valuable tips to a graduate structural engineer

huangyhg

valuable tips to a graduate structural engineer
i feel that to be a successful structural engineer one needs careful planning, continuous learning and valuable guidance from the senior engineers or colleagues. but not all the young engineers have the opportunity to improve ones skills and shine under the guidance of a learned engineer. so, i would like to have your opinions, suggestions or experiences that could help young engineers like me to have a right start to our professional career. thanks.

royces,
i think that it should be compulsory for all graduate engineers to work under the guidance of a senior engineer, sort of an internship. this should be a requirement to receive a degree as it is for medical doctors.
as well,
- learn to do all tasks longhand and gain an understanding of what you are doing and what the results should look like without using design aids or computers.
- never use a computer program to do calculations in an area you do not understand. and always study what the program says it does and compare its results to what you would expect.
- once you have done this, use computers with caution questioning the results and comparing to your understanding of how it should work and what the results should be.
e.g. fem software is taught as being accurate. it is not even an accurate analysis tool in many situations and can be made much less accurate by input that is not consistent and the understanding of this requires a good understanding of how fem works. and the program will not tell you that. you have to realise it yourself based on your understanding of engineering and structures.
but is is assumed by many that the design results from fem design programs are accurate because they come from fem software. the design routines are not fem, they are post-processor routines and can easily be wrong.
- never assume a computer is anything more than a glorified calculator. you, as the engineer, are the designer. you make the design decisions.
- never assume that a computer program is carrying out all of the code checks automatically. you must know all of the design code design and detailing requirements and make sure they are all satisfied.
-  at the end of the day, if something looks wrong, it probably is. this could be caused by incorrect data input, incorrect modelling or software bugs.
when you first start work, go ahead and look up and read all the state rules in your state pertaining to engineering licensing and practice.  that'll give you an idea of what's required of your experience and give you some idea of what you are or are not allowed by law to do.
why wouldn't all young engineers have to ability to find a senior engineer to work under, especially in the structural arena?  when i graduated, there were pe's every where looking to hire ei's.  and to add, never take the senior engineers word for something if you do not feel comfortable.  i often used to bring home code books after work to verify something that i was "told" during the day.  you just have to be very careful how you present errors that you found.  that will help develop another important skill for the work place, politics!
please provide us with an example of why your, or someone else would not be able to find a position.  this would be a very good reference if we could have people post where and how they found their jobs.
thankyou all for your valuable responses. and, to be more specific i am working under a senior engineer. but, not always you can find a mentor in the engineer you are working under. i mean to say that the pe would just answer to your specific questions or sometimes you might not even get an answer. not all engineers feel the urge to train the eits by sharing their experiences and help them learn by questioning. sometimes they just want to take things for granted. as rapt pointed out i have couple of friends who are so good at a few fem programs that they don't know why and what they are doing. i am just looking for some valuable guidelines which could keep young engineers like me on track and focused. i hope what all i said did make some sense. i am looking forward for more responses like the few above.
scottiesei- i hope i did answer to your first question. but i am not sure about your second one. can you please be more specific on that. thanks.
when i started looking for jobs, i used to spend a lot of time going though the openings available on job search portals like yahoo jobs and monster. but, this didn't really help me a lot. then i started working things out in a different way. i used to shortlist all the structural consulting firms that interest me based on geographical preference. then i email to each and every company inquiring if they have any openings in the area that i was interested in. honestly, this approach worked pretty well for me. i used to rely on
royces, it sounds like you did your homework to find your position and that is what i meant by my second question.  when i graduated, i went straight to the classifieds in the paper.  i lucked out and found a group that i progressed with for the next 7 years.  as far as not finding a mentor in your senior, i too had a similar situation.  but, i found that the lack of answers put me in to the code books more and more.  in a sense, i guess lack of direction was some what a teaching skill?!?  discussing projects with fellow engineers via friends or places like this board are a great way to keep educating yourself.
go into medicine... <g>  hours are less, the money is better and not anywhere near the liability...
dik
royces,
its good to hear there are others in the same position as me!  i frequently get what i consider 'bad' answers from so-called senior engineers.  im not sure i have much to add to this topic, but i share your frustration.  i would say to consider searching for a new firm.
i would say get an mba and go into the "business" field of some kind. the work is less, the liability is 0, and if you work your way to the top there are million dollar pay offs!