The Non Shortage of STEM Graduates

In the good old days of my father, you would join a company for life. Dad worked 30+ years for Eastman Kodak retiring with a golden handshake. He had a job for life and the company took care of raises, savings, investing, pension, medical and dental care.

Today you are working on projects. The automobile industry went to this model first. Every year you look for a project on the next model year to be delivered. The company no longer guaranteed you a job unless you found a project.

My work experience is in varied industries and seven states. Been on my current job for 7 years, working my 9^th and 10^th projects for the same program. One year had 3 different managers and 3 senior managers while working on the same project.

The Atlantic has a very good article “The Myth of the Science and Engineering Shortage”. Forget the dire predictions of a looming shortfall of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians.  https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/the-myth-of-the-science-and-engineering-shortage/284359/

If there were a shortage of Engineers and Software Programmers, you would see salaries going up. “Salaries for STEM jobs in Decline” CIO.com reports “Though STEM-focused jobs experienced a slowdown, growing only 1 percent year-over-year, they're still near the top for wage growth. Since 2006, jobs in STEM fields have experienced growth of around 10 percent, according to the PayScale Index” in 2015. 1 percent salary growth is not showing a labor shortage, but an abundance of potential employees.

http://www.cio.com/article/2915869/careers-staffing/salaries-for-stem-jobs-in-decline.html

This supposed shortage is why H1B visas are offered. Instead H1B have been used to get businesses lower price help. My wife got her Masters in Business Administration in Oklahoma, and went to work under a H1B for mortgage companies originally earning low $30’s in California in 1998. Businesses have always worked to keep expenses low. Offshoring and H1Bs gave business more tools to lower labor costs.

If you are going to enjoy a long career in STEM, my advice is the same for most careers:

1. You need technical knowledge, and you need to keep learning. Budget time and money to keep your skills up to date. Paid to learn Solidworks on my own when closing my business and getting back into engineering. Take at least 2 classes or seminars and read a dozen books every year.
2. People skills are as important as technical skills. Stop your distractions and focus on the people in front of you. Meetings go quicker and more gets done.
3. Presenting your ideas is key to your success. Toastmasters is an invaluable way to learn speaking & presenting. I can talk to groups of a few hundred, and teach 2-3 hour training classes keeping people engaged and involved in learning. No problem speaking up or facilitating a meeting.
4. Networking is an invaluable career skill. Learn to meet people, make them confortable, connect them with others, and get business done. Act like a host and you will never be out of place.

 This post is a wake up call to new scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians who like me, lacked these skills coming out of college. The work world is not easy, and truly never was. Your advantage is being humble enough to learn new lessons.

Mentoring Teaching How to Think

Most of us will take a new job, and we depend on people to teach us. They become our mentors. Then comes the day we have to teach the newbie. We are their mentors.

So how do you train someone well? First remember some failures of other people to orient you before. Hours, breaks, bathrooms, and general rules of the office are helpful along with introducing coworkers.

The story of a new hire on a manual zinc die cast machine comes to mind. He just had to pull the lever to close the door, then push the lever open to get the part. New guy works through break, then thru lunch. Finally his manager asks him how he is doing? Sweating profusely the new guys says, “How do you stop this machine?” When told just don’t close the door. He picks up his things and walks out the door quitting on the spot. Training failure.

You need to show someone more than what steps to do. You need to teach them how to think. The steps are okay if everything goes right. What do you do if something is wrong? Mentors must teach how to think. How to handle unsatisfied customers. Who to call for problems. Safety rules and processes. Warning signs looking out for potential problems.

Here is a list of mentoring steps by a curmudgeon:

·   Read the draft manual & procedures.

·   Complete my required training.

·   Giddily using a red pencil to redline the hell out of my engineering drawings.

·   Go leave the comfort of our cubicle area to go to the labs and to walk the production line.

·   Forced me to talk with the mechanics and technicians.

·   No clue what to say, so he would politely say something in just the right way for me to rephrase it and ask it myself.

·   Stories shared from his 30+ years with the company on mistakes made & how they were fixed, successes achieved.

·   Important things to remember when running this test or that analysis.

·   Knowing how the organization works and who the key players are.

·   Why it's important to understand things from our customer's perspective.

·   The significance of integration & handoffs between engineering groups and our products.

·   Appreciation of the precision and detail required to generate computer equivalent engineering drawings by hand.

This woman’s career was been forever shaped by the time and effort this man put into her to learn about the craft of engineering.

Mentors are not done unless the trainee also has life skills to go do the job.  The soft skills of working with people have to be taught everyone. 

Especially the transition from schooling to working. Working with 2 interns they thought there would be no issue sitting down and talking with the CEO. My question was don’t you think he has other responsibilities to be working on? Most CEOs are the chief salesperson making decisions daily, that affect many employees. Part of our job is to protect their time so the CEO can focus. However if you have great ideas and necessary information, you need to bring it to the CEO.

Here are some soft skills were taught by my mentors:

·   Encouraged become a problem solver, to take initiative, and to meet deadlines.

·   Stressed 'problem solving'.

·   That things will go wrong, and to focus on prevention as well as recovery.

·   Asking good questions.

·   Help me develop perspective, and to take logical risks.

·   Humility - serious about my work and not so serious about myself. Life is easier.

·   Speak up and overcome my shyness.

·   Engineering should also be interesting and fun (and not to lose that)

Successful in my career and life because many people took their time to teach me life lessons, work skills, computer programs, problem solving, handling people on bad days, and maintain perspective in crisis’s. Am eternally grateful, and passing my learning on.

Who mentored you? Honor them by teaching others.

Advice for Young Engineers

What would help you succeed in your career and life?

• Seeing the big picture on projects.

• Executing your tasks on time & budget.

• Developing people skills.

Or you can destroy your career.

It is great you have a technical degree. But what will advance your career are people skills. Be 10-15 minutes early. Meet people and find out about them. Work with customers and co-workers on their (or your) bad days to still get things done. Try to understand what the customer and your management really needs.

Be disciplined at work. Show up, work urgently, make promises conservatively, deliver early, be human, take feedback and adjust.

Learning how to communicate, marketing, project management and problem solving skills are great investments. My best contributions have often been asking good questions, not having all the answers.

Understand finance and accounting. Decisions are made based on value.

Protect your career by continuously learning. Get a Master's degree at night. Especially if your company pays for it. If they don’t, get the Masters at the lowest cost possible. Who needs more student loans?

Live within your budget. There will be times you can’t find a project and will have to live off savings. 40 years of working for the same company does not always work out. Planned to stay in my hometown, but actually working in state #7. Savings also lets you buy houses and make investments to retire or start your own business.

Have a life outside of work. Volunteer, make friends, raise good kids, help others, and give back. This is why you work hard, and what you will value in life.

Don’t Say You Can Do Anything

Advise for job hunters. Don’t say you can do anything. That is not true and will delay your finding your next job.  

Most people looking for jobs find accidental jobs. Hey that store is looking for grocery clerks. You could do that.

Not every job will fit you. I have a fear of heights. There is no way I would be a great roofer for instance. Being productive requires comfort at your work.

Instead look at your experiences. What are you good at? Even better, what are you great at? Think about your successes, and all the actions you took to contribute to your team.

Then break down the different skills you have from those experiences. Your old industry may be in the dumps, but almost every business needs those same skills your old job did.

Then start searching for new careers that need your talents. Many new jobs did not exist 5 or 10 years ago. Widen the scope of your search, but stay focused for a few positions.

Your career will go further if you use your best talents.