On being a professional vs. being an engineer

I believe its the case that ‘Engineer’ rates right up there with Doctor, Lawyer, Airline Pilot among a list of job titles people would describe as being ‘professional’ or at least ‘white-collar’ occupations.

Software Engineer is a different species of engineer, of course, but the best among us have soaked up every useful bit of information, guidance and discipline the engineering community has to offer, and we feel entitled to call ourselves professionals and feel every bit the equal of Civil Engineer or Biomedical Engineer, or anyone else who uses systematic cycles of observation, theorization, experimentation and assessment to objectively further a goal..

I’m proud to work with great, professional Software Engineers. But the flipside of being part of this club, is that while it is possibly a high-paying occupation, financial success in this or any occupation is not necessarily associated with being at the pinnacle of technical excellence. Many great programmers never get paid what they’re worth, or put another way, the code they write may end up selling for substantially less (per implemented feature) than another person’s code, when in fact the reverse ought to be true, particularly if the maintenance costs will be less.

We in this field, like other professional fields, sell our time. Our expertise, which we constantly invest in, is our fixed cost – our overhead. We need to both recoup our investment in our expertise, and pay for todays living, growth and fun, if we are to be deemed a ‘profitable’ entity.

The thesis of this article is that we even need to go one step beyond being profitable. We owe it to ourselves – to preserve our investment and field in general – to be profitable, not just for the work we do, but enough so that we can sock it away for future uncertainty, to fund sabbaticals whether or not our employers will sponsor them, etc… But how can we ever achieve this as long as we need to continue to show up for work in order to be paid ?

I’ll put out a hypothetical, theoretical formula that may or may not work for any particular situation. I will claim that it is mainly through holding back some of your expertise that you can get ahead. That is the only thing completely in your control, so how can you do this ? Here’s a somewhat contrived example: Suppose that over the weekend, while investing some time into one of your pet projects, you discover a technique that will let you get the 8 hour task you have at work done in 1 hour. Your 2 hour weekend fun saved you 7 hours on the clock at work ! You choose how to allocate those savings. And you fail if you decide without consideration that all of that profit should be your employer’s.

Here’s what you could do – On Monday, finish the work in 1 hour, and bill 4 hours. Since they expected it to cost 7 hours, you’ve saved them 3 hours, or roughly split the savings with them. This leaves you with 4 hours of savings you have not allocated. The first 2 are to recoup you for your investment in time. Then an amount equal to your investment (another 2 hours) you can take out as ‘profit’. Spend that time how you like. Your employer got savings that they had no real claim to, a greater amount than you, and you got to get exceedingly well paid for your 1 hour of work. This is what getting ahead financially looks like ! With those extra hours you have, you can invest in learning new techniques, get old paperwork cleared up, play guitar or a video game, or whatever. The smart money would be on sowing some seeds for future benefit, but hey we all need to rest too !

I have to admit that as an Engineer, part of me feels like this is against some sort of engineer’s code of conduct – and yet, I’m not advising anything unfair – I’m not advocating sloth so much as I am advocating keeping books on your time – your most valuable asset – and when your explorations yield you a harvest, I’m advising you to refill the buckets you’ve been emptying in a certain order – paying yourself first, then investing in the future, then sharing the gains with your employer.

The reason this is not a bad thing to do, as much as I feel I need to defend it, is that the benefits of you having paid yourself first – will come to your employer’s benefit as well. While you are blowing your surplus of 3 hours the way YOU like, you may very well unlock new savings for your employer. Already they got a savings of 3 hours, plus whatever future savings there are from your discovery, and if you continue making discoveries, they will have future ADDITIONAL savings from those. A person who is happy, curious, and professionally on top of their game, will continue to stay on the leading edge just for the personal reward of it.

This is what I mean by being a professional vs. being an engineer. An engineer derives their value proposition solely from what can externally be measured. A professional manages his books to ensure he turns a profit, so he is sustainable and therefore more able to be counted on by those who depend on him or her. We need to have both sides of our brain active…

Take profit whenever you create a good amount of value. If you don’t feel you are, start investing in yourself – on your own time – and visualize being in that position until you find yourself there. Just keep finding, keep striving, and keep doing what you can to ensure the survival of your knowledge, of your part of the discipline of Engineering.