens doors.

When graduates ask me, should I stay or should I go? I also suggest they look within. The answer lies there. No-one can make your career go, except you. On the road I have travelled, I have seen the incredible diversity of cultures, the full spectrum of boredom to enthusiasm, the appalling legacy of academia on a generation of graduates  trying to overcome the culture shock of a dying drawing office tradition. The common denominator is your calculation. You own that.

Think like someone learning karate, it does not come overnight but with sweat, effort and commitment. Like your first belt in karate. This is only a stepping stone. You finally pass but never stop practicing and improving. You feel the calm, the confidence and the clarity of your work is a real thing. The next belt is spreadsheets. This opens up new moves, new ideas which fuses with your calculations. You feel the enthusiasm, the excitement and the energy of knowing your ability is becoming a skill. You are a part of the team, learning and talking and swapping.  The next belt is VBA. This opens up extraordinary opportunities to accelerate your calculations, and double the productivity of your work. You feel the power, the passion and the potential for the future from your knowledge. You are becoming an engineering leader.  You can lead the team, understand how to switch on critical thinking to and challenge and look for opportunities to beat client expectations. The next belt is databases. You feel the strength, the surge and the serenity of your vision. You are an innovator. This is where you lead the team and inspire them in their development as you try to help them achieve their first or second belt. And you can see the impact of your databases, programming, spreadsheets and calculations on the project with the opportunity to reach out to more stakeholders.

Is that too idealistic for you? Every situation in reality, it seems, conspires to thwart you in your ambitions. Should I stay or should I go?

It has taken me fifteen years of the “should I stay or should I go” question to know this. Create the tools to help you on your way. Learn, focus on the humble calculations and ask yourself can I do better? You will find your passion. If your supervisor or your mentor discourages you, then find someone who does not, but don’t give up.

I am now in a position of being on the same project for nearly five years and it has been a blast. I have the opportunity to work autonomously and create my own role. On the one hand, I am hoping I can lead the future design team to improve on what we did and fuse engineering back into construction. I know I can do this spectacularly. Exciting possibility. On the other hand, I am going into a joint venture with two other project engineers, who see the potential to put engineering back on the map in Alberta. We are flying blind but nothing beats the adrenaline of a great idea. Should I stay or should I go?  

 Answer the question with a smile and follow your passion.