Starting in a new role is never easy. You can get overwhelmed by new terminology, unfamiliar components, new procedures, and a new team to get to know. That’s why we have put together a list of what we aim to complete in our first few weeks to get us set up for success in a new company.
Simple Things First
Want to know a productivity killer in engineering? Searching for procedures. You will find yourself needing several of the same procedures during your time with a company but typically these are stored in a shared drive with non-descriptive titles.
Our suggestion?
As you complete your mandatory training in your first few weeks keep an Excel spreadsheet open and write down the documents you see yourself needing regularly as well as a description of what they contain. Some suggestions would be validation procedures, design procedures, expense report procedures etc. Anything you think you will be looking for regularly - add it to the list.
A second area to address is access to as many of the tools/areas you will need for your job while you are settling in. Have you access to CAD software or Minitab if you need it? Getting these licenses approved can take several days depending on how your company is structured. This is not something you want to be spending time on as you are beginning to take on more responsibility in the project. Access to the manufacturing area for your device or the test lab is also one to pay attention to, as these often require in person training for gowning as well as a paper-based training aspect. These are small things, but having the basics covered in your first couple of weeks gives you a good foundation.
Getting to Grips with the Technical Side of Your Project
Building a solid base of technical knowledge on your project can take several months at a minimum. A lot of this knowledge will come from conversations with co-workers, info you pick up during meetings and from observations in your day to day. The first few weeks should focus on building out the skeleton of this information, this can then be used to help you in joining the dots as you gradually pick up more information over the coming months.
1. Naming Conventions
Whether you are working in R&D, Process Development or Manufacturing, you will have to dedicate a certain amount of time to getting familiar with the names of the relevant parts you are working on and the different areas of these components. It is easiest to do this with an experienced team member in person who can run through all the parts with you. Having this covered should be one of your priorities as it will allow you to follow device documentation easier and help with the subsequent steps in improving your technical knowledge.
2. Know Your Critical Specifications Your critical specifications should be one of the first things you look at on a device/component print. In general, these will cover things such as tensile strength, OD, ID, length etc. As a design engineer you should be looking to see where these specifications are derived from. Are they from an ASTM, an internal bench test, clinical data, a relation to another assembly component etc.? If you are in process development or manufacturing, you should be more concerned with how the test is performed and where in the process it is completed, try to see these inspections in person if possible.
3. Look into the History
Again, this point will have slightly different meanings depending on where you are working.
To start, as an R&D engineer, you should look to the old design reviews of the device. These should provide a lot of information relating to what changes were made to the design over time and why, as well as providing you with an idea as to the current challenges in the project.
In PD and Manufacturing, look to examine some historical data and see what the trend is for your inspections. Are there any that have poor yield or variable results? Were there any large fallouts previously? If so, ask a more experienced member what happened and try to build on your knowledge of the device and process from those around you.
4. Get Hands On
Be aiming to view as much of the device testing, assembly and manufacture as possible during your first few weeks as applicable to your role. See is it possible for you to run through a build so that you can become familiar with the difficulties in making the device and what areas are the most challenging. This hands-on experience will stand to you in time. It also serves the purpose of familiarizing you with the people who make and test the device you are working on. This has the added benefit of making it much easier to approach people with requests down the line as you will have broken the ice.
Seek Out Work
If you are starting as a fresh graduate the first few months may be slow. You should look to help the busier team members with some of their tasks during this time. If you are completing smaller tasks to a high standard people will recognize this and provide you with more meaningful work.
An error I made in my first position as a placement student was not being vocal enough in work. I was given almost no responsibility because I wasg it out. I didn’t want to annoy any of the engineers as they were busy, so I just kept to myself – massive mistake.
Fortunately, I learned from this and was much more vocal in my next role as a graduate and always nominated myself for work and to assist others. This led to me gaining a lot of experience and becoming a highly valued team member.
If you can start your next job with a focus on the above points you will be putting yourself in great shape to build on your strong start! As always please reach out to us with any queries, we are always happy to help.
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