DevKitsune 🦊 🏳️‍🌈

I've been working full time since Jan, I worked part time the whole time I did my Master's; 1 year as a hardware test and verification engineer at an embedded systems contractor and 6 months as an embedded hardware design engineer at a medical imaging company, that I'm at full time now.

I left the contractor because they were small so had limited potential for growth and were always chasing clients.
The medical company was larger, more directly related to my master's thesis, and promised me the ability to learn and grow from skilled engineers.

But the longer I've been here, and especially now that I am full time the more it becomes clear that management is a disaster.

All the engineering is in Cleveland, all the execs are in San Francisco. The execs have no idea what is happening, set unrealistic deadline, don't do any normal project management and are getting increasingly unhappy that no one is going to hit the unrealistic and arbitrary deadline for FDA 510K submission.

Mar 17 at 5:48pmWeb
Show threadDevKitsune 🦊 🏳️‍🌈Mar 17

My boss yesterday pulled the hardware team into an unplanned meeting (that ran past 5PM) to give a talk about how as we approach the 510K submission deadline we are going to have be prepared to work 10, 15, even 22 hour days to make sure everything is done.
We don't get overtime and I don't get paid enough to give a fuck about the deadline. I didn't make the project schedule. I don't work well under extreme stress. In my entire academic career I pulled 1 "all nighter" and it was on a group project and it was hell.
I start work early, plan the steps, work diligently and efficiently while I work and stop when it's no longer productive to push through, so I can pick it up the next morning without flaming out.

If they really try to enforce this I will just leave. I have a life outside of my job, friends who I like to spend time with. Even in this economy there are listings for embedded hardware engineers in this area that fit my skill set, and the contractor I was at before would probably take me back.

Show threadDevKitsune 🦊 🏳️‍🌈Mar 17

My BF is a mechanical engineer without a masters and he makes just as much as I do currently and gets annual raises in his contract. He is expecting about a 15/20% raise in June.
I feel like even without a master's EEs often make a few percent more than MechEs and I have the master's degree.

I'm really not being paid very generously at all, so I don't see a lot of reason to put up with bullshit treatment.

Show threadDevKitsune 🦊 🏳️‍🌈5d ago
Over the last week or so I have reflected on this. There are some interesting "perks" to my job - my work has a lot of direct impact on the product, a product I think is a net good for the world, and there are a lot of good engineers here to learn from and who have similar frustrations to me.
This week I have gotten to, in a separate time block from a couple other much more senior engineers who got their own blocks, interview two new senior engineers we are considering hiring on a 6 month to 1 year contract to help us with FDA 510K, the fact that my boss trusts me enough to schedule me a time block during this interviews feels good, and I think interviewing candidates is a good skill to try to develop early in my career.
But also the pressure continues to ramp up and make everyone unhappy and the whole vibe at the company reminds me a lot of Soul of a New Machine.
A company that hires young engineers and uses interesting work to justify poor pay and unrealistic deadlines and unfair pressure.
Show threadRalonMar 17

@devkitsune yeah, this really does not sound like it's worth it. Even if it were paid overtime, I'm not sure it would be. This hardcore working expectation almost sounds kinda cult-y

I'm sorry work turned bad so quickly
Hope you find something better soon 

Show threadFoxarcMar 17

@devkitsune

I'm really not being paid very generously at all, so I don't see a lot of reason to put up with bullshit treatment.

Show threadDeltaWyeMar 17

@devkitsune This sounds like one of those “everybody just quit” situations.

What your boss is asking is beyond madness.

Show threadDevKitsune 🦊 🏳️‍🌈Mar 17

@DeltaWye yeah I think everyone quits is not outside the realm of possibility

No one seems very happy about it - I think everyone in engineering got similar "pep talks"

We have at least one, maybe two, H1B people, who probably can't quit without risking losing their legal status, but there are also a lot of people who have families/young children who are extremely unhappy about the situation, I heard one of the accelerator physicists talking to one of the mechEs this morning about how unfair it would be for their wives in terms of childcare for them to work crazy and unpredictable hours for weeks on end.

The physicist basically said "I can work one day a week for 20 hours or I can work 5 days for 8 and they can choose"

Show threadDeltaWyeMar 17
@devkitsune God H1B workers are basically slaves.
I’ve seen this before. It’s revolting how they’re treated.
Show threadFoxarcMar 17

@devkitsune

If they really try to enforce this I will just leave. I have a life outside of my job, friends who I like to spend time with.

Show threadToroidalCoreMar 17

@devkitsune It's worth keeping an eye out for something else, in case it does get that bad. It sounds like a toxic culture.

There's an argument to be made for making sure you have at least ~2 years at a place to look good on your resume, but it's not insurmountable, and it's not worth your sanity.