Engineering Could Use Some PR

I love this startling image.  Powerful, keeps you spell bound. It shows the late Polish surgeon Zbigniew Religa as he painfully monitors the vital signs of a heart transplant patient with outdated medical technology. The photo was shot in 1987 by National Geographic photographer James Standfield. The operation which apparently took 23 hours became the first successful heart transplant ever conducted. His assistant seems to be more wiped out than the patient and is huddled in a corner trying to sleep.

This must have been great PR for Polish medicine. With an iconic image like that, you can't help but wonder how important a surgeon's job must be to society. His role is one free of prejudice and partiality. He offers his services to society regardless of caste, color, creed or financial status. Everyone knows what a surgeon does.

Interestingly then, how can a surgeon be effective if he can't administer the highest quality health care with the best equipment? This actually became the focal point of the photograph. It drove home the need for the Polish government to do something serious about its ill-equipped hospitals which had evidently become something of a national crisis in the 1980s. 

With the help of a single photo, not only could people know what a surgeon did, they knew he was really struggling without the right technology! Some calculated risk taking and a lot of focus turned this feat into a successful operation after 23 hours, but surely the tables could have been turned.

Technology amplifies the human. A man with the right tools for the right job is powerful. Its a great concept I borrowed and adapted from Mark Sanders, a well respected bicycle designer from the UK who said the same thing for bicycles - that it was a human amplifier. Extending this to the heart surgeon, this man wouldn't have been able to do his job without the engineered tools at his disposal. 

While a good number of medical technology was invented by medical professionals (and that helps every bit), a good bunch more were spurned by engineers. The Computed Tomography (CT) scan is one of the immortal tools at the doctor's disposal. Interestingly, tomography was invented by an electrical engineer Sir Godsfrey Hounsfield who was a weapons and radar specialist by profession. That's knowledge transfer for you. 

In a certain college class during my undergrad years, a well-known local resident by the name of Wilson Greatbatch was invited to come and speak to us (standing in the left photo in the blazer). This individual, an electrical engineer with some 300+ patents under his name, was a master's degree holder from the same institution I attended. Apparently, he had invented and brought to market the world's first implantable cardiac pacemaker many years ago which was considered one of the greatest engineering achievements in the U.S.

What was inspiring to learn in that talk was his acute awareness of society's needs, a trait highlighted by his willingness to tinker, to step outside traditional single minded engineering and study interdisciplinary areas such as medical electronics, agricultural genetics and the electro-chemistry of batteries. 

I'm sure anyone can dig up more examples like this given a bit more time but the point is that engineers are responsible for a lot of technologies that help other professions do their work. This importance of the profession and this symbiosis of tools and technology transfer is unfortunately living trapped in the whitepapers and webinars of engineering companies. 

Which gets me to a related topic which I believe don't sink much into a majority of people.

Someone who cobbles up a gizmo in his basement from spare parts, then goes to a bunch of local vendors asking them to be partners whilst calling himself an engineer is over- stepping the bounds a bit. What about the engineering profession teaches you that creating a one-off piece in your basement is the same as producing a million of those a year for a real market need with a balanced structure of cost, performance and reliability? 

A starting invention is a proof of concept. Engineering obviously starts from proof of concepts but but there's a whole slew of engineering analysis, validation and judgment calls to make before a product can be deemed fit for market. So someone isn't an engineer and his invention is not ready for prime-time yet. This isn't elitism, more so an important distinction made between tinkerer and the spectrum of activities that constitute the engineering profession.

Its also just as bad when the average Joe thinks that just because you're an engineer, you can fix his car. I think a fair number of us got that question more than once - "do you fix cars?" Well I would love to work on cars, but my profession doesn't teach me to fix cars or toilets. Its not what my job entails. I may have some insight into why the car isn't working if I had designed it, but I didn't design it. Besides, a very complex electro-mechanical machine like a car these days need its own army of specialized technicians who would know how to repair it. Engineers offer their services only where their expertise lies.

Engineering will be helped by some honest PR. I'm not just talking about the "cool" gadget shows on TV that gets an anchorman to spend a bit of time talking about stuff or companies promoting the great works they hath done, like this new Volvo commercial with Van Damme and two trucks to highlight the safety of directional steering stability. Rather, something at a more grassroots level to highlight the work of engineers as we all seem to be a modest bunch who like hard work but don't like to take credit.

But engineers could start with some evangelism themselves. At a recent chartered engineer's meeting in Abu Dhabi, IMechE president Patrick Kniveton who was the guest of honor really drove home the need for us engineers to start talking about who we are and what we do at any appropriate opportunity. This bit is possibly essential if we have to correct people's thinking about what we do and at the same time, inspire them to an extent. Anyone can read Mr. Knievton's Presidential Address titled 'Proud to be an Engineer'.

With IMechE President Patrick Kniveton (right) after his Abu Dhabi speech (Nov 2012)

If you have any experiences to share on this interesting (but oft beaten to death) topic, do chime in. 

The Head Hunter Who Loved Me

Readers may be interested to know that I've been unemployed for the last 4 months. How come? Talented, young, energetic and good looking engineer having a long time to relax.

My recent stint was at Cummins in Indiana where I had a fantastic time engineering and validating turbochargers for heavy duty diesel engines. Ironically, my native country's sluggish economy was touted as the reason I found myself among the 2000+ people laid off from the company. If you're in the automotive sector, you'll know that this vital lesson in globalization comes every 2 years.

I've certainly enjoyed the time off - traveling to distant places, meeting people, learning new things. But it has also been a chaotic period where I fully became aware of the challenges, some very interesting, faced by a displaced foreign skilled worker in the U.S.

For beginners, unless an employer gives an advance warning that you will be terminated, there is really no cushion to continue staying in the U.S without work. A terminated H1b worker is no longer an H1b worker, you're out of status that very moment (technically). This period is one of utter turbulence, a period when even families who have children going to school  may have to stop everything, pack their bags and make arrangements to leave. Not making this stuff up.

During my own 'turbulent' time after being laid off, I went 200% all out to find a new job. It was in my best interests to survive and if anyone can convince me this is a crime, sure write me a nice hate mail. But perhaps your job is already done. I can convince you that I went through a softer version of hell facing the ridiculous corporate red tape against sponsorship of foreign workers.

Imagine you're on the phone having a great conversation with a recruiter for Honeywell or Caterpillar or John Deere. They're interested in what you have to offer, they say, because they can't find anyone with your skills. There is a shortage of skilled professionals, that's a favorite line. But then comes the dreaded question of whether you would require sponsorship to which you say yes and slowly but certainly, all conversation stalls there. Even if you convince them that you can sponsor your own relocation costs, the rest of which should only be loose change to them, there is no negotiation room.

Is it really the company's fault that they cannot hire a displaced foreign worker for jobs where previous experience is blatantly evident? Or is it the United States' immigration policies that give foreign workers such a hard time finding their footing. I don't know.

I'm not a recruiter. But I've been told that when it comes to recruiting, head hunters have a side responsibility of reporting their numbers. Even if they don't really care about you, speaking with you will give them a chance to market the company and put a hard number on the hiring metrics. That's the recruiter's bottom line.  Its like this screenshot from a video game.

In my humble experience, I found this to act like a conflict of interest.  For instance, I found it was quite common for recruiters to sound super jubliant in the first couple of phone calls to me. However, after I had supplied them extensive information about myself, they would vanish into a black hole, never to be heard from again. A courteous and timely follow-up is not something they take seriously. In the frenzy of fishing for new heads, if your head is not so nice, you're pretty much left to drown I suppose.

Other recruiters who spoke to me in drone voices doing first time compatibility checks made me wonder whether it is the talent hunters that really need talent?  .

In a select few cases, after much pushing and shoving from my own end, I obtained interview opportunities. A notable case ended in disaster and I guess that makes the topic of my post.

One recruiter working for a Fortune 500 giant of company was curiously interested in me from the gun shot. She calls me up one fine day and that first impromtu phone conversation lasted 2.5 hours. By the end of the behavioral barrage of questions, and after much chit chat and laughter, I wasn't sure if she wanted to hire me or marry me.

On one hand, I give it up to her for the unconventional style to pry me out which I liked as opposed to the boring, canned approach used by most recruiters. She wasn't asking predetermined questions from a list. She was having a real dialog with me, often very Socratic in nature and I love those conversations. She said she really wanted to know if I would be a good fit and whether the company would be a good fit for me. Some words of advice were even offered from her own life going through unemployment. I mean, it was great! I didn't demand all this.

So what was I getting into? After that and a couple of emails, she informed me that I passed the screening and my next and only battle was to handle the technical portion of the interview with the hiring manager. Up until this stage, she had full awareness that I required visa sponsorship and that I fit the bill for a genuine candidate.

The humor was there as well. Hardly could she hide the fact she liked me. In fact  she told me that when pushing my name to her immediate boss to sign me up for the interview, her exact words to them were 'I LOVE Ron George, we need him'. Thanks ma'am for the openness. I love you too. :/

Great, so this individual goes ahead and notifies me of my interview date, time and agenda. Everything seemed great on paper. I loved the job description, so I burned midnight oil to prepare myself for the interview, all my questions and answers laid systematically on multiple flash cards. I knew exactly what could be asked and how I could answer it. SOAR stories you know. [SOAR stands for Situation, Obstacle, Action, Result]

Come interview day. 2 or 3 hours before designated time, I get an email from her saying that my interview was put on hold, that they would need to check some additional things before giving it a go.

I became suspicious.

Curious as I was, I wrote her a barrage of emails inciting an explanation.  Would there be an interview on another day? Err, sorry, not at this time.

She called a few days later, perhaps out of her distress, to tell me that while she was convinced I fit the bill for a candidate, her superiors thought this was slightly unprofessional , you know, the approach she was taking with me. Well, like that was not awkward for me!!

It was when I pressed her for more information that the cat really popped out of the bag. The real reason I didn't get the interview was that global HR headquarters was still debating whether foreign citizens could be allowed for the interview. It was after I get an interview date that they conveniently thought they should close the opportunity for me. Or was that even the real story?

Fortunately, I have a good network of contacts so a couple of weeks later, another 3rd party head hunter who sought candidates to fulful the same job position informed me that since this company tried and could absolutely find no American engineers for the role, they were opening it to business majors!!! This was a bit heart breaking and alarming at the same time.

If this organization was really trying to cut costs by barring foreign workers a sponsorship, how much more cost effective is it to hire someone who has absolutely zero engineering background performing application engineering for this product? I guess I do not want to find out how this item will do in an end customer's application. Or their overhead training this guy to do what he's not used to doing.

A few weeks before I left the United States, I heard a speech by Obama on television calling for a complete overhaul of the U.S immigration policy, particularly the way the country facilitates opportunities for skilled workers. More visas, more green cards, more quotas. Sounds great on paper. While I write this, the legislation has been unveiled in Congress. While it awaits many months of debate and more debate, I hope something of value will be left for the taking for skilled workers.

Meanwhile, don't get romantic with any head hunter. Watch out!