My job is so random and the weirdest things about it are hard. Yesterday, we left the hotel at 7:30, worked at the client site until 7:30 and then went out to dinner until 9. Then I did work until midnight. That means I spent close to 14 hours with the same 5 people either in a small conference room or at dinner. Yes we had a lunch break but it was 30 minutes long and we went to lunch together. So there was literally no time when I could just play with my hair and scratch my ass and not be with people. It's exhausting.
Today was better because this morning we got this random question from someone really high up about switching aluminum parts for titanium where titanium is more expensive and heavier but much stronger. So if you get huge monetary penalties for excess weight, how much less material to you have to use if you switch from aluminum to titanium to break even in cost? Which is a fun optimization problem. Of course, there's no reason that we should have been thinking about this. First of all, it would cost so much for them to change their whole design now and second of all we're not engineers. But no one really likes to do things at this client so the consultants end up with random tasks.
A little more about where i'm working.... I can't say much cause it's confidential. But i'm in North Carolina working with a company that makes componants for airplanes. They've agreed to design and produce a system for an airline contract that goes for the next 10 years. Anyway, they're way behind schedule and still trying to get prototypes out but the design keeps changing and they don't have any materials or pieces ordered. So part of our project is to get them back on schedule so they can meet their deadlines, but the part i'm doing most of the work on is trying to get them the parts and materials they need so when the design is finalized they can actually build it.
I don't know if that sounds simple or hard, intersting or deadly boring to anyone else. For me I'm learning so much that every day is different. I can see how it would get boring after a while because this kind of sourcing doesn't vary a lot for company to company. But it's important for me to learn because it's one of the best ways that consultants make money. They always save the client tons of money by making sense of the purchasing process for the client and there's a concrete result at the end of the project. For us the concrete result will be that they'll be able to build part of a plane while without us, they've shown no indication of being able to. This particular project is much bigger than anything the client has handled in the past, and they're drowning.
Anyway i'm just happy i've been able to run twice this week. As long as I can keep running and get some evenings to myself (today we left at 6 30 and i skipped the social dinner) i'll be happy. And tomorrow i'm back in nyc. Shit i need to start thinking about moving...
Today was better because this morning we got this random question from someone really high up about switching aluminum parts for titanium where titanium is more expensive and heavier but much stronger. So if you get huge monetary penalties for excess weight, how much less material to you have to use if you switch from aluminum to titanium to break even in cost? Which is a fun optimization problem. Of course, there's no reason that we should have been thinking about this. First of all, it would cost so much for them to change their whole design now and second of all we're not engineers. But no one really likes to do things at this client so the consultants end up with random tasks.
A little more about where i'm working.... I can't say much cause it's confidential. But i'm in North Carolina working with a company that makes componants for airplanes. They've agreed to design and produce a system for an airline contract that goes for the next 10 years. Anyway, they're way behind schedule and still trying to get prototypes out but the design keeps changing and they don't have any materials or pieces ordered. So part of our project is to get them back on schedule so they can meet their deadlines, but the part i'm doing most of the work on is trying to get them the parts and materials they need so when the design is finalized they can actually build it.
I don't know if that sounds simple or hard, intersting or deadly boring to anyone else. For me I'm learning so much that every day is different. I can see how it would get boring after a while because this kind of sourcing doesn't vary a lot for company to company. But it's important for me to learn because it's one of the best ways that consultants make money. They always save the client tons of money by making sense of the purchasing process for the client and there's a concrete result at the end of the project. For us the concrete result will be that they'll be able to build part of a plane while without us, they've shown no indication of being able to. This particular project is much bigger than anything the client has handled in the past, and they're drowning.
Anyway i'm just happy i've been able to run twice this week. As long as I can keep running and get some evenings to myself (today we left at 6 30 and i skipped the social dinner) i'll be happy. And tomorrow i'm back in nyc. Shit i need to start thinking about moving...
posted by influx @ 9:43 PM
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