PLAN No. 1219. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
This department plans and supervises the development and construction of the property as a whole. In it plans and specifications are prepared for buildings, exchange layouts, subways, and other components. To obtain a position of responsibility in the engineering department one must have had theoretical training and a number of years of telephone experience, but there are usually engineering-department positions in which men of little experience but with some theoretical training can start as draftsmen or clerks, advancing as they acquire experience. In this respect, the engineering department of a telephone company offers somewhat the same possibilities for disabled men as do similar departments in street railways or electric-power companies. Hours of work and compensation will be about the same. However, for a man who has had telephone experience, it is desirable usually to continue in that line. Telephony is probably more exacting and involves greater detail than does power work and may on that account be preferred by some.