[ithicaplasma]

Im just feeling like complete shit and felt like ranting.

I work as an aerospace structures engineer and I just realized today that due to my inexperience I fucked up and undersized an assembly that is rather important for the airplane. This is gonna be one expensive embarassing fuck up on my companys part and I am the only one to really blame.

I think i derive too much of my self worth from my job because right now I feel completely worthless!! Iv done 10,000 things completely correctly over the years but the only thing I and my bosses will remember is that one big fuck up. God I Hope I don't get canned over this, it god damn embarrassing.

End Rant

 

[RayOSV]

Don't be too hard on yourself. In your business there should be checks on critical assemblies. Was there a design review? Should someone have been checking your work? Did you find the error and report it? Often what happens after an error like this is more important than the error itself.

 

[zmeiaspas]

I know this is far from helping but everyone fucks up. Some more than others but still, everyone does. Hope all ends well.

:beer

 

[ithicaplasma]

Thats part of the problem I suppose, at the time of the design I was the only one there that was a structures engineer so there was nobody to check anything.

I got a little cocky being a one man band for the past three years and finally fucked up big time.

 

[boner]

my sympathies man. i am a manufacturing engineer at a stainless foundry and there is nothing worse than knowing i made a mistake that cost the company money, or worse, missed delivery deadlines, i hang my head low for days.

there are so many hypocrites though, the same machinist that has worked my main turret lathe for 35 years will talk shit about a typo on a sketch i made, but acts like it is no big deal when he scraps a 4000 lb casting because he didn't double check a dimension and thought that 7 was a 9.

really though, if your boss is good he should reckognize the 10,000 proper things you have done and be able to mitigate the damage to your reputation from your one fuck up.

best of luck

 

[boner]

Don't be too hard on yourself. In your business there should be checks on critical assemblies. Was there a design review? Should someone have been checking your work? Did you find the error and report it? Often what happens after an error like this is more important than the error itself.

excellent point. man up. don't try to pass the blame or bs your way out of it. just fix it and make sure it never happens again.

the last mistake i made at work i flipped two numbers on an internal material grade code, we poured a 3000lb casting in a metal similar to what the customer wanted, but not. the lab caught it immediately because they are the first check in line, but the casting had already been poured. it was a huge wast of money and resources. i felt like a complete ass.

so i worked with IT to set up a system to check that the grade the lab had was the same as the grade on the foundry sheet before the job was issued. it was easy and and that mistake will never happen again.

 

[ithicaplasma]

You guys do make me feel somewhat better I want to learn from it but god is it painful to go through.

I don't want to name names but this assembly is critical for a new enormous jet liner that has 4 engines and is not made in europe and its set to fly in a few months! God it makes me sick to think of the consequences of this one.

Sometimes I miss washing cars for a living.

 

[boner]

what new domestic jet liner? the 787 only has two engines, i can't think of another.

edit, 747-8?

 

[LDS]

If you were the only engineer, are you sure you received all of the data you needed? If you were given unclear or incorrect specs...

 

[tarosean]

Its okay dude....

Last week I just trained a Petroleum Engineer with a PHD who is going to be doing manual labor that kids with GED's and no higher education usually get...




course he is a victim of the recession and not a F up...

 

[ithicaplasma]

what new domestic jet liner? the 787 only has two engines, i can't think of another.

edit, 747-8?

like I said, Im not naming names, but if you find another plane that fits that description let me know.

if you were the only engineer, are you sure you received all of the data you needed? If you were given unclear or incorrect specs...

Yes I could go down that road and the customer certainly was not innocent but ultimately it is my responsibility, I need to owe up to the my mistake.

 

[beowulf2k]

Shit happens. DIdnt you see forrest gump?

 

[Stick N Move]

I always thought enginners were perfect.

 

[Nightfall]

Its okay dude....

Last week I just trained a Petroleum Engineer with a PHD who is going to be doing manual labor that kids with GED's and no higher education usually get...




course he is a victim of the recession and not a F up...

Whoa whoa whoa ...

Chill out with that a little would you. Not everyone who leaves highschool is a "fuck up" as you so bluntly put it. I left highschool, but I'm also a mechanical engineering student and am about to enlist in the USAF in a few months, what you said was a little critical.

So maybe try being a tad less stereotypical.

 

[ARozanski]

Whoa whoa whoa ...

Chill out with that a little would you. Not everyone who leaves highschool is a "fuck up" as you so bluntly put it. I left highschool, but I'm also a mechanical engineering student and am about to enlist in the USAF in a few months, what you said was a little critical.

So maybe try being a tad less stereotypical.

I believe tarosean is referring to the PhD losing his job due to the recession as compared to fucking up in his job.

 

[ARozanski]

Im just feeling like complete shit and felt like ranting.

I work as an aerospace structures engineer and I just realized today that due to my inexperience I fucked up and undersized an assembly that is rather important for the airplane. This is gonna be one expensive embarassing fuck up on my companys part and I am the only one to really blame.

I think i derive too much of my self worth from my job because right now I feel completely worthless!! Iv done 10,000 things completely correctly over the years but the only thing I and my bosses will remember is that one big fuck up. God I Hope I don't get canned over this, it god damn embarrassing.

End Rant

After reading the thread, I am amazed that there were no design reviews along the way, even if you are the only structural engineer involved. Are you a sub to the prime builder, or do you work for the prime directly? When we get involved with primes, there are design reviews every six months or so.

 

[bush]

Its okay dude....

Last week I just trained a Petroleum Engineer with a PHD who is going to be doing manual labor that kids with GED's and no higher education usually get...

course he is a victim of the recession and not a F up...

Chances are that a guy working manual labor with a PHD probably fucked up somewhere along the way.

 

[g34343greg]

i'm in the mechanical engineering business (still got one more year of school) and work for a small company that rebuilds rotors, exciters, collectors, etc.

there's only 4 engineers counting myself and no one ever checks each others work. it really scares me and i've brought it up before but nothing has changed. it's incredibly easy to make a small mistake that could cost alot of money

don't feel bad man, shit happens

 

[ridinhome]

After reading the thread, I am amazed that there were no design reviews along the way, even if you are the only structural engineer involved. Are you a sub to the prime builder, or do you work for the prime directly? When we get involved with primes, there are design reviews every six months or so.

+1

Without minimizing your responsibility in all of this, given that this is a multi-billion $ project crucial to the future of the company (if its the plane / company I'm thinking of) I'm very surprised that management didn't put in place multiple review processes. Management isn't rocket science - not having a good process in place means that something like this was bound to happen.

Based on the limited info. here, there's another way to look at this. Either the work you were doing was hugely critical, but your past performance has been stellar in which case management was so confident in you they let your work go ahead unreviewed. In which case, its possible that they may yet think of you as a superstar, and while you will likely lose that status, they may decide not to fire you. Recession and all, good talent is good talent and it'll take them a while to blood in new talent into your place if they fire. Not something they can afford to do in a market like this.

On the other hand, it could be the case that the assembly you were designing is less critical in the larger scheme of things, and you're making it out to be a b***** issue in your mind. Not uncommon - I've been there a bunch. I'm not trying to minimize your work, I'm merely trying to rationalize management's failure institute a review process without jumping to the conclusion that management is incompetent.

Either ways, though, I think they best advice is for you to come up with a plan to remedy the situation in a manner which minimizes time / costs. Then go to your boss right away, own up to your mistake, and lay out the alternatives. Even if your plan is flawed, the very fact that you've thought about it, and thought through the issues will reduce the impact to you.

Good luck to you. This is a shitty situation.

 

[SloppyJoseph]

I fuck up at work everyday.... no worries. But im not a Licensed Engineer yet.