The first dip into the cold waters of Engineering…

I graduated from the one of the best Universities in the UK with a Masters Degree in Engineering in 2010.

Here, I had worked on an extremely successful dissertation with a major player of the power generation sector (I had optimised the manufacture of a key component to produce a 30% annual saving), served as an elected member of the student body, had a fairly social and active life, and had secured a well-paid job within two weeks of graduating.  Needless to say my confidence was sky-high and I was ready to tackle whatever life had to throw at me.

The job I had taken brought me to a design and manufacturing firm specialising in niche components (for obvious reasons the name of the business shall remain anonymous and shall be referred to as Company X).  Two other fellow graduates landed up here, both of whom had come from top-class Universities and had worked with high profile clients during their final-year projects – like me they were raring to go and had high expectations.

My first day I spent getting to know the IT system (the word ‘system’ is used loosely here as it implies that there is a basic ‘input-process-output’ functionality).  The business process system used to manage and track inventory was DOS based and resembled something you would probably see on a WWII code-breaking machine.  The role of the computer mouse was completely redundant, and as I fumbled around the system, I began to notice that the general ‘housekeeping’ was poor (i.e. there were orders on the system that were decades old which were not closed off).

If the IT system was old and archaic – the personnel were cavemen, people who had grown up with the business and were in their 30th year of service (typically).  When three, bright eyed, bushey tailed graduates turned up, there was a great deal of suspicion – were we there to replace them?  What do we known about engineering?  Being in charge of ‘instigating the concept of lean manufacturing’ I was tasked with liaising with many of the dinosaurs on the shop-floor.

If I learned anything from that place it was that the days of working with ambitious, driven people was gone.  As was the world-class facilities that we were used to.  Engineering seemed to be about adapting and becoming efficient with the tools that were given.  Which seems to make a lot of sense thinking about it in hindsight.

Nowadays, almost three years after I first dipped into the icy cold waters of the ‘real’ engineering environment, I now work for a global analyst firm (the heaviest piece of machinery is probably a kettle) – common complaints include; not enough biscuits, hot water from the ‘hot water tank’ is too hot.

OUCH…there goes my (blogging) virginity

So…here I am*

The idea of writing a blog has never appealed to me.  I mean, WHY on earth would someone rated as an ENFP on the Myers-Briggs type indicator want to hide behind cyber-anonymity?

Well, the more I think about it (less of the thinking, more of an ‘ extroverted intuitive feely perceptive’ knee-jerk reaction), the following reasons come to mind.

1. Improve my writing style:  Working within the marketing sector, I am often tasked with having to write press releases on top of reports etc.  I’ve recently been told that I have certain writing ‘habits’ that ‘should have been beaten out of me in primary school’.
2. End my procrastination:  I think I have a lot of cluttered thoughts in my head which would be better off being written down and shared with all of you.  I hear that writing things down often helps with putting your thoughts into perspective, as well as relieve those previous outlets that you’ve used to convey your tangential thoughts/feelings towards 🙂
3. Provoke, irritate, anger:  Like it or not…controversy sells.  I’ve always felt that some form of truth will always induce these emotions in people.  Try it at home.

I’m not entirely sure where this blogging journey will take me, and how long it will last.

All I know is that I have so many stories from my travel/business/sporting experiences to make anyone smile/cry/angry and paralyse with uncontrollable laughter.

I hope I can do justice to the ‘uniqueinsights’ title on my blog.

End.

*this work’s equally well as a chat-up line as it does to any introduction to a blog

‘Managers are stupid!’

I did time at one of the world’s largest management consultancy firms (for genuine concerns about my welfare – I will not reveal which one).

This was a place which had built up a credible reputation over the years, an enviable client list and offices in every corner of the world imaginable – basically where there are (preferably low-cost) people and a WI-FI signal, you can guarantee that they have some form of operation there. All of this means that the company is one of the most sought after Graduate schemes and has a rigorous recruitment process consisting of; phone interviews, psychometric tests, assessments days, etc. They really do capture the best talent.

During  my time I was often confronted with incidences with some of the senior hierarchy which often left me perplexed and questioning the workforce dynamic. One particular incident was when I was sitting at my desk one day minding my own business and I was approached rather abruptly by one of the Senior Managers of the firm:

“Get over here son, I have a question for you”…I wandered over to him, he then says…. “I have two numbers here, how do I work out the percentage difference?”…

Really??…a Senior Manager asking an Analyst about BASIC Maths?… how can they be so stupid!?

This did get me thinking about the career path a little more:

As you progress through the ranks of an organisation (one which pushes you to management regardless of need/skill-set) it inevitably gets more and more difficult the further up the chain you go. What tends to happen is that the best talent, keen to not get caught up in the back-log of people waiting to be promoted, leave after reaching a (often self-made) ceiling. The people who remain, are generally the people who are content with where they are and have no desire to push for the next level so quickly – these are the ones that are ultimately promoted due to the amount of time at the firm.

The issue doesn’t seem lie with the recruitment – the issue lies at the retention of the talented people and the inevitable promotion of the mediocre.

Of course it is nonsense to suggest that everyone who is a manager at a top tier consultancy is stupid (and admittedly, my example is a little on the extreme side) –however I do think there is some truth to the suggestion that a few have got there by default whilst the real high-flyers (who were perhaps better equipped to perform the role) have flown from the nest. Maybe, if firms focused less on the meaningless ‘time at level’ factor then they might go some way to eradicating the promotion of mediocrity and moments where I have to give an impromptu Year 6 Maths lesson.

I am definitely keen to hear what other people in the management consulting arena think of this…