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Every-so-often, I come across articles advising how to write your résumé, market yourself, and what not, thus (supposedly) increasing your chances of success of getting a job. That seems a-priori important, especially when, as a young engineer, you do not have many years of experience and references to boast. Hence, we come across CVs in which summer student jobs cooking French fries are presented like long term senior management positions… Because of my age, I have been involved in the recruitment of a number of engineers, and I always wonder about these résumés. Is it really what makes the difference, or on the contrary might this actually hurt the applicant's credibility? Does it really matter that so many applicants like reading, watching movies and playing tennis?

I thought that I would help the youngsters better by blogging here some of my thoughts declined in 5 tips that I have also provided in a Linked In discussion last year.

My first tip:

When I interview a senior candidate I am looking for knowledge and skills. I’ll make sure that what is said in the résumé is true. For a junior position, it is different. I suppose that someone who has graduated from some kind of engineering studies has a global understanding of what engineering is about. You have just spent between 4 and 6 years in that school. Now is the reputation of that school important?

To some people it maybe. To me, it is not. The school you have gone to, provided it is an engineering school, has delivered you an engineer diploma that means to me that some faculty members, somewhere, have recognized you as worth awarding that precious diploma, congratulations!  The oil and gas industry is recruiting at a global level. After years of international assignments, one realize that there are smart people everywhere, from every nation, colour and gender, educated in a nebulous number of institutions. Sometimes, the school you attended was closer, more convenient or maybe the only one you (or your parents) could afford. If Stanford opened its doors for you, good for you, if you went to école polytechnique in Antsiranana, it is as good for me, it probably tells me as much about the difficulties that you had to overcome to achieve what you have done so far.

So, my tip number one is: do not be ashamed of where you come from, be proud of being a graduate engineer and welcome to the community.

My second tip:

What if your thesis, final project - whatever you call it - is not in line with the job posting? And what if it did not work as expected? Well, there are several things that I like to say here. First is that in your career, you will probably change job many times, and it will not be long before this thesis and project will just be some fun memories. However, engineers are very often more comfortable at talking about technical stuff than about sports, family life and other more important things. Moreover, in an engineer’s interview, why not talk about engineering? That topic can be a good basis for discussion. Of course, I know the difficulties of finding a good topic, of getting the proper support from the school or from the industry and of collaborating with other folks that may have different interests. You may have solved a problem, congratulations, or not solved it and there is nothing to be ashamed about it. Today, industrial problems are seldom resolved by individuals but by teams that are carefully assembled and properly managed. Was it your case, likely not! That does not mean that it is not important. What I expect a junior to show me, is what he/she has learnt from it. Were all the technical issues identified? Was the literature review properly done? Did you calculate, model, what you could with the current theoretical knowledge? What are we still ignoring of the topic? What are the specific difficulties and what are the lessons that you have learnt on technical as well as non-technical matters.

So, here comes my tip number two: show me that you have done your best, that the process that you have followed was technically sound, and more than anything else, that you have learned (a lot) from that project.

My third tip:

Why does one want to hire a junior rather than a more senior engineer in the first place? Because they are cheaper? Less stiff in the brain? Or because of senior’s scarcity on the market? Well, maybe, maybe not. I guess that everyone has her/his own answer to this and I will not venture into sweeping statements.

Today, almost all we do in engineering largely involves some kind of computer programs, running models. Some companies are specialized on producing these models, however, many more companies are users of software packages. This might be interpreted as a lesser need for science and mathematically literate employees, i.e. engineers, since the computing is performed by machines. Why not take anyone in the street to run the darn model?

Younger engineers have the reputation of having fresh memories of calculus and algebra, what for then? Because computer programs are not perfect, they are just running mathematical models. These models are only converting part of the reality into equations that we are using with imperfect input data and hence spitting out imperfect outputs. What is expected from an engineer, especially a fresh one, is the ability to validate the results. Is this quantity realistic? Should we be using a Bayesian approach rather than a Cartesian one? Is that graphical output valid? What is this inflection point on the curve: a physical reality or a model’s artifact?

In my interview, I will try to select those who can spot flaws, who can question the inputs and the models. Engineering is about finding and applying practical solutions to real problems, with the help of the currently available scientific knowledge; and in science, questioning is a cornerstone into our quest to approach the truth. Anybody can run computer programs, few people can actually use them, and not being instrumentalized by the computer itself. Making sense and being critical about computer output, improving our ability to better model the underlying physics is a must in modern (petroleum) engineering.

Hence my third tip: Check your input data twice, but check your output three times or more before you present it and make sure that you understand it. Be prepared for this kind of (hard?) questioning.

My fourth tip:

Now, if we are hiring a junior engineer, it is obviously not for experience, and not only to be a mere computer interface. It is also for that fuzzy concept that we call “Potential”. In other words, companies hiring youngster do not expect them to add much value before a few months or years down the road. How does this happen? Because the company, internally and externally is going to provide you with some training, more or less intensive, depending on the company profile and ability. Therefore, the so-called “potential” is in reality the ability of the young professional to learn, and to rapidly use that knowledge to the company’s benefit.

I am far from being an education specialist, however, my understanding of the ability to learn involves a number of things such as open-mindedness, curiosity, enthusiasm and humility. We learn all our life, and from any kind of people. When you join the team, you are expected to learn in formal trainings, but also from the other people in the team, your supervisor of course, but also the truck driver, the equipment operator, the accountant, everybody. Those who already know everything may have some difficulties to identify that some new knowledge is available out there, hence to capture it.

What you have learnt at university is great and essential, but not enough to be a fully fledged professional, except if you are a genius (some are). The “I-know-it-all” type of résumés makes me recline my seat backward and think, what are Khadija, Tommy, Kayode and Yunfei able to teach that candidate? I do not need to hire a Nobel Prize winner now, but I want to hire the candidate that will be in the engineers’ top drawer within 5 or 10 yrs.

My fourth tip is then: remain clear and honest about where you are in your career and where you want to be, don’t overdo it; and remember, we do not need that many managers, and the desire to become a manager is not a requirement! Remain open, humble and curious on all topics, listen, and question. Soon, you will teach, even to more senior engineers. That means also that you may have a selection to make if several companies are competing for your (future) talent: short list the ones that are committed to educate and train you, the ones that can expose you to most experience and provide you with a mentor who has a vested interest in your success.

My fifth tip:

Eventually, my last, my worst and most controversial, hence my very personal and favourite tip.

Imagine that you are ticking all the boxes. But that all other candidates are similar to you: all smart and flawless. I will go to the bottom of your résumé. If you like theatre, music and video games, well that is fine, but it does not tell me a lot about you, we all enjoy sports and culture. If you happen to be a world champion in something, it is of course worth mentioning, because we all imagine the kind of effort, along with engineering studies that it requires to achieve that. However, everybody cannot be world champion, and that’s all right, we have all tried.

Not only do I want to work with the best engineers, I also want to work with the best people. So, it matters to me a great deal whether you have been volunteering in some kind of community, student or professional, political, union, philanthropic society, etc. activity and what was your motivation. Some people will disagree and tell you not to mention some of these. I think that it is great to take an active part in the world where you live (rather than on Facebook or second life). If you are rejected because of that, even better, you do not want to work for these folks anyway, do you? Showing that you are a responsible citizen, honest and ready to discuss it, makes the difference between the average engineer and the engineer that cares. I want engineers who care!

That was my fifth and last piece of advice. I hope it helped some of you.

I was just about to forget: Good Luck to y’all.