A Month Into My First Real Job

People ask me what I do, and the simple answer is that I'm tech support, tech support for other engineers. Doesn't sound very glamorous, does it? The first day of work, I was talking to a new R&D guy and his comment was something to this effect "Yeah, another company offered me a job like that, but I took this one because it was actual engineering work. I'm sure they'll let you apply for a new job here soon."

Sometimes, I'm feeling a little in agreement with this guy, a little sad that my job isn't more technical, more glamorous, that I can't say I'm designing boards to [insert cool application here: control robots, diagnose the flu, help premature infants to oral feed, make planes fly autonomously]. Plus, let's be honest. Dealing with people that are confused/frustrated/upset can be confusing/frustrating/upsetting/difficult.

But, mostly, I love my job. It's definitely challenging - when engineers can't solve their own problems, they call us to solve them. The day flies by because I get so involved with all the people I'm trying to help and all the problems I'm trying to solve. The company won't let me get bored, either. In another week, I'll be back in training so I can support hardware and in another month I'll move into a specialty team where I'll be supporting more complicated, specialized issues. Soon after that, I'll start collecting projects from other departments to work on. My 'mentor' has been working 8 months and she's already the lead of her specialty team and flying around the country teaching customer education classes and recruiting from college campuses and working on outside projects.

I've been thinking about why the company does it this way? Why do they advertise this as the best way to become a leader in the company and recruit all these newly graduated, super ambitious engineers? Then, I think about the perspective this position is giving me. It's kind of like how the gospel makes you better at whatever else you do in life. The gospel makes you understand that there are things that matter this week and then there are things that matter in the eternities. This week, you might really like buying that [insert your dream buy here] and playing with it, but in a few years you're going to be grateful for family time and service given and knowledge gained. I think this position will make me better at whatever other engineering (and maybe more domestic) positions I have in life. Engineers tend to want to add whatever they think is cool to an item -- they might make a remote control airplane that's super accurate and fast but only if you press the dozens of buttons in the right order -- not very user friendly. This job forces me to think about the people using the products, to make sure they're satisfied and understand their needs. And, I mean, if you want to make products that will actually help people (and make money) and build a company that people keep depending on, then that's pretty important.

(sometimes, this is me but hopefully not too often)