Engineering Company is the Best Company !

I've had several employers, both in public and private sector, and after starting my studies at Technical University I've worked for Micronas, Ericsson and Espotel/Etteplan. The first two of those were "Brand owners", ie companies that have their own products, and Espotel/Etteplan is an Engineering company, meaning that we do subcontracted work for companies like Micronas and Ericsson... And of course to lot of other companies, pretty much to all companies in Finland.

What's the difference, and why do I think that for an engineer an Engineering Company is the best place ?

Well, the name says a lot, doesn't it :) 

But seriously, there are ups and downs for everything. When doing subcontracted work, the projects are not decided by ourselves, it's up to the Customer to decide what they want to do, and from where to buy the needed outsourced parts. But that's really not that different from working for a brand owner, You don't get to always choose what products and services the company decides to develop... There are Product Managers and whatknot trying to guess what the market is needing next. And quite often in a brand owner, You get to design the next and slightly improved version of the same product. Sometimes the change is slightly bigger and sometimes it's just finetuning and cost optimization. Well, those kinds of projects happen in an Engineering company as well.

Difference is, that spending 5 years in a Brand owner, You most likely work five years making two versions of the same thing. In an Engineering company, You may have designed a part of five or more different products at the same time.

Why an engineer working for the Brand owner gets less done in the same time ?

Well, maybe they get more out, that's just an educated guess... But truth is, when You are involved in creating the Company's own product, You'll end up having to do with the User manuals, type tests,  product ramp-up, production transfer, handling customer feedback, presenting the thing in exhibitions, making minor market specific variants, being in sales support, having meetings of the Next Generation version, etc. All in all, You get to do lots of non-design tasks. Which may or may not be that interesting, but actual design or engineering work they are not. And as always, there are different sizes of companies, and different kinds of organizations. But my gut feeling is, that a designer in Engineering company does a lot more design work over a longer period.

Which means, that as a designer, You get to see a lot of different products, applications, different fields of industry. And just design more.

Surely there are some downsides also. If You are more Product Manager -type of person, that kind of role is more frequent in Brand owning company, and all in all there are much more non-design related career possibilies there. But let's face it, spending 4-7 years in engineering studies often means that the person really likes to do engineering tasks...

My personal favorite thing in an Engineering company is the variety of customers. From established big players to startups. It's fun and innovative to work for startups, and when doing work for the startups from Engineering company, there is the added pleasure of not having to worry whether they can pay the salaries in time or not... Of course the Engineering company also needs the bills paied, but one has to remember that startups money spending keeps continuing after the core development has been done and before the incoming money really starts happening. Over the years I think I've somehow seen most of the companies working in electronics field at least on some level. If I'd stayed on any Brand owner -company, I would've seen seen a much more narrow field, though in a much deeper level of course.

If You noticed the nice tables, they are random samples of Etteplan designers work stations :) They look like there's work happening. If You are interested in Etteplan as interesting employer or subcontractor, just let me know.

Training done right - on a Change Managers Path !

I've attended to quite many courses, from design & technology courses to presentation skills and sales practises, project management etc. All the courses have been held by competent, decent and professional trainers. Still, there's not too many things that in the end get into use and daily life from the courses. One thing I learned from a presentation skills course was not to look straight into a persons eyes but rather look at their forehead... A good advice, and still in use. From Timo Rope's sales course (from engineer to salesman) I really learned that it's always a monkey buying what a monkey wants to buy, and reason has little to do with it.

But did any of those dozens of courses really make that much of a difference ?

No.

But now I started on a Trainers House "Change Managers Path" -course which really looks like it might make a difference.

Subject is "Change Managers Path". What we have done so far is an introduction session and a first three day intensive period at Vierumäki. Three days away from work is a huge time investment, so I was really worried if there's any point in going there. Have to say I was a bit skeptical of Trainers House offering - I'm not too sure I want to listen to Jari Sarasvuo (or his minions) talking for three days the same stuff that Jari speaks in radio or where-ever... Jari's radio shows are fine, but 90 minutes of it is enough.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. OK, the Minions do sound a bit like Sarasvuo every now and then, but not disturbingly much... Truth is, the trainers Marc and Max have paid there dues, and they are masters in their field. And the field is changing the trainees behaviour in a positive way. Because no change in any results will come, if the behaviour doesn't change. And changing a professional grown-ups behaviour isn't easy. It takes many different kinds of personal moments of enlightment before something really is understood and change has possibility to happen.

Why is this (still ongoing) course doing things right ?

The trainers are playing with their hearts open, bravely, showing that they are in this without holding anything back. This atmosphere has quickly been adapted by the audience, which also consists of truly amazing individuals from really various companies. The program is quite expensive, so there is a quite elitistic audience gathered... But as the trainers created an open and trusting atmosphere, the whole group has been able to function amazingly well - participants are really sharing their experiences, wisdom and personality for the benefit of all.

OK, that is all fine and good. Good trainers, good people. I've been on courses with good trainers and good participants (not quite this good...) before. What makes this stand out is three things :

1. Personal physical improvement program and meditation practices
2. Good focus on the attendees personal and organizational goals
3. Really practical and easily understandable and well theoretically backed way of making real changes in corporate culture.

I'm not going to open these individual items too much, attend the course and You'll see (I'm not getting any provision...).

In the end, to make a change the physical condition should be good, the goals should be clear and there are things to understand and tools and practises needed. So, the the whole structure is well though out, and most likely based on a lot of experience and deep understanding. The traineers have paid their dues as I said.

The personal health improvement program started with a test at Vierumäki, full check of muscle & fat situation and oxygen uptake. Now we know where we are, and we got practical programs for further improving. I was happy with my performance, but there are areas where I still need practise and improvement.

So, I started on the Path, feel good, and look forward to get some more tools and experiences !

Now it's time to meditate a bit and hit a Golden egg to my head (inside joke, sorry for that...).