Job Satisfaction at Fisher & Paykel Appliances

Product Development Engineer is my title but its more of a Software Development Engineering role by tasks. I work on fixing bugs and implementing new features for the current wall oven.

This is still generally positive, as in my previous role I took over responsibilities of a senior worker, giving me huge opportunities to pick up skills I previous did not have. However, in this current rotation I have been given far less.

I work on projects relating to new product development, understanding baseline performance of new products to be developed and how these align with our internal performance standards, and functionality on our existing products. This involves a combination of testing products using a variety of test types and functions, data analysis of these results, and meetings and discussions around planning of work to achieve these performance goals inline with the overall project goals and objectives. However, long term this doesn't align with the level of data analysis work I wanted to do in my role.

As a PD evaluator my main responsibility is to conduct product testing, record relevant parameters, and analyse this data to assess products' performance. Other things I have done include support for Science of Fabric Care (literature review and chemistry insights), wash systems testing support (even though dryers are my focus I've done my fair share of washer work), and driving the implementation of a part into a product (knowledge acquisition and presenting to key stakeholders).

In my role I have a main project that I am working on, as-well as this I have smaller projects that I work on when I have time. I plan my own timeline for the main project and I am in charge of getting it delivered. There is minimal micromanaging from others so I am the main person in charge of delivering timelines. This motivates me to stay on track and deliver it within an appropriate timeframe. Most day to day activities include document writing, planning and CAD. Along with this is the necessary "document filing" that is required to keep a structure. This may involve writing change notices, promotion requests, bill of material changes etc..

Much of my day-to-day responsibilities to this point, in my first year as a graduate, have been product testing with the occasional bit of coding in there too. I have also had a month-or-so long project to develop an internal tool to help people from outside of my team with setting up a piece of our hardware. I have been learning a lot through the tasks that I have completed but some of them can be a bit on the boring side. This makes sense though as I don't quite yet have the understanding and knowledge to meaningfully contribute significant amounts to product development.

Super healthy work relationship, have my functional team helping me in all aspects

I'm an engineer. I make testing plans, run tests, collect and analyze data, summarize result and present the result to my leaders, discuss with other engineers, and repeat;

Lots of variety of work. Involved in multiple projects, each dealing with different engineering aspects and disciplines. Hard to feel truly satisfied as projects aren't fully completed yet, so haven't had the chance to feel the pay-off.

Engaging and challenging tasks given.

Updating and developing software used in refrigeration products.

R&D, part design/redesign, CAD work, eng drawings, problem solving, factory support.

Include lots of variation and engagement with different teams. A great balance of lab and desk work.

Collaboratively assigned work items for the current project(s). Work on the item, performing problem identification, testing, solving, and verification, while managing stakeholders and time.

I have been given an interesting range of projects and tasks. From getting first-hand experience with the products by learning to install them, conceptual design work on CAD, to tinkering away in the workshop to test a prototype. There is also a lot of collaboration with other people.

My role is to evaluate the cooking performance of our new products. My day-to-day responsibilities include testing and evaluation (i.e., cooking), data analysis, writing/updating test procedures or presentations, and working in collaboration with my team and my project team.

Mixture of testing and bigger picture work. Testing can be a little tedious without other work to mix it up.

Sometimes I am not given the work that the title of my role would not involve, but I understand this is a part of being introduced to the team and learning how the team works

I support engineers by running various tests on products. EG end point sensing, app testing, dewrinkle testing

Warranty work and completing tests for another team.