The Age of Innocence

Written by: Tony Harris, January 7, 2016

I got into engineering management at the age of 29. The first thing I did was to make the designs that I had put into production, obsolete. Hide the evidence – cover my tracks, no one could question the robustness of my designs, all that remained were data sheets.

I wanted to become a manager as I was frustrated by management. Rather than help engineers they seemed just to put obstacles in our way. My manager at the time used to smoke a pipe and kept it in his mouth when talking, so I was never really sure what he was saying anyway. He would spend most of his time in his office.

The wonderful thing about being an engineering manager is that you can get out of your office. Leave the spread sheets behind close out of Power Point presentations. You can skive off and go into the lab and talk to all the engineers about what they are working on and help them solve whatever problem they have. The best part is; and this is really cool, no one can complain as it is part of your job!

So I have to go now. They are testing E&I’s new Class D, 1000 Watt amplifier today. They may need my help…