For this exercise, the job that I am referencing is my position at my current organization. I applied for a position with this organization a little under five years ago. The job description for the position that I applied for was significantly different than the position that I ended up taking, which interestingly enough did not have a formal job description developed for it. Then, about three years ago, I was promoted to another position that also did not have an explicit job position in writing. My example is probably similar to that of other folks in the engineering profession.
In my experience, many of the roles we end up taking on in the engineering industry, and specifically in the transportation infrastructure world, are not associated with black and white job descriptions in writing. Sure, there are job descriptions for the initial position when you are hired on at a firm, but your actual tasks, roles, and responsibilities end up varying dramatically, depending on what projects are ongoing at the time, where the unique needs are, or where your own career path tends to take you. For instance, a job description in my industry may include tasks like leading a design team to develop calculations for a transportation infrastructure project, assisting a lead inspector in the field on a site visit, or drafting design plans under the supervision of a senior technician or designer. But the individual tasks that the engineering professional is asked to complete no a day to day basis can vary significantly.
This can be very difficult for entry-level applicants whose experience has been shaped by their studies in college with very finite and specific tasks and assignments. These tasks are not so cut and dried in the real world, which creates some struggle and opportunities for learning when the less experienced staff realize that sometimes they need to define the problems and possible solutions themselves.
8 replies on “Week 3 – Blog Post: Job Descriptions”
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the sharing! It’s interesting for me to know that the job description in the engineering industry is not associated with black and white job descriptions in writing. I guess the first step is pretty hard. Since every time I apply a position (business area), the job description is pretty clear and specific, but only about 50-60% accurate compare to the actual job. So in the engineering industry, I guess the candidate get more information about job during the interview?
Thanks!
Yes, and it’s really important to ask those types of questions during the interview. When I am interviewing a potential candidate, I want to see that they are in fact interviewing me. Are they asking the right questions?
A good question that I like to ask when interviewing (or that I like to hear candidates ask when I am interviewing them) is, “by hiring me, what do you hope to be able to accomplish?” This gives me a sense of how my role would impact exactly what the organization is doing.
Thanks!
-Matt
Matt,
Thank you for sharing your experience in this particular industry and the common practice. It makes me wonder about how the organizations make strategic HR decisions and what potential exposure they may have in how they promote, advance and compensate their employees. Whenever I am asked to fill a position within an organization, my first reference point is the job description. So my question to you is how is recruiting tackled when someone in a non-entry level position leaves the organization? Is someone promoted from within or do you hire externally? How does the organization know what it needs and how does it plan for the future? So many questions… this is just very intriguing.
Great questions! I think the answers are typically case by case. Looking at a typical group where you have a large group of entry-level staff, a slightly smaller group of mid-level staff, and then a small nucleus of senior-level staff, you look to replace inevitable turnover in different ways. If we lose an entry-level person, we are typically looking to backfill with another entry-level. In the case of a mid-level, we are looking to either fill the void from the lower level – assuming there are attractive candidates there ready to make the jump – or we are looking to make a strategic hire. Obviously, losing a senior-level staff member can be difficult. In these cases there is usually a gap until a strategic hire can be made or a mid-level staff member is ready to move up in their career.
A big takeaway from all of this is to never be reactive in your hiring. That is the whole that we often get into when we are busy going after and then delivering projects. We forget about the recruiting and staffing side of it, and that can be very costly. If we are proactive about our recruitment and staffing, we are always looking for those rockstar candidates to bring onto the team, regardless of acute need at that particular time.
Thanks!
-Matt
Hi Matt,
I personally do not know much about and have little experience with the engineering field, so reading your post was interesting. For my current position, although in the sports field, I was also not given a formal description and have found that years later, my position is also not similar to what was initially described to me. Just like you mentioned, as different projects or new plans come up, it is important to be adaptable and have a variety of skills to ensure that you can perform. The skills that companies list in their descriptions may not be all that is required, or completely different altogether. Thanks for sharing!
You made a good point about adaptability. Oftentimes, even in more structured positions, the tasks that we initially believe to be central to the position end up evolving or altogether changing over time. We must have the skills to be able to adapt to these changes, and if we turn it around to the perspective of the organization, we must be attracting the kinds of people that are able to adapt to those situations over time. I’m not sure how to assess that when recruiting and interviewing people, but that’s a skill that we should be looking for.
Thanks!
-Matt
Matt,
It makes sense as to how this can be a bit of a challenge for those starting in engineering. Not having a clear understanding of what it is you’d be doing can certainly be a breaking point for some people that dissolves any interest in the position.
I think it can help to be as up-front as possible in these situations. I’ve ran into some interviews where I still fully didn’t grasp what I would be doing until I directly asked. Who knows! Maybe there is a reason some positions have very broad descriptions.
Thank you for sharing!
– Jared
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your sharing about your practical working experience in engineering industry. I think it’s quite common that the actual work content is different from what is stated in job description, exceeding the written description in most cases. Hiring managers usually don’t include the repetitive labor parts and unpredictable content of the job. Your post gives me the point that the gap between written tasks and abilities required in the real world can also be a chance for fresh employees to promote.