I've never been asked if I was an engineer, but I've definitely experienced the latter of your two anecdotes. Sometimes it just depends on the person you're tal

I've never been asked if I was an engineer, but I've definitely experienced the latter of your two anecdotes. Sometimes it just depends on the person you're talking to. At one point I learned that the best way to get a certain coworker of mine to finally get what I was saying was to pull another person in front if them, explain myself to the third party, let them acknowledge that I'm right, and then finally ask the original coworker once more if their plan was reaaally the right way to go. Only then would they realize that I had a point. It sucks, but if you have to get someone they trust to repeat what you're saying, you might as well have a reliable backup ready. As for speaking up in meetings, I was recently told in my review that I needed to be more assertive, because I feared I'd experience the same thing you did. Hopefully I can find a good middle ground between meekly watching people march down the wrong road, and shouting about crack pipes... I haven't found it yet, though.