EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Out of Hours Technology How's It Done?

maczc636, glad I don't work with you. Such snobbery, we work here as a team and not individuals based on qualifications and experience. Everyone can learn off everybody else and no one is above anybody when it comes to repairing the equipment.

Can't help wondering, Neil, how we've managed all these years, without an Engineer to hold our hand(s).

Yeah ... everyone has a University Degree these days. That's part of the problem. No doubt Glyn will see things a bit differently once he joins the real EBME world (if that's what we're calling it).

Ahh,
the old degree snobbery again.
I have interviewed numerous degree wollers over the years. A little test we give them is identification of engineering components. Engineers you would think would be able to identify them??
Well all i can say is its amazing the number of Engineers with degrees who say a split pin is a hair clip? either uni is doing a really good job on the hairstyling repair module or Engineers are more concerned with whats on their heads than whats in them.

My own position remains as it always has been:- I really couldn't care less about whether a tech (a word I really use as a shorthand - otherwise we have to resort to excessive definitions) carries a degree, an HNC ... or good old City & Guilds, for that matter.

I believe that most of us on here know what qualities are actually needed (so there's no need to spell them out yet again). But I had better add my old favourite:- "willingness to work" (that is, to carry out the job as it actually is).

I have worked with folk at all levels (architects, engineers, surgeons ... and all the rest), and have generally been able to "hold my own" ... even to the extent of occasionally "calling the shots"!

But I must admit that I have been known to bristle at suggestions along the lines of:- "only Engineers are able (or allowed) to think" or "we leave PM to the plebs"!

Agreed! I am an Engineer! Not a Technician.



Not Agreed! I was an Engineer long before I had a degree. Being an Engineer in my view is more about a way of thinking than about experience or qualifications.
Some people (who shall remain nameless) have engineering qualifications but still DO NOT think like an engineer.

Bravo!

Being an engineer starts with your first Meccano set!

It's a mind-set, rather than a piece of paper. I have worked with many biomeds in (and from) various parts of the world, and have found both good and bad. Many of those guys from overseas had "degrees" from this or that university. Unfortunately, most of them also seemed to think that entitled them to sit on their fat butts for the rest of their days (even expecting the mere "technicians" to carry their toolkits for them). Needless to say, all that changed once I took over!

I have also come across guys with bits of paper claiming they held a Masters Degree in electronics whom I never even issued a toolkit to - thereby avoiding the trail of destruction I feared would ensue (and for me to clear up, as usual).

On the other hand, I have also been lucky enough to work with guys who had an intuitive grasp of practical electronics (as in, actually finding faults - then repairing them) that I have never been able to equal myself. And (two guys come immediately to mind) in *both cases, they were - as far as I could ever work out - entirely self-taught!

* In case anyone is wondering, one was Turkish, the other a Filipino.

Meccano, Lego, Stickle bricks, The building bricks of many an engineer.
See University Challenge had a question set in Leggo last night. Maybe theres time for us yet.

Back in My Day there was a well-trodden path of progression for the inquiring mind to follow. Something like:-

Meccano -> motor-bikes -> "old banger" cars -> the apprenticeship -> electronics -> BASIC ... and onwards!

Back then, we were always hungry for more information, but (looking back) it felt as though we were being fed it drip by drip (if we were lucky). I was always seeking out books on the topics that interested me (and have only let go of them all in recent years).

These days, of course, there is access to information on a scale that we never even dreamed of. In a word, the internet. I sometimes wonder how we would have got on had it been available "back then"? Speaking for myself, I suspect that I would have remained stuck at one of the early stages; overwhelmed, distracted, diverted, and wandering down some random path (lost) somewhere.

I wonder how today's young 'uns are "kept on track", so to speak.

Just wondering, what is the difference between a biomedical engineer and a clinical engineer? Fancy titles???
As I have mentioned previously titles/certificates do not impress me, can you do the job, that is all I am interested in!

There's no practical difference.

Now ... can we please get this thread back on course. It's under Free discussion -> Technology, remember?

If folk are still worried about job titles, vocational definitions, university degrees, who is better than whom, and stuff like that ... please feel free to start a new thread!