The May issue had an opinion piece, "The price of passion," that concerns me, because it could give a young engineer or engineering student a wrong impression about our industry and how their job performance will be assessed. The article opens with a statement that passion is a factor and makes other similar statements and conclusions that weren't true based upon my 34 years of working in the industry. In my experience, work performance was based upon whether assigned tasks were completed to quality and timing standards and how well we worked with others. I doubt a personnel department would allowyou to be judged on anything else. Having said that, your attitude is recognized by teammates, team leaders and supervisors. If you are working for a company or on a project that is not inspiring you to do your best, then you are doing a disservice to your professional reputation and to the users of the system you are working on. The author mentions unwillingness to work overtime could be held against you. Not all engineering jobs have normal work hours. If working overtime is an issue for you, then that needs to be discussed upfront at the job interview. If the overtime requirement is project specific, then it needs to be discussed with your supervisor before accepting the assignment.
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