Engineering Careers

Have you ever interviewed for a job that you really wanted where things seemed to be going so well into the final interview, and you had the intuition (or were led to believe) that you'd receive an offer of employment? First one week went by, then two, and then three. You wondered why the process was taking so long and felt more than a little confused.

Finally, you put a call into the company's human resources (HR) department. That's when you learned that another candidate had been selected for the position. You also heard through the grapevine that the successful applicant was the dreaded internal candidate. Of course, you had no idea that the company was looking internally. But that was because you forgot to ask.

From my experience as a recruiter, the internal candidate always receives the job unless the employer has recognized a gap in talent, or the person in line for the job is unprepared for the responsibility. There can be many factors that influence an employer to select an internal applicant or not, but here are a few tips to help prepare you.

Tip 1: The Phone Call

At then end of your first initial phone screen with HR or the hiring manager, simply ask the following: "Do you currently have any internal candidates who are interviewing for this position?" If the answer is "yes", then follow-up by asking why the employer is also considering looking outside the company for talent.

Tip 2: The On-Site Interview

If you get an on-site interview and think that things went extremely well, then save this for the very end of that meeting. Begin by explaining that "I understand that there are internal candidates for this position, too." Then ask, "At this time, are you more likely to hire internally or externally for the position?" The answer you receive should give you a good idea about whether the employer will hire someone (hopefully you) from outside the company.

Tip 3: Remember These Facts

Generally, companies prefer to hire from within because doing so builds employee loyalty and helps to develop talent. Also, the cost of hiring someone from the outside (depending on the position) can be staggering.

Editor's Note: Jake Briggs (KER_Recruiter) is a Technical Direct Hire Recruiter for Kelly Engineering Resources in Amherst, New York. His territory includes the northeastern U.S. as well as the mid-Atlantic states.

What does it take to be a great engineer? Inspiration is necessary, but it's not enough. Practical tools and principles are needed. Consider the case of Henry Ford, the American automaker who was inspired to build a car that the average citizen could afford. Plenty of automotive engineers were inspired to build cars at the start of the twentieth century, but it was the Ford Model T that put America on wheels.

So how did he do it? How did the son of simple Michigan farmer build one of the most influential cars of the twentieth century? Henry Ford had practical tools and principles. The "car for the great multitude" was born of the father of the modern assembly line. And this method of mass production – a most practical tool – was complemented by principles. Specifically, Ford vowed to build a car "constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise".

The Power of Peak Performance

Are you inspired by your own engineering career? And is your inspiration complemented by practical tools and principles? I'm not an engineer, of course, but I've gotten to know many of you personally during my time with CR4. So, I'd like to share the following list with you. It's from a book I've been working on called "8 Ways to Great: Peak Performance on the Job and in Your Life".

In this list, I'll continue to use Henry Ford as an example. Although some of the automaker's pronouncements and publications have marred his many achievements, the focus here is on his career as an engineer and entrepreneur.

1. Let your true passion be your core motivation.

Could Henry Ford have been a successful farmer? Probably. But his true passion was for creating a better way for people to travel. Ford's father expected him to take over the family farm, but Henry didn't want to be a farmer. What he loved was tinkering, and that love led to a career first as a machinist, then as an engineer, and finally as an entrepreneur.

2. Develop self-awareness and use what you know about both your strengths and weaknesses.

Henry Ford didn't design the Model T all by himself. Despite his considerable talents, the automaker turned to engineer C. Harold Wills for the design of the vehicle's planetary transmission. Peter E. Martin, who worked closely with Ford on early models, was tasked with determining how to produce vast quantities of a new type of steel.

3. Set goals and game plans - and learn to love this process because it is all about the process.

"Obstacles," Henry Ford once said, "are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." And he would have known. Henry Ford failed in business and went broke five times before finally succeeding. In his first car, he even forgot to put in a reverse gear. And the Edsel, a car made infamous for doors that wouldn't close and a hood that wouldn't open, was anything but the "car of the decade" that Ford predicted.

4. Identify your competitive advantage - what sets you apart and what will turn the odds in your favor.

When Henry Ford set out to build the Model T, he learned about a new type of steel with three times the tensile strength of alloys used by other American automakers. Rather than paying someone else to produce this vanadium alloy, Ford financed his own steel mill. For the next five years, the only cars in the entire world that used vanadium steel were French luxury vehicles and the Ford Model T.

5. Develop inner confidence that keeps you from judging yourself based on other's standards and expectations.

When Henry Ford announced a minimum salary of five dollars a day for his workers, other entrepreneurs called him reckless. The Wall Street Journal even equated Ford's wage increase with immorality, terming it a misapplication of "Biblical principle". But from 1914 to 1916, the Ford Motor Company's profits doubled.

6. Keep your cool - and don't let emotions dictate your decisions.

Henry Ford once said, "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right". By remaining positive in the face of engineering obstacles and financial crises, he kept his company afloat through two world wars and prolonged economic depression.

7. Take risks yet act intelligently with imperfect information.

The first few Model Ts had a water pump, but its use was abandoned early in production. In switching to a cheaper circulation system, Ford risked having the Model T face overheating problems. Ultimately, however, this circulation system based on the thermo-syphon principle was more reliable.

8. Be accountable.

Henry Ford's critics described him as a tyrant. But at the end of the day, he remained firmly in control of his company – and his own destiny. His insistence on holding the Ford Motor Company to a higher standard enabled it to eliminate waste while adopting new manufacturing methods and enlarging its market share. On a personal level, Henry Ford remained accountable, too. As he wrote about one of his heroes, Benjamin Franklin, "The old American values of thrift and industry have no successors or substitutes."

As always, I look forward to hearing what you think.

Dr. Doug

Editor's Note: You can visit Dr. Doug online at www.DrDoug.com or contact him by email at DrDoug@DrDoug.com.

Here's an interesting job-search story that happened recently. As a Direct Recruiter for Kelly Engineering Resources (KER), I connect clients to candidates on a regular basis.

The $20K Difference

I received an order from a client who's been searching for an employee with a particular skill set. The client's seven-month search had been long and unsuccessful. The salary range for the open position was well below the median range of $90K. My client hoped to pay only $70K, with maybe some wiggle room for the right person.

After speaking with candidates over several weeks, I communicated my findings to the client – the salary being offered wasn't competitive enough. The client recognized that the search would be difficult, and asked me to continue. Finally, I found an individual who needed an opportunity. The day I called this candidate was the day he had received his severance package.

Not That Desperate

In his last position, the candidate had earned $78K. This made him a potential fit for my client, based upon not just his salary level but also his market knowledge and skill set. I submitted the candidate's information to the client, along with some comments about the candidate's willingness to negotiate a salary based upon the job's responsibilities.

The client agreed to meet the candidate. After four interviews with human resources and senior management, the candidate received an offer of employment. If you guessed that the client was offered $70K, you're correct. (I've omitted some details here, but this is the basic outline of the story.)

Communication and Contact Points

Ultimately, both parties walked away. Why did the deal collapse? In retrospect, this was a painful search on several levels. First, there was the matter of the below-market pay range for a technical professional with the requisite background. There was also the lack of communication throughout the process.

My successful placements have all involved direct communication with hiring managers. The results speak for themselves. Without proper communication and contact points, good positions go unfilled even in a bad economy.

Editor's Note: Jake Briggs (KER_Recruiter) is a Technical Direct Hire Recruiter for Kelly Engineering Resources in Amherst, New York. His territory includes the northeastern U.S. as well as the mid-Atlantic states.

During a trip to California earlier this year to attend the TMS Conference and Expo, I visited an old friend who is designing and building a house on a hillside near Santa Cruz. My friend's home will have a spectacular view of a valley and the Pacific Ocean, but the vista wasn't all that impressed me.

As an engineer living on the East Coast, I didn't realize how complicated it is to design and build a house on the West Coast because of earthquake building codes. Shear plates or shear frames must be designed into specific areas of the house to transmit loads from the house down into the foundation, in case an earthquake starts to shake the structure.

Proper nailing patterns and bolts must also be used during construction. If the structural engineering is not done correctly, then a house can literally pull it self apart during an earthquake. My friend has a neighbor whose house did just that a few years ago.

Meet Jack Schultz

Some time ago, my friend started and sold an electrical circuit simulation software company. Now he continues to consult and develop software for other industries. He also designs and builds roads and houses. My friend is an accomplished and successful engineer in his own right, but the hillside house that he is designing is not just a simple box. Therefore, for structural engineering assistance, my friend turned to Jack Schultz - an Engineer's Engineer.

When we drove over to meet Jack at his place, we parked the bottom of a hill and took Jack's tramcar up to his house. Jack had reviewed dozens of sections and details on the new construction project – probably in more detail than he had to. But performing a review beyond what the codes require is a sign of an accomplished engineer. As my first engineering manager at GE used say, "Take care of the details and the details will take care of you". Engineers used to learn this way - to be thorough and ask the right questions.

A quick look at this Engineer's Engineer biography indicates the breadth of Jack Schultz's background. His accomplishments include homebuilding, contracting, carpentry, gray whale studies, solar system design, elephant seal capture, and even dislocation studies. At the age of 18, Jack walked across Ecuador, paddled a dugout canoe down the Amazon and then sailed a small boat from the mouth of the Amazon to Florida. But even with all his accomplishments and engineering knowledge, Jack is both humble and friendly.

Now 80 years old, Jack Schultz is still trying to make a difference in the world. When I met him, he was about to leave on a "peace mission" to discuss water conservation efforts with civil engineers in Iran. California and Iran are very different places, but a scarce supply of water is something that both have in common.

So do the engineers of today and especially engineering students (tomorrow's engineers), as different as they may be, share Jack's mindset – to be thorough and ask the right questions?

Resources:

Biography of the Engineer's Engineer, Jack Schultz

Map of Jack's 6000 mile Trip from Quinto, Ecuador to Miami, Florida – reference Sea Fever article in National Geographic

Article in Metroactive, Santa Cruz newspaper

Everyone can achieve inner greatness. The key is to set goals. And while that may seem obvious, there are very few people out there who understand how to do this properly. For that reason, I've created a five-step process called C.H.A.M.P™.

C is Controllable. No one can control everything that happens to them, but you can set goals that are entirely within your control. That being said, money goals are not what I'm talking about here.

H is Hard. Goals should not be easy. Rather, they should challenge and push you to the next level.

A is Accountable. You either have to answer to yourself or allow someone else to hold you accountable.

M is Measurable. Make sure you're able to quantify your progress along the way. It's the best way to keep your eye on where you're going.

P is Positive. Your approach should be positive. Think about what to do and avoid telling yourself what not to do.

By following this simple, five-step process, you can find your internal level of greatness in whatever you do. Click here for an on-line video of this blog entry.

Dr. Doug

Editor's Note: You can visit Dr. Doug online at www.DrDoug.com or by email: DrDoug@DrDoug.com.