Finding your own work when working at a corporation? 4

[PBEIT]

Had an interview with a company today that is employee owned. They mentioned that they would give me projects for a while and then it would be my responsibility to go out and find my own projects. I only have a year experience and I have no idea how to go out and wrangle up engineering jobs. I don't have any type of a sales or retail background so I'm definitely not a salesperson, plus I'm a complete introvert. So I was curious if this is normal and if it is how long would it be before I would have to bring my own jobs into the company.

Thank you

 

[ctopher]

I personally have never heard of this, but it would be a great learning experience.
If you get the position, start right away in social networks looking for projects (Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Chris, CSWA
SolidWorks 14
SolidWorks Legion

 

[BUGGAR]

Actually it's not unusual for an engineering company to ask its employees to bring in work (these employees are called "rainmakers"). There will come a time when you ask yourself, "Why should I be giving all this work to my boss when I can do it all by myself?". This is frequently how new companies start out. DO NOT sign any non-compete clauses with your company!

 

[IceNine]

I had a previous employer who wanted me to do the engineering work and seal the engineering work. When he told me I need to go out and start getting the work, I asked 'remind me why I need you again?' He backed off, and I moved on soon after.

 

[BrianPetersen]

I suspect that quite a few on this forum have gone through the process of telling a boss that they were not needed any more. I have.

 

[MrHershey]

This is not unusual for design firms, especially small ones. Engineers are expected to manage contracts, make sure payments are being received, and eventually bring in new work. How you do that varies by engineer. Some network, get out and meet people, cold call or whatever. But what has worked well for us is to build good relationships with people you work with (but not necessarily for), and they'll recommend you. Often times big name architects will develop a design and then hand it over to a local architect to do the nitty gritty stuff to make everything meet code. Stuff that's not sexy, tough to attract top architectural talent to develop your door and window schedules for you. By having a good relationship with the small shops, you can get your foot in the door with the big ones. And remember that not all work is glitz and glam, new buildings. Sometimes it's helping get a contractor out of a jam when something that was supposed to be pre-engineered doesn't come pre-engineered. Or doing some construction-related engineering work like doing crane foundations or (re)shoring calculations. Help them out and do it well and they're more likely to recommend you for the job or insist that you be on the job when an owner or architect comes asking for them to team up.

 

[moltenmetal]

Small consulting firms expect everyone to be selling and doing proposals and maintaining relationships with ongoing clients as part of their work. If this is paired with a billability/utilization target, it's a recipe for a hell of a lot of uncompensated overtime, because I assume they're not giving you (or even selling you) any significant ownership right off the bat.

It's a far cry from the reasonable and inevitable expectation that you will help supply SOME work to the firm, to what the OP describes. If the intention of the prospective employer is that a young engineer with a year or two of experience will be selling enough work to fill their billable hours target for the month each and every month after "a while" working there, then the OP is being set up for failure.

You can approach unreasonable expectations a couple different ways: by ignoring them and hoping that they'll become more reasonable over time, by avoiding the situation entirely by not working there, or by discussing the issue in detail prior and hoping that you can readjust the expectations to something more reasonable beforehand- and do so somehow without scaring them off entirely. The latter approach is worth a try. What have you got to lose?

 

[gfdoug]

I work for a relatively large employee-owned company. We also expect our employees to help find their own work, but that by no means meant that employees are expected to find ALL of their own work. You may ask for someone to redefine what they meant by it.

I've worked here close to a year and part of my job is client relations, proposals, marketting, and other non-billable efforts. But as an employee owner I benefit from the potential business that I bring in personally (bonuses and equity). It's not seen as greatly when you first get hired on, but over the period of several years it becomes HUGE in terms of compensation. Another portion of time (if I ever actually do get a slow period) is to make sure that people know I'm slow - selling myself to other projects or other teams to see if they need any assistance. They may also mean it as "finding your own work" within the company as well. I highly doubt every project is a single engineer project and that nobody in the company would need your assistance once your started.

Hope that helps. It's a great feeling to get personal benefit from projects you work hard to complete, especially if it's projects that you bring in yourself.

-G

 

[moltenmetal]

I quite agree- being part of the business side of engineering work can be both enjoyable and lucrative under the right circumstances. Don't be scared of an expectation that you will eventually be able to bring in SOME of your own work- you absolutely will be, and it will be good to do so! For one thing, you will always know what you're worth in monetary terms to your boss, and that's something I think that every engineer needs to know. And you will get work from your colleagues too, whatever happens, or they won't be offering to hire you now (there's no way you'll build a book of business to any extent in the first year or two). Again, talking helps. Talk it out, understand exactly what they mean by this, and do it in a positive way. Then everybody will be on the same page before you sign on with them.