The Proactive Preface

Welcome to the story of my time as an engineer. Before I dive into this rant, I want to take a moment to preface this series by talking about why I wrote it, what it's really about, and why it's important. Why I Wrote This Series As will likely become apparent shortly, I wrote A String of Unfavorable Roles because I was miserable working my engineering job. After graduating from college, I went from the excitement of academia to the mind-numbing grind of employment. Within six months, I felt depleted of all of my creativity and self-worth as even trivial tasks were bogged down in bureaucracy and judgment. Eventually, I began ranting in the form of writing through this website. Before long, I had a full-fledged series of rants filling up my draft queue. What began as a simple mode of venting became an honest series. Truthfully, I wrote this series for me, but I am publishing this series for you. Perhaps you may be able to take something from it. What It's Really About To put it bluntly, A String of Unfavorable Roles is the story of why I quit my engineering career. But if you read this series cover-to-cover, you'll notice that I never reveal personal details like names. That serves two purposes. For one, I don't want to damage anyone's reputation or image regardless of how they may have treated me. After all, I understand the sociological constraints of business and how they play a role in human behavior. Secondly, I don't believe real names would add any value to the stories. I wanted the stories to be generic enough that you could relate to them in some way. However, just because I chose not to name anyone doesn't mean that the business is off the hook. After all, for you to properly critique my position, it would be helpful to know my background. As such, I'll reveal that I spent my entire engineering career at GE Transportation in Erie, Pennsylvania. The preface will be the only place I explicitly name the company to avoid any confusion, but I may allude to them through links and and videos. Regardless, I feel little to no risk in naming them simply because I have no plans to return to engineering. Likewise, the overall business has recently decided to slowly sell off the transportation division, so it's likely it'll be under some other company by the time these articles gain any traction. Why It's Important This preface was written the morning that Nancy Martin, the head of the Edison leadership program, decided to announce her retirement. During her announcement, she mentioned something that really gave me a lot of respect for her. It went something like this (not an exact quote): Lately I've been hearing a lot of people say "I've never had a bad day at GE." Well, let me tell you something. I have.My mom used to say "you can never have two bad days in a row." Clearly, she never worked at GE. I've had bad weeks, bad years. But, I like to think they made me who I am today. Her perspective is critical if you want to understand why this series is important. In no way am I attempting to slander my old business. Instead, I'm trying to highlight many of the struggles engineers like me have on a daily basis. So, remember that "quote" as you read through this series. It should aid in dissecting even some of my most aggressive rants.

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