Dear All,

I am a mechanical engineer having a masters degree. I am still looking to get into a GT or ST field engineering role in middleast. Can anyone please guide me which direction i should start preparing for the interview so i can really out stand and at least know all the expected info while appearing for the interviews. I am looking for a specific direction, otherwise the scattered material on internet is making it difficult what to study and what notes should i take.

Best Regards,

 

Omer,

So, you want to be a field engineer. It can be a very rewarding profession--both personally and monetarily. But, like everything in life: Half of knowing what you want is knowing what you have to give up to get it.

Interviewers these days ask all kinds of questions, not just technical questions. Do they want a great technical person? You bet; that's important.

But what they really want are people who are self-starters, people who can work without much supervision. What they REALLY want are people who have great people skills. As a field engineer you are going to have to deal with colleagues, managers, Customers, labourers (millwrights, pipefighters, electricians, and other crafts--some trained and knowledgeable, and many not). You are going to have to be able to complete projects, sometimes with insanely tight deadlines, and sometimes with extremely angry Customers, and even craft labour.

You will likely get some training from the company who hires you in their methods and practices and techniques and terminology--and paperwork. There is a LOT of paperwork. Companies and Customers demand reports--more paper seems to mean a better job was performed (not true by the way--but you'll never convince your Manager or the Customer of that; you have been warned). So, you need to know the basic concepts and jargon and principles.

The interviewer will likely ask if you can work long distances from home, and for long periods of time. More and more, people are looked at as resources--like tools, and computers and cars. The more they are used ("billable") the more money they generate. Think long and hard about this. It's the biggest reason people leave "the field." Some families (mothers/fathers; wives/children) can handle it better than others. It's a difficult profession to explain to family and friends; many people simply don't understand why anyone would want to be away from home, friends and family for long periods of time. Even for the money (more on the money later). Trying to tell them that the world needs both kinds of people--those who go to the same place and see the same people and pretty much do the same thing every day, and those who travel from site to site and meet lots of different people and while they may do similar things they are ALWAYS learning something new.

And, for years and years, if you stay in the field you will (if you're not dead) learn something new on just about every job. Sure, after a few years, you will begin to see some of the same problems--but as technology changes, and it is changing very fast--there are new problems.

They will also ask questions to try to throw you off--probably very detailed technical questions. Do they expect you to know the answer? Depends on your experience and knowledge. But, if you are honest and don't know the answer and can say, "I'm not familiar with that; I haven't encountered that yet but I'm anxious to learn about it," confidently and honestly and sincerely. They don't expect you to know everything, and while they expect you to bluff and bluster the Customer a little bit once in a while, they do expect and respect honesty and a desire to learn and grow.

Again, they aren't looking for an expert--especially if you're just out of university (unless you have some previous applicable work experience in the field). They want people who are happy, patient, willing to be away from home and family and friends for long periods of time, put up with demanding Customers, able to handle different personalities, complete projects, have a logical thought process, are flexible when they need to be and firm when they need to be, are motivated (not just by money), professional, confident, capable, eloquent--and can do paperwork, lots and lots of paperwork.

Being a field engineer is less than 30% technical, and more than 70% people/interpersonal. Customers are almost willing to have a technical dud if they are not a jerk, but a complete technical wizard who can't communicate and isn't pleasant to be around won't be welcomed back on many sites.

Lastly, flexibility takes on a whole new meaning when you're a field engineer. You can start a job or even the day or even the afternoon with a firm list of activities/tasks you NEED to complete, and the Customer, the electrician, and your colleague can unwind everything in 20 minutes. Your ability to adapt and prioritize and sill do your work while responding to everyone else's needs and requests (reasonable or not) will be the big key to your career success. The technical stuff is relatively easy; it's the interpersonal relationships that will test your mettle--time, and time, and time again.

Can you study these things? Over years, and some people are better at it than others.

Think about how you can "lead" the interviewer (who may not be a very good interviewer) to your interpersonal skills, your project skills, your logical sense of things and the world. Because that's what they're really trying to find: people who can lead, and organize and adapt--and fix and maintain things according to procedures. They are looking for people who can complete projects and deal with adversity, technical and personal. Help them to understand if you have those skills--in addition to what you've learned in university.

Think long and hard about this career choice. You will miss birthday celebrations (yours and others); maybe even births (hopefully not, but it's possible); anniversaries; deaths; commencements; firsts (words; steps; dates). You will have two sets of friends (your work colleagues, and your home friends). If you're lucky, you will have a second "family" at work (one of my favourite quotes is, "Rarely do members of the same family grow up under the same roof"); some of my best family are people I've met and developed life-long relationships with that are on other continents.

You will work in some very nice places, but mostly some very industrial and even remote locations. It can be very lonely, going back to a hotel room or a dormitory or a camp night after night. You need to like being with yourself. (The Internet is not a replacement for real relationships, but it can help--and it can hurt.) You will likely spend a lot of your early years reading manuals and technical documents--but don't neglect yourself or the world.

The travel can seem exciting, but, really airplanes are just buses these days. And, making your way through Customs and Immigration in some parts of the world will challenge your perception of people and the world. (I've paid more than one bribe--not only to get out of a country, but also just to get in to some.)

Leaving "the field" can be hard--especially if you've become accustomed to the money. DO NOT BECOME ACCUSTOMED TO THE MONEY. Live like a pauper; save as much as you can (the power of compounding interest is AMAZING! You have been informed!!!). If you spend everything you make and need that paycheck, it's going to be hard to get that kind of money in a typical job where you're home every day and night. If you save the money (as if you didn't have it) when you do leave the field you will have a wonderful nest egg to come home to, and the transition to a lower income won't be quite so hard.

I think that's about it. Technical knowledge is easy to come by; people who can apply it while working with other people under deadlines and stress--those are special people. And those who can--and actually want to--do it while away from home and family and friends are the most special.