andamu

Chrysalis in a comment below paints a pretty bleak picture of an engineer's job today.
While everything he says is true, it is not entirely complete. There are still parts of the job that excite as much as other parts bore. And after all, he is a manager, and I am just an "individual contributor," which distinction affects the constitution of our daily tasks.

So exactly what does an R&D (Research and Development) Engineer do all day is the question that is uppermost in everyone's minds. (Yes, I have now become a mind-reader as well.)
So, just for you, I have created the following extract from one part of my job.

Workflow:

1. We design experiments.
2. We create software and hardware to conduct the experiments.
3. We tweak the experiments. When we are satisfied that they do what we intended,
4. We create software to capture the data.
5. And more software to automate the loading of data to a database.
6. Then we create queries to extract the data in meaningful ways.
7. Next we write software to analyse the data from every side.
8. Finally we create the powerpoint presentations to show the managers what we had been doing, to
9. Win approval for the next level of experiments - at which time
10. We start all over again.

Well, you did ask. Or sort-of-asked at least.