We need Exposure

[DamianCastillo]

Hello Administrators,

I just wanted to touch base with all of you and just say that "WE NEED
EXPOSURE". We Admin's don't have any exposure to what we do for a living.
HR is always doing searches on job descriptions, salary ranges, etc. They
can't find anything on CAD Administrators and this makes it difficult for
them to justify how much to pay us. It's a very important key role in
running software like Pro/ENGINEER and we need exposure.

I don't know if this is something PTC should be helping us Administrators
with or do we need to do something on our own. We need some kind of
website that explains our positions, the importance of what we do and what
the salary range should be. I know that PTC could add an informational web
page on their site to help us out, but I don't know if this will ever
happen. What can we do as a group to benefit us all.

Most of what we do is not appreciated as long as everything is running
smooth. The minute something goes wrong, they start hunting us down with
pitch forks. When we fix the problem, they are happy but quickly forget
that we work hard to make sure the systems run smooth as long as possible.
Can anyone out there feel my pain here.

Anyway, just wanted to get the word out there and see if we can come up
with any ideas. I am going to add a section for Admins on my website but
this will not be creditable to upper management. We need a legitimate
website that can help us out. Maybe MCAD Central can create an Admin
section.

Thanks.

Damián Castillo
MCAD Administrator
Pro Engineer Consultant
Hensley Industries
972-406-4788

[inkddawg]

You will not get help from PTC on providing exposure for admins. Why would they want to tell their customer that they need one of us when they want and promote themselves to do that. They want, of course, every penny they can make. Then you also have the resale groups and design/engineering companies who want to support the client in that respect. Additionally and unfortunately, admins are considered by HR and management as IT people and think that IT people are best suited to support the apps cause they already have IT people in place and IT is overhead. Engineering admins are considered overhead and wrongly so. If it was not for the Engineering Admins. individual projects would suffer, so why not charge them off to the projects.

Now who will promote this? I can not say cause everyone wants their engineering budgets low and dont care about overhead costs to the company. The project manager gets his bonus for keeping his budget low while corporate says cut overhead. You have a battle and that battle must be a fight between accounting/management and engineering/marketing. One does not understand the other.

- wrote:
Hello Administrators,

I just wanted to touch base with all of you and just say that "WE NEED
EXPOSURE". We Admin's don't have any exposure to what we do for a living.
HR is always doing searches on job descriptions, salary ranges, etc. They
can't find anything on CAD Administrators and this makes it difficult for
them to justify how much to pay us. It's a very important key role in
running software like Pro/ENGINEER and we need exposure.

I don't know if this is something PTC should be helping us Administrators
with or do we need to do something on our own. We need some kind of
website that explains our positions, the importance of what we do and what
the salary range should be. I know that PTC could add an informational web
page on their site to help us out, but I don't know if this will ever
happen. What can we do as a group to benefit us all.

Most of what we do is not appreciated as long as everything is running
smooth. The minute something goes wrong, they start hunting us down with
pitch forks. When we fix the problem, they are happy but quickly forget
that we work hard to make sure the systems run smooth as long as possible.
Can anyone out there feel my pain here.

Anyway, just wanted to get the word out there and see if we can come up
with any ideas. I am going to add a section for Admins on my website but
this will not be creditable to upper management. We need a legitimate
website that can help us out. Maybe MCAD Central can create an Admin
section.

Thanks.

Damián Castillo
MCAD Administrator
Pro Engineer Consultant
Hensley Industries
972-406-4788




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[msteffke]

I agree. Sometimes I get to thinking about this admin position. You are right, little is known about it. You are just overhead to the accountants. Besides administration of PTC stuff and the hardware, I also write a ton of custom toolkit apps for Pro/E, and will soon be heading to Intralink scripting training. My boss really appreciates what I do, and I hear that frequently. He is absolutely convinced that my position is neccessary. But I wonder sometimes what ever happens to me if he quits. There is really no ladder to climb in this position, and after 10 to 15 years of pay raises, it probably looks attractive to hire someone new in at the starting salary again. This seems to be how corporate execs think, and maybe its even true. If I want to keep this job at this company, the best I can do is to know as much about the business as possible and make myself as valuable as possible. You never know what the future holds.
I agree DCastillo, more official info on this postion would be of great benefit to all of us admins.

[unknown1]

Guys,

You have to promote what you do! The minute an IT person steps into the engineering arena and an engineer steps into the IT arena, they become hybrids.

You would think that a hybrid in this case would be a good thing but no one fully understands exactly what it is that you do for your company or your organization.

On one hand, you perform IT & IS functions by making sure that the systems are running and you are always searching for ways to make it run more efficiently. On the other hand, many of us perform engineering and design roles as well.

I get into a lot of training, mentoring, and coaching of the users and to a certain level, management. This means that I have to be able to communicate on a design, engineering & manufacturing level with them.

The first task I would suggest is building a good relationship between and your company's user community. You must be proactive in doing this because they (users) do not automatically come to you.

We can get together, at the PTCuser Conference, or others like the CAD Society did or still does but ultimately, the individual has to promote what they do.

Darel

[inkddawg]

Darel I did the very same thing in addition I checked all drawing prior to submitting into INTRALINK. That made me more valuable but only to the users cause their work was functional after I either corrected the models and drawings or had them fix it. Management, in the arrogance and ignorance, overlooked that because they refused to allow me to charge to projects. Even though I directly work on the geometry making it better and I am darn good.

Darel Coterel <darel.coterel@bushhog.com> wrote:Guys,

You have to promote what you do! The minute an IT person steps into the engineering arena and an engineer steps into the IT arena, they become hybrids.

You would think that a hybrid in this case would be a good thing but no one fully understands exactly what it is that you do for your company or your organization.

On one hand, you perform IT & IS functions by making sure that the systems are running and you are always searching for ways to make it run more efficiently. On the other hand, many of us perform engineering and design roles as well.

I get into a lot of training, mentoring, and coaching of the users and to a certain level, management. This means that I have to be able to communicate on a design, engineering & manufacturing level with them.

The first task I would suggest is building a good relationship between and your company's user community. You must be proactive in doing this because they (users) do not automatically come to you.

We can get together, at the PTCuser Conference, or others like the CAD Society did or still does but ultimately, the individual has to promote what they do.

Darel

[unknown1]

Good point Darel. Something that worked well for me...I decided one day to
create a local website for our Pro/E users (we have about 100). I put
tips/tricks, sample models, useful links on this page. As a result, the
skill level of our community has raised at higher rate. Management, even if
they are asleep at the wheel, will notice this.

Brian


_____

[bbenitez]

ROTFLMAO

[unknown1]

I know what you are saying. Even if you apply what I said it does not mean you are safe but who is anymore?

[brianadkins]

As cheesy as this sounds, I think there is a lot of truth in it... "Brand yourself"

_We_ know that we're an indispensable (for now) part of the equation, but it should be part of our jobs to make others aware of this also.

Pretend, for a moment, that you are not a regular employee, but a paid consultant with a six-month mission to maintain and improve your company's Pro/E environment. What non-technical things would you be doing differently? Would you be promoting yourself more or less? If you wrote a toolkit program, or an elegant automation script, would your name (or your company's name) show up on it? You bet it would.

I attended Ed Stevenson's AE Camp at the Pro/User conference back in 1999 (Dallas) and I seem to remember branding being one of the concepts. Now, that's six years ago and my memory isn't that good, so I apologize to Ed if I'm remembering wrong...

I don't pretend to know what the answer is, but having every engineer in the building know your name and exactly how you can (and do) help them do their job better is a good first step. Don't hide in the shadows and hope they know what a good job you're doing, get out there and show them.

I have no idea if this book is any good... But it's on topic:
(just did a google search on 'brand yourself')
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345423593/104-0341327-5803134


On a somewhat related note: I think the following is a great book on how to work inside a company as a Pro/E administrator/consultant. A lot of the ideas in the book really apply whether you're an outside consultant or an inside administrator.

Flawless Consulting : A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787948039/104-0341327-5803134


Good topic!

-Brian Adkins