AL.com Article- June 2018- Huntsville consistently ranks high in articles regarding “best places to live if you are an engineer.” At this point to many in Alabama, it’s no secret. The rent is less than its competitor cities (it’s around $950 per month median); the traffic allows flexibility in how far one lives from place of work; the city is a respite for smart people who also like to enjoy the outdoors; and the pay is good (average salary for an engineer is around 100k). That’s why there are around 20,000 engineering degrees in the Huntsville metro.
Around 60% of aerospace and defense employees are over age 45 vs. 44% in the overall U.S. workforce. Also, considering that younger employees of the great recession may have a job-hopping mentality, defense contractors have a challenge of maintaining continuity over long and complex projects.
According to one mid-career engineer, some Research Park companies are adapting to these challenges of recruitment and retention without losing sight of what makes someone interested in aerospace and defense jobs to start with.
Paul Collins has worked with Huntsville’s Intuitive Research and Technology Corporation for ten years. He chose INTUITIVE for his co-op while working toward a degree in Mechanical Engineering and joined full time in 2008. He is now an Engineering Technical Lead. He has the following insights on what motivates younger engineers and how companies can compete for the next generation of leaders:
Young engineers want a stake in the project and a voice:
“As a defense contractor, I see a vast array of different projects, and my job focuses on design and analysis for system integration,” says Collins. “As a result, the nature of my work is incredibly dynamic, which is a relative rarity for many engineers; it’s always evolving.”
Some amount of feedback is compulsory when your work affects the safety of war-fighters, but many young engineers want to be in conversations across disciplines and hierarchies.
“There’s a preconceived notion that engineers are withdrawn socially, but I feel like that just isn’t the case here. Many of us serve as our own project leads so we are required be socially adept, to communicate clearly with customers and peers,” notes Collins. “When I became full time after college, I can’t tell you how many times I received comments about my age when my customers met me in person; they were surprised I was the project lead and the one leading the meetings.”
Young engineers are refreshed by taking on new roles:
Burnout is real in engineering, and it doesn’t always just amount to the stress of an unrealistic workload. “I am in a definite minority amongst my age group because of the fact that I have stuck with the same company for almost 10 years,” said Collins. “I know many companies utilize STEM majors for only a few strengths they identify and then place that person in a position where they exercise only that strength.” The result? After a few years, these ambitious engineers look at making job or career changes where they are acknowledged as multi-faceted technical experts.
Collins explains, “Although I have continued to learn new aspects of engineering processes, several of my colleagues in the past have spoken up about losing enjoyment or passion in their work. Fortunately, INTUITIVE management has found ways for those employees to get involved in new projects or take on slightly different roles for new, challenging work—they’re still here and happy.”
Young engineers appreciate the structure of defense projects, but seek compassionate work environments to counteract bureaucracy:
“We are not working for a startup, and we aren’t going to name our own hours or skateboard through halls—that’s okay,” said Collins. “Engineers are really interested in their work product, and their own development. Most engineers admit that they are intense. Due to the nature of our work, we calculate everythingbefore we do it, and this usually trickles down to our personal life. While my wife chooses the route for errands based upon personal importance, I route paths based on the shortest or fastest path.”
This is to say, STEM workers get absorbed in their work. But this doesn’t mean they are any less appreciative of human closeness. Collins notes that being around caring coworkers creates a critical sense of balance.
“There is a familial feel to our work environment. I know it sounds cliché, but we all get along so well here that it feels like I’m working with a bunch of my brothers and sisters.”
In fact, his work environment gave Collins the confidence to start a family a couple of years ago. It helped that INTUITIVE’s health insurance makes the cost of having a baby around just $100 out of pocket.
“The owners and executive staff reached out to me and my family personally to congratulate us and check up on us throughout the whole process. I have even brought my daughter by the office to meet many of my co-workers because I feel like they genuinely care,” he says.
At work, Collins enjoys a micro-market stocked with healthy snacks, a gym, yoga lessons, and opportunities to work with peers in the greater community.
“I would say many new engineers would be surprised to find that a lot of the same work benefits provided by Silicon Valley can be had in the Tennessee Valley,” he says.
Collins thinks other companies will follow INTUITIVE’s suit and change to reap the benefits: happy, balanced employees.
For more information about how you can get on board with the team at INTUITIVE, click here.