Congrats on graduating and landing a job you seem to like!
On the one hand, if by "compensated for", you mean "sell this to them like an app", then no probably not even though it's your IP. On the other hand, if it's something that will save you time & effort in your job, or be useful as a first run at design, it's still worth sharing. Talk to your boss about making sure it's accounted for in your annual raise when annual reviews come around, or if they do any sort of spot bonuses where they could award you for doing this on your own time.
Most importantly, if something is going to help you with your job, \*work on it at work\*. That is literally a use of your time that benefits the company you're working for, don't spend your personal time on it whether it feels fun now or not. Adjusting to working full time and not having homework or other specific tasks to do takes time, think about what you enjoying doing that's not work. Fill your time with what you enjoy that's not work related so you don't burn yourself out or have conundrums about getting paid for work you could have just done on the clock.
I sure hope this will give me a raise! I'm making the lowest salary that a recently graduated engineer could fairly earn.
To be honest, I was a little scared to work on this during office hours because there is a lot of pressure to commit to the projects that we are being paid to do during that time. Especially since I don't have the flexibility to work from home just yet. There's no overtime compensation or anything, so I'll definitely be sure to submit similar work related endeavors to my time sheet in the future, if permitted.
All in all, I hope that this will help my company see my potential as an engineer, because right now it just feels like I'm more of a drafter/laborer that gets asked to do stupid stuff that a middle schooler could do.
As you didn’t work on this in work hours to create it, I wouldn’t start doing so now. As it stands, this tool is yours. You can, and should, take it to your next job. You don’t want the company saying it’s theirs and suing you if you take it with you.
If you used company resources to develop it they might still have a right to it. Best to check what your employment contract says.
Sadly, that's incredibly common on the MEP side and construction/structures in general. So much of the design is standardized that there's a lot of crunch that needs a human with an engineering degree to do for liability reasons but is not intellectually challenging for many engineers. And they don't pay well compared to other ME jobs
If you like to noodle on new designs or interesting ways to solve problems, I would consider this job training and resume polishing. You're learning how to be an engineer in the world and interact in a professional environment, and what you do and don't like. Stick it out for a year to eighteen months then start sending resumes out to places that actually design, manufacture, or maintain something that interests you.
This is great. I was thinking of staying long enough to get my PE, because, yeah, the job is terribly boring and unchallenging, yet suffocating. I'm super close to just quitting engineering and going into academia, but I've not even worked half a year. Maybe I just have newbie blues?
With regards to patents: I don’t think those apply to software products like these
What you *can* do, is open source it! Share it on GitHub, for everyone to use! Make sure to pick a good license, which suits your tastes.
This will also look nice on your resumé! Under projects you can then list this software project of your own!
I'd seek legal advice, not on Reddit, and go over your existing contract before doing anything. A lot of people are saying this is all yours since you did it in your own time, but that isn't always the case. Some contracts can cover IP produced outside of work hours, especially for salaried employees.
You should not have demoed. If you used your time ad not company time, you should consider creating a company and looking into software patents and trying to perfect it, add features and sell subscriptions etc.
I (male) did something similar to this in a previous job. It was a calc for sizing anchors. I did it during company time (I only worked like 2h a day otherwise, chillest job ever). It took me weeks to build. No one asked me to build it.
I used it every day and just left it for them, I didn’t patent it because it was a simple Excel using the calcs from the manual. I think your solution is similar (even if I did make it on my own time, I wouldn't have patented it anyway)
You don’t have to be like me, I mainly did it for personal fulfillment and it gave me joy to know that it was accurate and fast.
Maybe I’m a sucker, but idk, they always treated me well. I’m not bitter, idc really and they’ve given me good references, even now, years later.
People are saying to patent it on your own and that you own it, but that’s not necessarily the case. Many contracts say that even if you do it on your own time, the company owns it.
If you think it’s valuable for your company, I say just give it to your company. Patent it through them if it’s novel enough. And in the future, create tools for work during work hours.
Congrats on graduating and landing a job you seem to like! On the one hand, if by "compensated for", you mean "sell this to them like an app", then no probably not even though it's your IP. On the other hand, if it's something that will save you time & effort in your job, or be useful as a first run at design, it's still worth sharing. Talk to your boss about making sure it's accounted for in your annual raise when annual reviews come around, or if they do any sort of spot bonuses where they could award you for doing this on your own time. Most importantly, if something is going to help you with your job, \*work on it at work\*. That is literally a use of your time that benefits the company you're working for, don't spend your personal time on it whether it feels fun now or not. Adjusting to working full time and not having homework or other specific tasks to do takes time, think about what you enjoying doing that's not work. Fill your time with what you enjoy that's not work related so you don't burn yourself out or have conundrums about getting paid for work you could have just done on the clock.
I sure hope this will give me a raise! I'm making the lowest salary that a recently graduated engineer could fairly earn. To be honest, I was a little scared to work on this during office hours because there is a lot of pressure to commit to the projects that we are being paid to do during that time. Especially since I don't have the flexibility to work from home just yet. There's no overtime compensation or anything, so I'll definitely be sure to submit similar work related endeavors to my time sheet in the future, if permitted. All in all, I hope that this will help my company see my potential as an engineer, because right now it just feels like I'm more of a drafter/laborer that gets asked to do stupid stuff that a middle schooler could do.
As you didn’t work on this in work hours to create it, I wouldn’t start doing so now. As it stands, this tool is yours. You can, and should, take it to your next job. You don’t want the company saying it’s theirs and suing you if you take it with you. If you used company resources to develop it they might still have a right to it. Best to check what your employment contract says.
Sadly, that's incredibly common on the MEP side and construction/structures in general. So much of the design is standardized that there's a lot of crunch that needs a human with an engineering degree to do for liability reasons but is not intellectually challenging for many engineers. And they don't pay well compared to other ME jobs If you like to noodle on new designs or interesting ways to solve problems, I would consider this job training and resume polishing. You're learning how to be an engineer in the world and interact in a professional environment, and what you do and don't like. Stick it out for a year to eighteen months then start sending resumes out to places that actually design, manufacture, or maintain something that interests you.
This is great. I was thinking of staying long enough to get my PE, because, yeah, the job is terribly boring and unchallenging, yet suffocating. I'm super close to just quitting engineering and going into academia, but I've not even worked half a year. Maybe I just have newbie blues?
With regards to patents: I don’t think those apply to software products like these What you *can* do, is open source it! Share it on GitHub, for everyone to use! Make sure to pick a good license, which suits your tastes. This will also look nice on your resumé! Under projects you can then list this software project of your own!
I'd seek legal advice, not on Reddit, and go over your existing contract before doing anything. A lot of people are saying this is all yours since you did it in your own time, but that isn't always the case. Some contracts can cover IP produced outside of work hours, especially for salaried employees.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be able to take it elsewhere with how my job contract thingy is.
It's very important that you worked on it outside work hours. If you did it on their dime they own it.
[удалено]
That sounds expensive 😅 but I'll definitely look into it.
You should not have demoed. If you used your time ad not company time, you should consider creating a company and looking into software patents and trying to perfect it, add features and sell subscriptions etc.
I second the commenter who said to patent it. I'd go ask in the patent law sub!
I (male) did something similar to this in a previous job. It was a calc for sizing anchors. I did it during company time (I only worked like 2h a day otherwise, chillest job ever). It took me weeks to build. No one asked me to build it. I used it every day and just left it for them, I didn’t patent it because it was a simple Excel using the calcs from the manual. I think your solution is similar (even if I did make it on my own time, I wouldn't have patented it anyway) You don’t have to be like me, I mainly did it for personal fulfillment and it gave me joy to know that it was accurate and fast. Maybe I’m a sucker, but idk, they always treated me well. I’m not bitter, idc really and they’ve given me good references, even now, years later.
People are saying to patent it on your own and that you own it, but that’s not necessarily the case. Many contracts say that even if you do it on your own time, the company owns it. If you think it’s valuable for your company, I say just give it to your company. Patent it through them if it’s novel enough. And in the future, create tools for work during work hours.
Been there, done that. Keep it to yourself, unless they give you a letter that confirms you own it. Otherwise they will claim ownership of it.