You thought the product was the machine. Most days in mechanical engineering, the product is the report that lets someone else ship the machine. The core decisions are upstream; you arrive to prove diligence after the fact, see Reason #14.
It shows up as small chores that multiply. A retailer clause tweaks a drop sequence, so you rewrite the plan, rerun the test, and compress a week into a memo that will be skimmed for one bullet. A casting tolerance drifts and the DFMEA churn begins because the signatures must match the new risk math. The vibration rig is booked, so you consolidate DV/PV results while your milestone slips. The decision at the gate was made yesterday; your deck is evidence, not a lever. This is how oversupply plays out on paper: when too many applicants crowd the funnel, the visible work becomes paperwork because it is the easiest work to hand down, see Reason #1.
Compliance tightens the vise. UL or CE wants the label redrawn. RoHS or REACH certs expire on a Friday and the supplier portal rejects the old format. An IP rating nudge ripples into gasket choices you did not buy. You gather documents, publish a summary, and the build proceeds as if the summary were the contribution. In a narrow sense it is. The plant runs on proof, and your calendar bends to where the fixtures and chambers live, see Reason #20:
Your portfolio turns into a binder wall. An EE can show traces. A SWE can show a repo. You show PPAP packets, FAIRs, CAPA closures, ECO histories, and tidy DV matrices. Hiring reads that as support. Promotion reads that as hygiene. The announcement arrives with “Product Team” on the slide and three initials in small type. Your name sits at the bottom of a PDF that will be archived by Monday. It is hard to compete for recognition when everyone around you is measured by the same checkboxes and the same queues, see Reason #6:
None of this is fake work. Field returns stop because someone scheduled thermal soak at the right temperatures and fixed a corner case no one wanted to own. But in ME, visible impact is a group noun while accountability is personal. You inherit the paper that proves the work happened, then learn how quickly paper gets forgotten. You wanted authorship. You will get a reference number.
