Table of Contents
Preface xi
Author biography xv
Acknowledgements xvii
Part I Preparation for an engineering career 1
1 Engineering: doing more with less 3
Transforming the planet 6
Engineering disciplines 8
2 Engineering practice 14
How to use this book 17
3 Seeking paid engineering work 19
Fear of failure 19
Stage 1 Preparation 20
Step 1 Create your job-seeking diary, build your job-seeking contact list 20
Step 2 Start building your network of contacts 20
Step 3 Prepare your resume and online profiles 20
Common mistakes 21
Review your online presence 21
Key attributes 21
Leadership 21
Teamwork 22
Initiative 22
Persistence 22
Reliability and responsibility 22
Local work experience 22
Ability to learn from experience 22
Step 4 Expand your engineering knowledge: research suppliers 22
Step 5 Expanding your knowledge and skills 23
Standards 24
Programming 24
Contractors 24
Material, labour, and component costs 24
Logistics 25
Economics 25
Predictions 25
Stage 2 Visit engineering suppliers and potential employers 25
Step 6 Planning 26
Step 7 Visiting engineering suppliers 26
Step 8 Continue researching new job opportunities 27
Step 9 Visiting a prospective employer 28
Step 10 Follow-up opportunities and consider starting your own business 28
Relocating for opportunities? 29
4 Neglected perception skills 30
Perceiving reality 31
Prior knowledge influences perception 34
5 Listening 35
Practice exercise: observing listening lapses 36
Active listening and paraphrasing 37
Writing accurate notes 37
Contextual listening 38
Helping others to listen 39
An imperfect, interactive, interpretation performance 40
More listening and note-taking exercises 40
6 Reading documents 42
Practice exercise: reading documents to learn from them 43
Practice exercise: written requirements 44
7 Reading people 47
Avoid email and text messages for sensitive conversations 49
8 Seeing and creativity 51
Why is sketching so difficult? 52
Practice exercise: evaluate your seeing skills 52
Part 2 Workplace learning 55
9 Learning the ropes 57
10 Engineering knowledge 63
Knowledge and information 63
Types of knowledge 64
Explicit, codified, propositional knowledge 64
Procedural knowledge 64
Implicit knowledge 65
Tacit knowledge 65
Embodied knowledge 67
Contextual knowledge 68
Knowledge transfer 68
Acquiring new knowledge-learning 69
11 Knowledge is a social network 70
Mapping knowledge 71
Distributed knowledge 75
Distributed cognition 78
12 Making things happen 80
Step 1 Finding a peer 81
Step 2 Discovery, organisation 83
Step 3 Monitoring-another discovery performance 84
Contriving casual encounters 86
Step 4 Completion and handover 87
Informal leadership, face to face 87
Social culture 88
Practice exercise-knowledge network mapping 88
13 Working safely 89
Identify hazards 89
Identify hazardous events 91
Identify likelihood, consequences, and risks 91
Risk control measures 91
First steps 93
Cultural influences 93
Human behaviour 94
14 Making big things happen 96
Information, knowledge, and diversity 97
Project life cycle 98
Project planning 101
Negotiate and define the scope of work, calculate the time schedule 101
Specifications 104
Test specification 104
Method specification 105
Inspection and testing plans 106
Responsibility for inspections and testing 107
Risk analysis and management 107
Approvals 107
Final Investment Decision (FID) approval 108
Monitoring progress-continuous learning 108
Completing the project 110
15 Generating value 112
Innovation, research and development (1) 114
Product differentiation (2) 115
Efficiency improvements (3) 115
Reducing technical uncertainties (4) 115
Performance forecasts (5) 116
Inspection, testing, and design checking (6) 116
Project and design reviews (7) 116
Compliance with standards (8) 116
Reliable technical coordination (9) 116
Teaching, building skills (10) 117
Social licence to operate: co-creating value with communities (11) 117
Sustainment: operations, asset management, and maintenance (12) 117
Environmental protection (13) 118
Defence and security (14) 118
Small and medium enterprises 118
Product and process improvement, research and development, and anticipating future developments 118
Collaboration 119
Business development research and understanding customer needs 119
Cost monitoring, control, and reduction 119
Risk management and reducing uncertainties 120
Balancing value generation with cost 120
Quantifying value generation 120
Learning more 121
16 Estimating costs 122
Estimating 122
Labour cost 124
What does it cost to employ you? 126
Low-income countries 127
17 Navigating social culture 128
What's different? 129
(1) Respect for authority 129
(2) Navigating the labyrinth of social power 131
(3) Misunderstandings on labour cost 131
(4) Documentation and organisational procedures 133
(5) Language barriers 133
(6) Centralised decision-making 134
(7) Access to financial information 134
(8) Learning from specialised engineering suppliers 135
Some products can succeed 135
Think in terms of value generation 136
Outsourcing 137
Opportunities 137
18 Sustainability 138
Climate change 139
UN sustainable development goals 141
Overcoming resistance to change 142
Renewable energy 144
Efficiency gains, new ideas, or behaviour change? 144
Opportunities 145
19 Time management 147
Understand daily physiological patterns 148
Classify tasks 148
Adapt your schedule 149
Keep records 149
Schedule major tasks 150
Allocate time to help others 150
Say "no" by saying "yes" 150
Defer or delegate: documentation and filing is the key 151
Unforeseen disruptions, avoiding overwork 152
20 Frustrations 153
Frustration 1 Working hard is not getting me anywhere 153
Frustration 2 I can't get a job without experience and advertised jobs require experience 154
Frustration 3 Admin, meetings, accounts, and procedures: this is not what I was educated for 155
Frustration 4 This job does not have enough intellectual challenges for me 156
Frustration 5 Has this been done before? 157
Frustration 6 Constrained by standards? 158
Frustration 7 Yearning for hands-on work 159
Frustration 8 I can't get other people to understand my ideas 159
Frustration 9 This company is run by accountants 160
Frustration 10 They always cut the maintenance budget first 161
Frustration 11 They are only interested in the lowest price 161
Frustration 12 Net Present Value (NPV) shows the project is fine-why don't they approve it? 162
Frustration 13 My skills and knowledge are only valued in rich countries 162
Frustration 14 I would much prefer a job where I could do something to help people 163
Frustration 15 My emails go unanswered 163
Epilogue - next steps 165
Online Appendices 167
Index 169
