What is a career in research and development like?

Question

One day in the life of a research scientist/engineer in electrical engineering. Pros, cons, lifestyle, salary.

Answer 1

It will depend on where you work. I have not worked in an educational setting, so, it may be different.

I worked for a company that was developing a new tool for offshore drilling. I worked in the field and it was my job to record conditions that the tool operated in when it worked and when it was broken.

I had the chance to visit our corporate HQ and met the design engineers. They were very bright. While there, I got to see some of the internal mechanics of the organization. The worst part of R&D is funding. It can be cut from you in a moments notice and you will be spending more time trying to find it. I realized when there that I was a sore thumb because I had a tendency not to sugar coat my opinions and tell things the way they were in front of the VP of the project. It nearly got me fired. This company had spent 10 years, 10Million dollars and were more or less the same stage they were the first year.

When the economy tanked, and funding was scarce, they had fired a technician (who was responsible for many of the improvements). When they did, he took his knowledge with him and he did not share the things he had not put in his notes-it set us back about 4 years. I told the VP this opinion and you could hear the breath go out of the room.

Anyway, I left our HQ and was nearly fired for being forthright. Our company eventually took the tool commercial because our competition had developed the same type of tool quicker. We did some spying and found out that they had subbed-out the development of the area where we were weak. So, our Board of Directors bought the company that developed our comp's electronics. It was a brilliant move in corporate espionage.

R&D is great. I loved it (even though I pooped in my wheaties and was never promoted after visiting corporate). I ultimately left the company for other reasons and miss it some. But, you never lose the mindset where you are always looking to improve on others modifications or striving to create new methods.

Me? I am the kind of guy that could look at a mousetrap and try to improve it, but am not the type that can build the first version.

Answer 2

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