- #1
Iforgot
- 105
- 0
I've been at my job for a couple of months now, and it's tough job. I'm actually designing and building things that other people will use. It's a completely different beast than my PhD in experimental (UHV,rf,clean room facilities) physics. Cludge isn't acceptable... What's a guy to do?
I can't tell if I'm getting dumber, or my projects are getting harder. I always thought I was clever (at least until I started grad school) b/c coding came easy to me. But my coding and cludging intuition isn't helping me with this job.
When it comes to project design, 1) I want to build a quick crappy prototype using cheap parts, and continuously refine it (like code). 2) My boss wants me to spend serious time designing it, and making sure all parts are compatible in advance. 3) I was trained in grad school to take whatever is lying around and make do.
On the plus side, it's a boatload of awesome experience. I'm building this whole thing myself. Everything from the circuit design and optics setup, to the processing software and chassis machining. I'm also getting the chance to work on my own proposals. All these will be notches on the good old belt.
On the down side, we are a small company (#people< 6), and I'm the only one working on my project. One of my coworkers has experience with my project, and he's very helpful. But still I feel overwhelmed.
To the people on this forum, what are your experiences building a producing stuff, and just working at small companies in general?
I can't tell if I'm getting dumber, or my projects are getting harder. I always thought I was clever (at least until I started grad school) b/c coding came easy to me. But my coding and cludging intuition isn't helping me with this job.
When it comes to project design, 1) I want to build a quick crappy prototype using cheap parts, and continuously refine it (like code). 2) My boss wants me to spend serious time designing it, and making sure all parts are compatible in advance. 3) I was trained in grad school to take whatever is lying around and make do.
On the plus side, it's a boatload of awesome experience. I'm building this whole thing myself. Everything from the circuit design and optics setup, to the processing software and chassis machining. I'm also getting the chance to work on my own proposals. All these will be notches on the good old belt.
On the down side, we are a small company (#people< 6), and I'm the only one working on my project. One of my coworkers has experience with my project, and he's very helpful. But still I feel overwhelmed.
To the people on this forum, what are your experiences building a producing stuff, and just working at small companies in general?