BuiltEnvironment

Still learning after all these years

I have been working in the A/E/C industry since 1978, and in a marketing role for most of those years. When I first joined the industry, there was no degree program in professional services marketing anywhere in the United States.

To the best of my knowledge, there still isn't!

However, there ARE a few universities with one or two professional services marketing courses in their marketing department.

There are organizations like SMPS, ZweigWhite, PSMJ and others that offer training and/or continuing education courses in various aspects of professional services marketing.

There are individuals like Sally Handley and Christine Hollinden, and LinkedIn Groups like Design and Construction Network that offer webinars on a wide range of marketing-related topics.

Finally, there are business books, lots of business books, thousands of business books. I am currently I'm about 75 pages into "Twitter for Dummies." I still have difficulty wrapping my mind around how messages limited to 140 characters adding up to conversation, but I'm determined to learn how this new technology (OK, it's 5+ years old) works and how I can put it to work for my business.

I have always thought that the only real benefit of Twitter would be to drive traffic to my website or some other landing place. But the book promises that it can be so much more than that. Unfortunately, the book doesn't address business usage until many chapters have gone by.

So I am working my way slowly through the book, trying to understand everything the authors present, to get an idea of Twitter's potential for my business before I join and try to come up with a name. I don't want to be there just because "everyone else is!" But I'd like to learn what Twitter can do for my firm if I make the most of it, and how to do that.

I try to join a webinar almost every month. Sometimes I give webinars. Teaching is a great way to keep learning. Last year I gave a series of webinars for a business group in India. This was a particularly rewarding activity and a great learning tool for me because the ensuing conversations were cross-cultural. Since different cultures have different ways of doing business, this was a great learning experience for me. I hope to do this again in 2013, with an expanded array of topics.

I read and write blogs. And I'm active in a professional listserve. I love it when blog or listserve posts lead to questions, which then become conversations. In fact, I often respond to a listserve question by calling the person who asked the question. I learn so much from people when I try to provide information to them. It's always turns out to be worth the investment in time because the return in new knowledge, or new perspectives on and applications of old knowledge, is always valuable.

I believe that every strong relationship has a component of learning/teaching, and that learning is a big benefit that comes from every relationship. You don't have to know more than I do; you just have to know one thing I don't. That makes you, and the relationship, valuable to me.

In 2013, if business continues to pick up the way it has the first quarter of the year, I'd like to attend the SMPS University Leadership Advancement Program. This looks like a great opportunity for learning, business networking and making long-lasting friends.

I was 62 on my last birthday. Every time I come out of a class with new knowledge, or finish a book knowing something I didn't know before I started, I congratulate myself on having proven that YOU CAN teach an old dog a new trick! x

 

"Bats on the Mooove"

(Austin downtown cow art collection)

Advice for engineering job seekers

The following article first appeared on March 15, 2013, in the blog of Thomas Edison State College (http://www.tesc.edu/blog/7110).

My brother (Todd Siben, Assistant Director, Prior Learning/Portfolio Assessment, Thomas Edison State College) sent me an email with a resume attached.

“XXXX is the son of my colleague. He has not yet found an engineering position but has a job, so he’s not in a rush. Would you look at the resume and comment? Also, because you deal with engineers all over the country, do you have any thoughts about who is hiring, or where engineers are being sought?  He’s open to a move anywhere in the country.”

Because my brother is a very good brother, I took more than just “a look” at the resume. I sent him the following response:

I have looked at XXXX’s resume. While it is not bad, I believe it reflects what schools think is important and not what the business world thinks is important. So here are my thoughts.

1. I already know what my firm can offer an applicant. The applicant has to show me what he can do for my company. He has to tell me things about himself that will be important to ME.
2. Profile – Nothing in this section is relevant to an entry-level civil engineering position. In fact, this is more of a “goals” section, and industry doesn’t care about a person’s goals except as they help that company. If XXXX wants to discuss goals, this section has to address civil engineering and be specific to the recipient company. Otherwise, this section should be deleted.
3. Since XXXX has not yet found an engineering position, his “experience” is all non-engineering experience. This is great if he wants a job in property leasing (Jones Lang LaSalle, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate consultants, might need engineers). He must have worked on an actual engineering project as a student, perhaps a class project, even if it was hypothetical. Perhaps his professor had students help on a real project as a learning experience. If XXXX participated in activities like “CAN-do” (where a team builds things out of cans), the concrete canoe race (an annual event at many engineering schools), or an “Engineer’s Week program, these are more relevant than what he did as a leasing agent, and should come first. The extraneous job descriptions should be much shorter.
4. Move the “honors & awards” line to the “education” section; it is education-related.
5. Move the “Credentials” section right under “education;” these are engineering-related skills.

I don’t really have a feel for who is hiring engineers, but here is my suggestion for job leads:

1. XXXX should make a list, in order of preference, of the 10 cities where he would most like to live.
2. Go to www.bizjournals.com and see if any of these cities have business journals.
3. Every week, these business journals publish a listing of the “top 25” of something in that city, and every year includes a listing of the top 25 engineering firms.
4. These listings will identify these firms by name, and he can then go to their websites, read about them, check their career pages and see if they are hiring entry-level engineers who do the kind of engineering he wants to do.
5. Use the information in each website – “About Us,” “Services,” “Projects” – to determine if any firm is a place where he would be comfortable. If so, he can send a cover letter and resume specific to that firm and information on what he brings to the table that THEY would value. If the firm prefers to have applicants apply online, there should be a place to upload a cover letter as well as a resume.

What I forgot to include in the job leads list was that XXXX should join (if he hadn’t already) the local chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The chapter will have monthly meetings (at least), at a nominal cost. At these meetings, there will be educational programs, which he can add to his resume, as well as networking opportunities that might turn up lob leads that have not yet been published.

I also forgot to say the following:

Your resume is your academic and professional biography. Since neither your academic experience nor your professional experience is the same as anyone else’s, your story shouldn’t be the same as anyone else’s. Use your resume to DISCUSS your experience rather than just LISTING names, dates and places. In your high school history class, you learned that a recitation of details was boring. It is no less boring for the HR or technical person reviewing your resume.

Write your cover letter as if you were writing your biography. After an introductory paragraph in which you identify yourself as a recent graduate and your interest in the position for which you are applying, talk about what made you embark on an engineering education. Talk about the specific engineering classes you really liked and why. Talk about the project you worked on during a summer internship, even if you hated it and it made you rethink your engineering specialty. Tell the reader things that will make him or her want to speak with you on the phone or, better still, in person.

Unfortunately, many engineering schools don’t think an engineer needs to know how to write well. But engineers write often: they write engineering reports to describe the components and challenges of a project, they write letters to clients and jurisdictional agencies, they write text for permit applications, and they write hand-out materials for public meetings, hearings and other uses.

However, while a resume is in large part about the details of your academic and professional history, and details are where engineers generally excel, telling the story in an engaging and compelling manner is equally as important as the details you are relating.

Putting "Client Liaison" position on the Organization Chart

I recently joined a discussion of this issue through a listserve to which I belong. Someone had posted looking for suggestions as to where on a proposal's organization chart would be the best place to add this person. I wrote two suggestions for placement and clicked "send." I thought that would be the end of it.

But no!

My mind kept returning to the question, and the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that a client liaison has no place on a proposal's organization chart. As far as I am concerned, it doesn't matter who the client is or what the project might be.

I believe very strongly that it is one of the proper functions of the project manager to take care of the client during the project. And I believe that the person selected as principal in charge is generally the manager of that particular client relationship.

Therefore, if one takes the view that client liaison is a marketing- or business development-type position, there is no need to put that person on the organization chart because his/her function has no bearing on how the project will actually be executed.

Further, if you DO put that position on the organization chart, regardless of placement, the client might infer that he or she must go through the client liaison to get to the project manager or principal in charge. However, every client I have ever met wants to have DIRECT ACCESS to the project manager, and if/when they have a problem with the project manager, they want DIRECT ACCESS to the Principal in Charge to resolve the problem.

If I were a client looking at the anticipated project staffing and organization in a proposal, the inclusion of a client liaison on the organization chart might make me wonder if my project was going to be used to support a senior administrative or management person who would not be making any real technical or other contribution to my project.

In that case, I would probably set that proposal aside and give it no further consideration. IF I DID READ THE PROPOSAL, and actually found something superior about it, something that caused me to short-list that firm, one of my major goals for the interview would be to obtain a detailed definition of the services the client liaison would provide.

IF THE SHORT-LIST PRESENTATION AND Q&A SESSION WERE SO SUPERIOR that I selected that firm to undertake my project, removal of the client liaison from the organization chart would be part of my negotiation strategy. I would not want to leave a position on the organization chart that might come between me and my project manager or project principal.

If a firm wants to have a client liaison person to help project managers and principals take good care of their clients, or to provide training for new project managers on how to provide good client care, that is admirable. Anything that helps appropriate staff learn to better care for their clients is a good thing for business. Especially when it is invisible to the client.

But I believe that having a client liaison person who might take over these responsibilities, separate a project manager or principal from the need to manage client relationships, and have a direct relationship with clients as such a liaison, is not a good thing for any A/E/C firm.

 

"Cowjunto Music"

(Austin downtown cow-art collection)