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My eye! Sweet Jesus, Ouch!


Sledge

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The arrogance of some people is just mind-boggling.

 

 

Just had a rather heated discussion with a customer who was insisting we sent him the wrong bits. He was swearing blind that we sent the wrong size fixing ring, I explain that we don't even stock a different size ring to send so this cannot be the case. He says he's not stupid, he has the thing in front of him. Then he uses my personal favourite "I was an engineer for 40 years, there's no way this will fit"

 

 

The whole time he was assembling the kit wrong. 

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Can someone tell me the lingual difference between a technician and an engineer?

WAY too many people claim to be 'an engineer' in series, on TV or newspapers.

Here, an engineer requires 4 years extra higher education, and then you're "just" an industrial. Civil engineer takes 7 years university.

Yet you see people grabbing the wrong end of a screwdriver, claiming they're an engineer.

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If you are a real engineer you'll often have a professional qualification and have letters after your name.

Now, I'm not looking for praise by saying this, but the only qualifications I have are up to A level.

 

I've grown up watching my dad build a house from scratch, along with other family members who have done the same. I'm in the process of doing it myself now. I can do pretty much anything apart from plaster.

 

Again, heavy father influence, he taught me to drive when I was 11, and I was stripping engine components down not long after. Used to be able to strip down the carb on the mini I had for fun when I was 12. That experience grew, and while I would not like to, I could strip an engine down and rebuild it no problem now.

 

I spent 19 years on building sites and in our shop making and fitting ducting. I can turn a sheet of steel into most duct pieces using a guillotine, folder and maths. I ran teams of lads on sites and can read site drawings/blueprints, and can draw basic ones. I can work out resistances of duct, and tie that into pricing a whole design and build job from scratch with a fair degree of accuracy.

 

I can Heath Robinson things so they work, and think outside the box to address or change it long term too.

 

Again, not looking for praise or anything, but I consider myself an engineer and don't have any qualifications as such :)

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Service Desk Engineer and Service Engineer are two completely different fields of employment.

 

Oh I'm aware.

 

I just happen to work for a company that doesn't differentiate between full time field service engineer, workshop engineer or service desk engineer that happens to work rotation in the workshop.

 

I know I'm not a "proper" engineer with letters and whatnot, but I'll take it, seeing as they keep calling me it and I keep fixing flaws that come through from design and manufacturing.

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Can someone tell me the lingual difference between a technician and an engineer?

WAY too many people claim to be 'an engineer' in series, on TV or newspapers.

Here, an engineer requires 4 years extra higher education, and then you're "just" an industrial. Civil engineer takes 7 years university.

Yet you see people grabbing the wrong end of a screwdriver, claiming they're an engineer.

 

The difference is over here it's not a protected title, so anyone can call themselves an engineer. As a soon-to-be engineering grad, it's mildly annoying.

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Imagine people calling themselves doctors who had no qualifications in that field... I don't think that would go down well.

Having said that, the Wikipedia definition of an engineer reads as follows:

"An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics, and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical, societal and commercial problems."

So technically if you're making your living by applying science, maths and "ingenuity" to build and/or fix things, then I guess you fit that definition.

 

The Oxford Dictionary definition reads as follows:

1   A person who designs, builds, or maintains engines, machines, or structures.
1.1 A person qualified in a branch of engineering, especially as a professional

2   A person who controls an engine, especially on an aircraft or ship.
3   A skilful contriver or originator of something

 

So, again, having an engineering qualification is only ONE of the definitions of being an engineer.

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Imagine people calling themselves doctors who had no qualifications in that field... I don't think that would go down well.

 

You mean like those who have a doctorate in Osteopathy thinking it means they can comment on immunology? Unfortunately many see the title Dr and switch off their common sense
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Doctor Kreiger's first name is Doctor.

 

He holds no qualifications. I might change my surname to include a few honorifics.

 

I might buy one of those decorative Lordship titles. 

 

If someone assumes a booking error has occurred and I get upgraded to 1st class on a plane just the once in my life because of it, it will have paid for itself.

 

Plus, I'd be a Lord.

 

Also, imagine the verbal bitchslapping you could give people. A telemarketer calls;

 

"Hi, can I speak to Mr X?"

"Lord"

"I'm sorry?"

"Lord X, not Mr."

 

Anything which puts telemarketers on the backfoot is a bonus.

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You mean like those who have a doctorate in Osteopathy thinking it means they can comment on immunology? Unfortunately many see the title Dr and switch off their common sense

 

Well, I was more thinking of someone without a doctorate at all saying they were a doctor and trying to work in that field (whether medicine or otherwise)

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I suppose Viera Scheibner would be a better example. A degree in geology doesn't mean you're qualified to comment on vaccines. The anti vax loons (or should that be pro disease?) are an absolute goldmine of quackery, pseudoscience and downright

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