Types of Engineers in Malaysia

For those engineering students about to graduate, have you ever wondered what type of Engineers are there and which role suits you the most and you want to apply once you enter the working world?

Here are some examples that comes in mind. 

(*This might apply to civil engineering, electrical & mechanical, not sure about chemical, computer, IT, aerospace engineering etc.)

To make it general and easier to understand, let’s take an example of a project of 'Building a house.'


*p/s: This should be read with a pinch of salt.😼

What your Job title is	What you actually are
Project Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Monitor the project schedule, when the house is going to be build, when the item to build the house should arrive, 2.      Chase design engineers for design/drawings to submit to customers, 3.      Entertain customers when they come for meetings,       Record minutes of meeting of the said meeting,       Order food for that particular meeting. 4.      Keep track on the financial aspect of the project – if customer pays RM100K for the house, best to make the cost of building the house way lesser, better if can squish more money from customer for variation orders, means if the customer wants to add more windows, charge more!        Heck if they want to add another screws, charge more!! Basically you MANAGE stuffs.
QA/QC Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Check on item needed to build a house,         eg. check if the door knobs working, the plug points OK, if they’re not, send back to customer for replacement/refund etc. 2.      Also check on what other people is doing. Check whether the brick man’s laying enough brick, the wiremen wire stuff correctly and the measurement of the house is correct according to drawing, and if they’re not right, ask them to do it correctly. 3.      If all of these quality are not satisfactory, conduct a comprehensive meeting asking why they are not meeting the quality standard, and dig deep until everyone admit their mistake. 4.      Do yearly audit. Basically HATED by many.
Design Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Design (or rather draw - not much of designing new stuffs, most of the time copying previos project’s design/drawings) of the house layout, house foundation, house wiring and other drawings. 2.      If the house design is new, they should study new solutions and come out with new design.        Should know product specs and all the international/local regulations and design standards. 3.      Prepare list of material needed to buy the house, how many kilos of cement, how many tonnes of brick, how much tiles, lighting equipment, to, cosmetics stuffs like house furniture, paint for the whole house, to spare stuffs, spare fans, spare air-cond, spare awnings etc.        If they overbuy or wrongly bought and item, QC will audit the hell out of them. PM will make noise of how they mess with the project’s budget. 4.      Although they design the built of the house, they might not know how to repair/service the house themselves. Unless they’ve been to training. Perfect in Excel skills, and other softwares, because, they sit in front of the computer like 70% of their time. Basically a glorified draughter, Also the scapegoat.
Service Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Service a house that already been occupied if there are problems, or needing to install new equipment or upgrade all equipment. 2.      THE person who do hands on and servicing on the item that designed by design engineer, checked by the QCs and managed by the PM. 3.      Knows all the technical thing about the house way better than the engineers who design it. Basically the MAIN man, if there’s a miscalculation somewhere, they die first.
Testing Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Do testing after the house is built, whether the lights working, the faucets functioning, doors not squeaking, toilet bowl’s flushing etc, before testing it again with customer and ready to live in. 2.      Might have same level of knowledge as service engineer, since they do hands on. 3.      But didn’t involve in repairing the house, after they are completed. Basically testers (internal). Risk of dying not as high as the service engineer.
Product Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Have a detail knowledge about a specific product. Eg. Product engineer for toilet stuffs will know detail spec on wash basin, bath tub, shower head, toilet bowl etc. 2.      Do marketing for all these products, training to customers, new product launch, etc. 3.      Answer customer queries on those products. 4.      Develop product catalogs 5.      Carry those heavy catalogs to marketing events. Basically a Cuckoo/Coway/Avon promoter.
Sales Engineer	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Sell windows, doors, toilet bowls, kitchen cabinet, whatever stuffs that makes a house. 2.      Persuade(force/blackmail) clients to build their house with you. 3.      Know some technical specs of the products just enough to sell them. 4.      Have great negotiation skills. 5.    $$$$$ oriented 6. Probably also the MAIN man, because if he didn't get a job, everybody else won't have a job. Basically a Car salesmen, a prince charming and TALKS A LOT.
Draughter	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Help engineers draw stuffs. 2.      Have mad AutoCAD skills, can finish a drawing 3 times faster than engineers.
Interns	He/She/Apache Helicopter will, 1.      Print stuffs 2.      Google stuffs 3.      Make a report of how they print stuffs and google stuffs. Basically office boy/girl.
Engineering Students	Basically babies. NOT AN ENGINEER IN ANY WAY OR FORM.

Selective coordination for breakers and fuses

In simple words, coordination or selectivity is 'how we design which breaker to trip first if fault occurs without disturbing unrelated breaker upstream/downstream'.

I've learned this in Power System Analysis last time but that's on substation scale.

Here in smaller scale, we decide for selectivity of breakers/fuse in swithcboards/MCCs.

Time-current characteristic for breaker

If the two curves overlaps it shows that both breakers do not coordinate for fault current greater than the crossing point.

Time-current characteristic for Fuse

Load side have to be more sensitive so that when fault occurs at downstream, the load side breaker will trip first.

Methods of selective coordination

Interlocking may be apply so that if fault occurs at any of the level, the breakers on the other level wont trip.

But now I wonder, what if the upstream is a breaker and the downstream is the fuse. and the fuse is much high rating than the breaker?

How can I determine the coordination?

Full slide show can be viewed at the link below.

Source :

http://www.ascouniversity.com/apu_components/e_learning_006/index.html

Locked rotor current vs Starting current

Locked Rotor Current
1. The current taken from the line when a rotor is at
a standstill at rated voltage and frequency.
It is the line current when starting the motor direct

2. Current drawn by the motor when the motor locked (stopped) but full voltage is applied to the motor terminal.

Starting Current
Current drawn by the motor at the time of motor starting period.

In DOL starting, the full voltage is applied on motor terminal with the rotor stopped.
For the first few seconds, the rotor is almost stopped and it is similar to the case of locked rotor condition, so the starting current drawn by the motor is the same as the locked rotor current.

In other starting method, star delta/soft start, lower voltage is applied to the motor terminal hence the starting current is less than the locked rotor current.

In other words, they are more or less the same value, but starting current only occurs during start up. Locked rotor current occurs at any time the power is applied and the motor cannot spin, i.e a load jammed.

*will update later

Source:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/43929/Locked-Rotor-Current-vs-Starting-Current

More of Interviews - Typical Questions Asked

Following my last post about interviews, here are some others of paper tests questions I can share to fresh grads who are interviewing for engineering posts.

Like I mentioned in that post, Kirchoff's current law is a very common questions to be asked.

Easiest way to answer is : Current entering the junction = Current leaving the junction.

Doodle some current going in and out from a junction there as well.

And then just basic calculation.

Another interesting questions are Logical thinking questions.

There are 3 table lamps in a room.

The control switches was located outside the room where eyesight to the bulb is blocked. 

You are given a task to identify which switches control which lamps.

Bear in mind that you are only allowed switching two times, and by the time you enter the room you should be able to resolve the problem. Explain how you do that.

Quite simple right? Right?

Hehehe..so go figure.

My company's paper test asked about transformer winding calculation but I didn't managed to get my hand on that. So If I do I will show it here. Good Luck.

(^_^)

What do I do

If I haven't mentioned earlier I'm currently doing design for Low Voltage Switchboard. 

So basically, we got general spec and requirement from customer and their single line diagram, like this one. 

And from there, I will translate into how big the panel would be.

 

And after approve, we will come out with the schematic diagram and general arrangement drawing and our own single line diagram incorporating any deviation that have been agreed beforehand with the customers.

So from here we realize the drawing and give them to the production side for assembly and wiring.

This is one of the panel that are almost done in the factory.

But in between the drawings and the panel to look like this, there are but*load of stuffs needed to be done, tested, redo etc etc etc.

So yah. It was great.heh.

That's basically what I do. Still a lot to learn. 

But I admit its really interesting I mean if you really into this field of work. So ya, till next post :)

Of Interviews - Engineeing Fresh Grads

I haven't been to a lot of interviews. I've been to 4. But not all very fruitful in terms of interview tips. But there's something that I think worth sharing.

The 1st was an interview for an internship placement. Nothing much to tell just standard procedure.

The 2nd interview was with the first company I work with right after internship.
The boss (the Malaysian branch manager) who interviewed me did ask some technical question based on my internship experience but I figured out he just want to see how I response to questions. So basically, communication skills.
So I got the job, and as I can see the company doesn't need someone experienced at all, he just need someone who can get a sale and do the documentation needed and all the technical side will be done by engineers in their Singapore HQ. So I left the job after 6 month to pursue other job that could give me some satisfaction and an opportunity to grow.

My 3rd interview is for my current company.
This time the Design Manager straight away ask for simple technical questions, basically things I've learned in my uni years. But nerves got to me and I answered it with no confidence whatsoever (Turns out my answer was right though). He also asked me to explain about my FYP.
I got the job. Which I believe it's more cause of luck and I thank God for that ever since.

My 4th interview is just a few days after I start working for that company (the 3rd interview). So I went anyway mainly because it's a big Swiss Electrical company and I just want to have the experience. But the post I went for is not actually the post I want. It is for Sales Engineer post, the post I left at the S'porean company. So I ended up talking a lot about designing and what I want to do after 5 years is more designing. I did get the HR person's attention but I lost the Sales Manager at the 'Why do you want this post' talk.

So in short,

1.Just be yourself. Well, your better self at least.
2.On top of knowing what the company do, you also have to know what YOU want to do. This will give the clear picture to the interviewer of the direction you're heading.
3.Do not afraid to say you don't know/not sure of something, nobody knows everything.

Another point that I'm going to make is that LUCK plays like 40% of the role in getting your job.

The important key is you just have to be confident to communicate with the interviewer. Nobody expect a fresh grad to know everything. Most SME company just want to hire someone who can get the job done. As long as you have Engineering degree and a good attitude, they will take you because they know you will learn stuffs during the job itself.

HR people will look at your confidence- the way you present yourself, the way you talk and the way you answer questions. Basically how well you can communicate with them.

But the Engineering manager will question your knowledge and interest on the job you wish to apply for.
So be prepared for technical questions if interviewing for bigger companies.

For Engineering almost always they will ask you basic questions like
'Explain V=IR in your own understanding'
'Explain Kirchoff's current/voltage law?'
'How do I calculate the current for a given motor rating and Voltage supply in a three phase system'
Simple right? They won't ask you to derive Maxwell equation or anything there. Well if you're interviewing for a lecturer post you might be. I don't know. Hehe
But then again control your nerve. When you're nerves you can't even answer what's 100 divide by 10.

This is generally speaking based on my limited experienced only. And for fresh graduates. I believe experienced people will need to prove more technically but that's another story.

So if you've done your part well, you will already feel satisfied with yourself regardless you get the job or not.
The experience can be used for the next interview so Good Luck.

wordless wednesday

Engineering Drawing

When I applied for my current job, my superior asked if I have experience in AutoCad. I said no, because somehow, I never learned the software. But I told him, those software are something we can learn. With or without official lessons. Like photoshop. Or something. And he agrees.

So now, actually a huge chunk off my work involves AutoCad.

Baru saya teringat, dulu time sekolah kan saya amik Lukisan Kejuruteraan form 4 n form 5. It's actually what my department have been doing. Mendesign dan melukis lukisan kejuruteraan. Cumanya, sekarang AutoCad dah digunakan secara meluas. Orang dah tak pakai papan dengan sesiku T tu lagi. kot.

And saya tak bernasib baik sebab batch lepas saya baru diorang start ajar AutoCad sekali dalam subject Lukisan Kejuruteraan. Rugi-rugi.

Drawing board conventional

Dulu everytime nak pegi lab LK bawak papan ni mesti rasa cool gila. 

boooo Biology. hahaha.

Rotring drawing board set.

Tapi yang saya punya dulu A4. So takbes sangat pakai.

So bila fikir-fikir balik, punyalah tak relevan dah subject tu. Teknik-teknik melukis tu semua, 2 tahun belajar last-last tak pakai. Mungkin ex-classmate saya yang amik Architecture still pakai kot. Ke Architecture pun dah pakai AutoCad sekarang?

And budak-budak sekolah skarang still belajar pakai papan or totally AutoCad dah semua?

So kesimpulannya disini, pengalaman AutoCad saya dah 1 bulan. Orait lah kan. hahaha. Nasib baiklah draftperson semua baik-baik belaka. Kalau tak berat jugak la.

GA drawing for Battery Box. 

Syaratnya kena selalu buat, baru laju sikit. Macam Maths jugak, kalau selalu buat familiar lah.
Cuma satu je, saya nak PC ! !
Pakai AutoCad kat laptop samalah macam pakai Rotring size A4 tadi. Tak best. Tak puas.

Tapi baru lagikan, so takleh la nak demand, but haritu boss kata saya kena install satu design software, laptop yang ada tak compatible so maybe soon la. Takkan dia nak biar saya buang masa kan. Lagipun malas  betul nak bawak laptop ofis kehulu kehilir. Kena rompak ke apa sape nak bertanggungjawab?

Okey, off for now. happy weekend everybody!

Decisions

Minggu-minggu terakhir, ni bosan pulak, tak de ape nak buat sangat. My life update. Selepas 6 bulan bekerja di sebuah company vendor, saya tender resignation on 19/11/2012. I've got an offer from another company, Electrical related and I'm going to do design this time. No more sales stuffs, proposal stuffs, quotation stuffs. That's the MAIN reason why I looked out for another job. I want a job that is more towards the technical stuffs than the commercial side of it.

I thank God for the opportunity and hopefully everything will be okay in the future. Saya tak suka lompat-lompat. Kalau boleh nak settle down at one place.

SO, tadi pagi saya half day sebab pegi amik offer letter dekat company tu. Siap sesat jugak sikit. Hehe. Kita panggil company yang ni as company A.

Beberapa minggu lepas, sebelum saya diterima pegi company A, saya dapat call (basically phone interview atau pre-interview call, or whatever they're calling it nowadays) from a big company in electrical.  Lets call it THE company.

Pretty much my dream company ever since I started working in engineering field.

So memang tekejut habisla, nervous and superexcited sume at the same time.

The interview went fr an hour. And they mentioned if this interview went well, I'll got another interview at their office soon.

So, nak dijadikan cerita, pagi tadi tengah saya mamai dan berlengah-lengah nak pergi mandi. Saya dapat call dari THE company. Dorang suh datang interview hari Jumaat ni. Saya pun berfikir-fikir. Jumaat da last day. Takkan nak amik half day lagi. Da la arini da amik half day.

Takpe la, saya pegi amik offer letter dari company A dulu ape apehal.

Mase amik offer letter, tengok job scope. Memang sengih sorang-sorang. Bukan senyum tengok gaji ek, senyum tengok jobscope.haha. Mesti orang HR tu pelik.

Thing is, everything that are listed on the jobscope, is basically ALL the things I always WANTED to do.

But then, on the way drive balik I got a call from THE company again, saying the interview will be postponed. Asking whether I'm available on next Monday or Tuesday. 3/4 Dec.

Isnin first day kerja kot.T_T..

Saya cakap tak free. Then after an awkward silence, dia cakap decide hari apa free, then reply email dia balik.

So skarang saya pening.

Saya dah dapat kerja yang saya nak. Position yang saya nak dekat company A. Though its not a big company, but I believe I can learn a lot there. 

But then, I got an interview by THE company, an international company that I've been dreaming to work with since at least my final year in MMU. Da la interview on the same day, 3rd Dec. what the hell?

So at the moment I'm still thinking. Apa nak jawab dekat orang THE company tu. Nak pergi ke tak?

Kalau pergi, takkan la kan, baru masuk kerja sehari dua hari da nak amik cuti kan.

Sebab yang hold me back is the fact that I'm interviewing for Sales Engineer post. Which I don't quite like. It's basically the job I'm trying to run away from.

But still, it's THE company.

And even if I don't wanna take the job, I do want to now my capabilities, pergi interview dengan company besar. I've already passed the phone interview, kinda wanna go all the way and see how far I can go.

I used to think that I will be torn between the question of Money vs Interest.

If that's the question, it'll be no brainer. I'll choose interest. Hands down. Tapi sekarang, that's not an issue.

Now it's the question of Dream company Vs Interest.

So I don't know.

Somebody help!

T_T..

Cool Stuff

Daripada buat Nuclear plant, baiklah banyakkan buat Geothermal Plant kat Malaysia ni.

Whatever the concerns might be, I believe they are way less severe than what Nuclear Plant can cause. Just think about it.

Simple idea of how the plant works. Making use of the lava in the earth core.

Thankfully we will have this in Tawau Sabah, developed by a company that promotes green and renewable energy.

Kudos! (^_^)