What they don’t tell you in school

[u/WannabeChE]

You will meet people that have worked at the plant you work at that started off as operators 15+ years ago that are miles and miles ahead of you in experience. They will know the process and have a good understanding of what is happening. They will know their system and won’t need to (but can) trace lines. A degree does not make you smarter but it gives you a deep understanding of the physics and science behind something explaining why. It will put you at about the same level as an operator who has worked there for 10-15 years in terms of pay, but learning never ever stops! In my opinion the experience is so much more valuable to the company, but experience and understanding why is gold!

[u/dirtgrub28]

you'll also meet people that have been there 15 years that have no fucking clue. the trick is being able to differentiate the two

[u/Cool_Election7606 → u/dirtgrub28]

Those are funny enough important workers because they will almost never leave and you can rely on them for routine tasks 😅

[u/Cool_Election7606 → u/Cool_Election7606]

Obviously anything complicated you gotta talk to the right ones goes with everything

[u/Illustrious_Bid_5484 → u/dirtgrub28]

If you take. The derivative of 2 people x¹⁵ years. You’ll soon realize that I have no clue what I’m talking about

[u/Iscoffee → u/dirtgrub28]

Agree. Experience don't necessarily equate to knowledge and growth. There are employees who ponder about the things they see each day or at least every year at their work. On the contrary, there are some who just wants to end the day, and there are those who avoid being given tasks (my former manager is one). That differentiates the engineers to some operators (but not all).

Engineers are given the tools to analyze what's happening in their process. Albeit some engineers also become too engrossed with ego and experience that they become very reliant to abstraction and pure experience in a blind manner.

A good engineer is still able to relate equations and theories even after years of being outside the university or college.

[u/YesICanMakeMeth → u/Iscoffee]

I had an experience with someone outside of work that had been an operator for like 20+ years. A well pump was having trouble moving water and he thought it was because the lines went too far below the water level, so a fluid 101 tier misunderstanding of how rated pump height works and is derived. Yes, I know friction does increase, but that's not what the problem was and not where his head was. He was just looking at the rated pump height and since the line length was larger he thought we needed to cut the lines.

I explained it, his reaction was "I've been working with pumps for 30 years, I know how they work." No, I wasn't a pompous dick, he just couldn't accept being corrected by a university student in his 20s, no matter how gently it was done. He did very graciously admit he was wrong when it didn't fix the problem lol.

[u/Half_Canadian → u/dirtgrub28]

The worst is anybody who thinks they know better than everybody else.  Applies to technicians and engineers.  Hard to work with these people

[u/Iscoffee → u/Half_Canadian]

This is the worst kind of sht work environment. I had an executive, list "process design" as one of his "expertise" even though he just dabbled only on basic FEED level deliverables and had contractors do the rest of stuff.

They said to me that piping design only takes around two weeks to design because it's only Q = Av and I wasted their millions because I took months. Little did he know (or the lack of acknowledgement) that we started with the plot plan, PFDs, P&IDs, line sizing, material selection, and detailing of valves. That was for around 5-8 systems mind you. All of those stages have reviews and presentations. Such utter bullsht. He wanted me out. I resigned the fk out of that company. Such a thankless workplace.

I'm now in a better place where people especially veterans knows their stuff and doesn't look down on their people. This is one of the heaviest experience that I will carry throughout my life.

[u/thumpas → u/dirtgrub28]

You’ll also meet people who have been there 30 years and are convinced they know best in every situation, and while they do know the process and the facility, they don’t give two shits about compliance or quality.

Sorry if I sound salty lol