Are you being served?

Structural Engineering. It's becoming way more competitive out there in the market place.

Graduates think that they have it bad. Recently I was out bid for some work which [assuming they were spending the same amount of hours as I would] the engineer would have been working for £15 per hour.

I read recently that graduates can expect between £11-£18 per hour straight from university now a days... you do the maths.

Anyway, that's enough about my woes. Lets hear all about you. What have you been doing lately? How can I help you?

When was the last time you asked one or your clients or potential clients those questions? Can you recall recently, when you took an interest in the lives of your business collaborators and partners?

This is what makes the difference in business. That gooey feeling that you get when someone has just taken time out of their busy day to either help or cheer you on into the weekend, it's great isn't it? It feels awesome when someone does that for you. So why shouldn't you do the same for others?

Just recently I picked up 3 engineering projects from new clients during a phone call - straight after being told that I was not the cheapest quote which they had received that day. Why?

I spoke to them. I took the time to understand the problems which they were facing, and discussed their possible alternatives. I described to them in English - not Engineerish, what I would be doing next if they appointed me. I illustrated how I would be delivering value to them by being their professional engineer. I did not do this by undermining the competition though, I helped them understand what it is that a engineer could do to assist in the successful delivery of their project.

If you are responsible for finding more business for your consultancy, or speaking directly with potential clients, then I urge you to absorb this next statement:

The more we allow the magnitude of our fee's to dictate whether or not that we land a project or gain favour - the longer it will take for us as an industry to demonstrate the value that we as professional engineers bring to their projects.

Please find better ways to be competitive.

Have a great bank holiday weekend. Long live the Queen!



Engine[er]

Isambard Kingdom Brunel needs YOU!

You ever wondered what it would be like to own a Top Trumps pack full of the Greatest Engineers of all time? Yeah so did I. So I made this...

Top Trumps - The Greatest Engineers of all time

Well actually I created 35 of them. Each with their own statistics, but not wholly accurate at the moment. Since researching the lives of each and everyone of the chosen 35 Engineers lives or reading their biographies would have taken me years, then let's get a little bit of Christmas online collaboration going!?


[Stage 1]
I have already begun the task by naming the 5 attributes by which they are to be measured. Experience [in years], this represents the years which they were in the industry of engineering. Buildability [1-100], representing technical expertise. Creativity [1-100], how inventive and concerned they were with design subtleties. Business [1-100], did they run their own business? How successful were they? Inspiration [1-100], how well were they received by piers and the public. Did they inspire a generation?


If anyone has any better ideas, then please drop me a message!


[Stage 2]
The naming of the Engineers has taken me a small amount of research - and I did not want to name only Civil and Structural Engineers. Therefore I chose a representative sample of mechanical, product design, electrical and industrial engineers to cheer up the soiree a little. 
So here they are - please give me your input.
1.Isambard K Brunel    2.Sir Marc I.Brunel    3.Steve [Wozniak] 4.Sir James Dyson   5.Robert Stephenson    6.Eugene Freyssinet    7.Nikola Tesla    8.Archimedes    9.James Watt    10.Thomas Brassey    11.The Wright Brothers    12.Henry Ford    13.Thomas Edison    14.Leonardo da Vinci   15.Gustave Eiffel    16.Sir Henry Royce    17.Sir John Fowler    18.Othmar H Ammann    19.Sir Benjamin Baker    20.Anthony Hunt    21.Sir Ove Nyquist Arup    22.Alexander Graham Bell   23.James Brindley    24.Edgar Cardoso    25.Sir John F.Baker    26.Arthur Casagrande    27.Charles de Coulomb    28.Henry Darcy    29.Dr Oscar Faber    30.Clifford Holland    31.James Buchanan Eads   32.Joseph Locke   33.Thomas Telford    34.Fazlur Rahman Khan   35.Lillian Gilbreth

[Stage 3]
Once I have set the designs from the earlier stages, the final step [and most arduous] is to set some accurate levels for the each Engineer and their attributes. 
Doing this will take some effort. I suggest the best way to enable it is to set a maximum number of top level and lower level statistics. For example; only 5 individual attributes can be set at 100. We then decide which Engineer gets them. Then we set a total of 5 attributes at the lowest level of 10, and apply them to Engineers.


Finally we arrange each of the 35 Engineers in order of their perceived value for each available attribute. 

So please try this at home over the next few weeks of the holiday season. I will do the rest. 


Finally, the open poll and debate flooding the LinkedIn Engineering Groups dealing with Pay & Status will be concluded tomorrow [currently 99 votes / 88% voting not happy]. Watch out for that one.




Engine[er]




[update - Replaced Steve with Steve] Thanks Anon.