A Graduate Engineer's Guide to the World of Work: Lessons from Industry Leaders

Getting the Most out of an Engineering Degree

The University of the Witwatersrand's Academic Development- (ADU) and Development and Leadership Units (DLU) ran an Industry/Work Readiness Programme for prospective engineering graduates from the 27th to the 29th August 2018. The three-day event, co-organized by Dr. Rodney Genga (Director of the ADU and also a speaker during the event), hosted four professional engineers: Mr. Ntumba Katabua, Chargé d'affaires Investment Officer with a background in technology management, negotiation and electrical engineering; Ms. Seponono Kekana, CEO of Sites-Afla, with a background in engineering, finance and management; Mr. Terrence Lawrenson, former CEO of ACTOM High Voltage Equipment Division, and; Mrs. Elekanyani Ndlovu, Aurecon Client Director with a background in electrical- and project engineering.

The dialogue touched on an engineer's role in a solving business problems in the fourth industrial revolution, which industries the world is headed towards, relationship and reputation building, maintaining commendable ethical standards, entrepreneurship, how to be an effective leader and follower and how to network and sell - in an African context. An emphasis was placed on addressing Africa's biggest needs in various industries, motivated by highlighting the challenges that those industries face. The main take-away points from this discussion are presented below.

Read time: 7 minutes

Context vs. Content - Ntumba Katabua (Pr. Eng.)

The role of an engineer is to solve problems with minimal resources, relevant to the context of those problems. The context of the problem is defined by real, practical considerations that may change the proposed solution completely. A better understanding of the context of a problem comes from understanding the problematic system's inputs, outputs and interlinking processes.

An interesting example provided by Mr. Katabua was of a well-meaning engineer that had installed a network of bright lights in a rural settlement so that the young villagers could study at night. Weeks later, when returning to study the effectiveness of his solution, the engineer had found that his lights were switched off. Shocked by this discovery, he approached one of the elders of the village to find out why. The context of his solution had changed after a simple finding: The lights caused the villages' cattle to experience stress - this affected the yield the villagers were able to retrieve from the livestock. To the villagers, the metric of livestock yield was much more important than available night study time. It is important to understand what the problem is - and what the problem is not.

According to Ntumba, it is imperative that graduates strive to understand how they fit into their employer's picture, how their business makes money, how to increase profitability, market size and cash flow and what specific metric their success is measured by. He suggested that systems management skills are essential as these functions are often fulfilled by consultants and international contractors. Ntumba added that when approaching interviews, engineering graduates should not present themselves as scientists, but as dynamic problem solvers. He closed his discussion by highlighting the issues that he believed that African engineers would have to solve:

• Making solar power more economical
• Policy formation and innovation around climate change
• Alternative solutions to access clean water
• Designing more sustainable infrastructures
• Enhancing health informatics (Using big data)

Reputation Building and Continuous Growth - Seponono Kekana (Pr. Eng.)

Mrs. Seponono Kekana, CEO of Sites-Afla, started her discussion by describing how her education in Industrial Engineering (A field in which Seponono holds a Master's degree) equipped her to manage a business. She endorsed the ideas of continuous skills development, through short courses, certifications, attending conferences and obtaining on-the-job experience. Mrs. Kekana broke down what, in her view, were essential tools/qualities for engineering graduates to succeed in the world of work:

• Reputation building: Be deliberate about what kind of reputation you would like to have in the workplace and work towards that. People respond better to behaviour than words.
• Aspiring towards global standards: The nature of employment in today's global economy requires it. Graduates are not only competing against candidates from their own university, but against candidates from across the country and often across the world.
• Being humble and having a teachable spirit: It is essential to be able to communicate with, relate to and learn from different types of people - from labourers to the CEO/principal of your company.
• Getting your hands dirty: One day, you are going to be a manager. Having physical experience will add to your credibility.
• Maintaining strong ethical standards: An important concept in handling conflict situations that may arise in real life. One should be assertive and should not be made to do work that he/she is not comfortable with.
• Invest in yourself: Travel while you are young. Travelling opens up your mind and exposes you to new and different people and opportunities. Save up for short courses, learn as much as possible and expand your network.

Generalize, Don't Specialize - Terence Lawrenson (Pr. Eng.)

Mr. Terence Lawrenson, former CEO of Komatsu Mining Group, described his view on the trick to making the most of your career: When stuck in the thick of things, stop, take stock and understand the playing field. "It's less about the content and more about the context." He spoke about the suitability for engineers in roles in the banking, insurance and consulting industries, for their mental and cognitive horsepower, and encouraged the audience to apply for the opportunities offered therein. He narrated the typical career path of an engineering graduate, gravitating towards becoming a custodian of best practice, and warned of the danger of becoming stuck in that role and not making use of the full potential offered by engineering thinking and becoming a game-changer.

Mr Lawrenson advised that graduates should not rush their careers - the first year or two is the ideal opportunity to learn as much as possible about the business and application of the skills you've learnt at university. Instead of chasing a salary, it's important to build a career. He advocated generalizing instead of specializing - Engineers can do anything, and the world of work offers many, many roles. Learn from other business units in your company and study how they effect their work. Terence highlighted the importance of being bold and identifying the levers of the business - building relationships with the people who would later fund your project/s.

Terence concluded with a note on relationship building: "In order to get ahead in business, you need to know how to get along. You have to be persuasive, well-known and have to network effectively. [Engineering science] places a tremendous focus on technical skills and content, while the real world is about people. Learn some human skills."

To the Uttermost: Africa is Depending on it - Dr. Rodney Genga

Dr. Genga started his presentation off by speaking about how the fourth industrial revolution and the science of the Internet of Things (IoT) presents an opportunity for young engineers. Africa is at the very beginning of developing entire industries that are capable of running without people physically having to be present. Rodney identified the industries that were most suitable for growth in this new age: Infrastructure, Urban Rehabilitation and Development, Energy, Manufacturing, Air Transport, Communication, Minerals and New Materials and Technology and Medicine. He defined poverty (in the areas of Health, Food and Education) as the inability of accessing choices and opportunities, and took the audience through the statistics with a profound conclusion: Engineering graduates are amongst 4% of the South African population, whose ability dictates their social responsibility to enable the other 96%.

Dr. Genga provided the audience with a few issues for further exploration/thought:

• Problems in Health - Respiratory diseases, HIV/Aids, Diarrhoeal diseases (Stemming from poor access to clean water/sanitation).
• Problems in Nutrition - 25% of Africans are undernourished (220M people), with the main reasons being climate change, urbanization, conflict and population increase.
• Opportunity in Education - Agricultural engineering should be a leading field in South African universities because of the continent's resource-rich nature.

Owning Industrialization in Africa - Elekanyani Ndlovu (Pr. Eng.)

Mrs. Elekanyani Ndlovu, Aurecon Client Director, spoke about what graduates should be aware of in the context of employment in South Africa. She reiterated the importance of not getting sucked into the detail and always understanding why you are undertaking any professional endeavour. Mrs. Ndlovu revealed to the audience that industrialization in Africa belongs to its engineers, and poignantly pointed out how engineering graduates do not seem to own this. Elekanyani provoked the audience with an artistic thought - "As engineers, we not only need to be able to dance on the dance floor, we need to be able to see the dance floor from above." Mrs. Ndlovu suggested a redefinition of the goal of an engineer's career: to create jobs; and she explored the different skills necessary in order to achieve this:

• How to sell - No project happens without capital, and you cannot raise capital if you cannot convince investors that your project is worth their while.
• How to Network - It is essential to change your paradigm about what networking is, as it is a skill that can be learnt. The relationships within your network must be authentic and mutually beneficial.
• An understanding of how projects come into being makes you powerful. This knowledge can be self-taught or acquired by consulting your network, and should be approached as an entrepreneur, not as an engineer.
• It is important for engineers to respond to the National Development Plan (NDP) in order to address the country's needs. Institutional frameworks that determine whether engineering projects are feasible may be flawed, and it is up to engineers to address this.

Before concluding the event, Elekanyani left the audience with some encouragement: "[We] can impact lives and play at a level where we can influence and shape; we can own assets that we can actually understand and run. Don't wait to be reduced to a specialized area and wait to be a designer. We need to be involved at the definition [of what the country and continent needs]."