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  • Author Author: rscasny
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Op Ed: A Good Engineer Can Find a Job in an Hour But Building a Career May Take Years

rscasny

One of the luxuries that engineers have in most regional job markets is that they are in high demand and can find a new gig sometimes in an hour. That happened to me twice. One time, I sent a guy a resume and he called me and I was hired over a 10 minute phone call. If you employ professional networking, it could be quicker.

 

But just because an engineer can get hired in a short time does not mean:

 

  • A. It's a fantastic job. (You might want to ask about the turnover in the job before you accept it. Extremely high turnover jobs have a back story to them IMO.)
  • B. It will lead to a career. That is, a position where you have an opportunity to grow professionally.

 

Careers often take years to develop. Of course, it depends on the person. Some people are quite happy with staying in one job for years. But most people change and evolve over the course of a decade and want to do new things.

 

Building a career requires more than just sending our a resume/CV and waiting for a phone call. (Or waiting for a recruiter to contact you via LinkedIn, for instance.) Careers are developed through relationships, but also through listening and learning to people who work at companies that you want to be part of.

 

I think that's why element14 is offering a Career Series of webinars focusing on companies that provide products and/or services for IoT solutions. On October 10th, we will be having a panel discussion with representatives from Microchip Corporation and The Things Network.

 

I encourage you to sign up for the webinar: How To Start and Grow Your IoT Career Featuring Microchip Technology Inc and The Things Network 

 

I really believe these people will provides some insights to starting an IoT career, if you are right out of college, or growing your IoT career if you are more experienced.

 

 

Randall Scasny

Webinar Host

  • in reply to genebren

    Gary,

     

    Upon further reflection, I have the following thoughts:

     

    I have been on both sides of the interview process (a lot!).  On one occasion, I was on the hiring side of the process.  We placed an ad (prior to the current internet job sites) and started the process of sorting replies.  From a stack of 200+ resumes, I boiled it down to 20, thinned that stack down to 5 and called in the candidates.  I had in mind one candidate that I thought was a perfect fit and a couple that I viewed as backups.  Two of the candidates did very well through the interview process, my 'perfect fit guy' and another person.  When talking through the candidates with my fellow interviewers (my boss, my peer from the hardware side and my staff), I was the only one who favored the candidate with the best resume.  The rest of the interviewers preferred the other candidate, most based on less tangible traits.  After a long and somewhat painful process, I decided to honor the inputs of team.  In the end, that was the best decision ever.  I hired the team's pick and never looked back.  My new employee was the single best hire that I have ever made.  He proved to be the most resourceful and diligent engineer that I have pleasure of dealing with.  He fit in with the team from the first day and ending leading the team after I moved on.  He became a solid performer and leader and a good friend.

     

    The point is, that as good a tool as a resume is for showing your skill match for a posted job, the interview process and true people skills goes a long way towards getting the job and then for performing within the job.

     

    Gene

  • in reply to robogary

    Gary,

     

    While I agree with a lot of what you are saying, it is important to realize that many prospective employers will ask for the moon and stars, making long and detailed 'wish lists' of skills and tools that an applicant should have for the job.  The reality is that you don't need all of those skills and/or experiences, but you should be able to explain what you know and express your willingness to learn the rest.  Too many times, when an employer opens up a position, the skills list is a generic list, compiled out of the last few hires, plus items copied from other listed openings.  It serves as a way to scare off applicants that have too few skills, so that they might better focus on applicants have will be a better fit for the job.

     

    Gene

  • in reply to Instructorman

    Hi Mark - My personal experience, when looking for a new position, knowing V=IR is not enough. Knowing Kw = V*I*PF is not enough. Having a sheepskin with a technical degree is not enough. Having good people skills is not enough. Having good communication skills is not enough. Having a broad background is not enough. Having good relationships with colleagues at your present position or even the desired employer is not enough. Your qualifications must exceed the employers need, and be better than your competitors.

     

    Each employer uses their own toolkit of specific software productivity tools. If you don't have good knowledge of that specific tool (s), for the most part you are out.  

     

    While you are with the same employer, it is true that you must stay relevant and continue on a learning path just to stay where you are. You may need additional skills to develop into the next job, whether it is with that employer or the future one. The future employer wont gamble, they want a sure thing, and someone to make them look really good.

  • in reply to rusgray

    Agreed you're quite right.

     

    Obviously getting to the interview stage means your CV passed the various checks, so well done.

     

    Mark

  • in reply to mcb1

      wrote:

     

    The nature of what makes someone a good Engineer, tends to offset some of the other skills that say a salesperson might have.

     

    Respectfully, this is the sort of mentality I was talking about earlier. There is no part of being a good engineer that requires one to be gruff, difficult, or burdened with other social handicaps. It is possible to be curious, thoughtful, skeptical, and outspoken without being rude or unpleasant. It is possible to learn public speaking, socializing, and conflict management/resolution skills without losing one's scientific knowledge and engineering training.


    Engineering skills are difficult enough to acquire and master that many employers are willing to put up with engineering staff who are lacking in social graces. This does not mean that one cannot posses both engineering skills AND social graces. Speaking from my own (severely limited) experience, the combo of technical and people skills is extremely attractive to employers.

      wrote:

     

    Most of the vetting tends to be done by the HR people and while they look at the CV to see if it matches their list, they may have no idea of what those skills are or if this equates to that.

     

    I've interviewed with two of the four gigantic companies that dominate the sector amorphously described as "tech companies" in the past two months. In the course of the two in-person interviews, I spoke with two HR types, three managers, and nine engineers/programmers.