Young Engineers Victoria (YEA-V) Blog

The pay rise, is it extinct?

You’ve been with an organisation for a while, maybe a couple of years, you feel like you’ve done some really good work, added value, built relationships, so you decide to take the plunge and ask the boss for a pay rise, but how…

I’d like to make a declaration up front, I have been very unsuccessful in asking for pay rises. In my first professional job, where I asked for one, I was given the sack. They paid me out 2 weeks, which was all they were obligated to do, kept all my sales bonuses for the quarter, because I was not longer entitled to them, and 2 days later I was on the street with a dazed look on my face wondering what happened. 4 years later I’m still not sure what prompted that reaction, but as you can image it has made me weary of the whole pay rise soap opera.

I think soap opera is the correct definition; it doesn’t appear to be about value, or contribution, or morale, it seems to be about politics, games and manipulation, and the worst sort, playing people off against each other.

I have got slightly better with regards my requests for pay rises, I no longer get the sack, SCORE! But I am still not being very successful. The response I got on my last attempt was, and I quote ‘we do not negotiate’. Really, you do not negotiate about pay. I’d been there for close on two years, and the CPI raise I got was less than CPI, so I was earning less at that time then when I started, but it was the phrase that really got to me ‘we do not negotiate’. I was a terrorist, hounding and harassing, if they succumbed to me, it would make them look so vulnerable the pay rise flood gates would open.

My past experiences have left me wondering, is the pay rise dead?

People comment that our generation have no organisation loyalty, we hop and skip about, but is this simply because our organisations appear to see no value in us, to have no loyalty to us?

What I got from my discussion with my organisation at the time was, that the work I had done since I started was ‘fine’ but the relationships I had established, my understanding of the organisation and what made it tick was worth diddly squat, that they could get someone off the street who could do as good a job tomorrow, but that is exactly the problem, with the cost of recruitment, why aren’t organisations willing to fork out $15K in a pay rise?

This article figures the cost of staff turnover at between 50%-150% of salary, it also points out that money isn’t necessarily the driving factor in someone deciding to start or leave a job, and with it typically taking around 3 months to fill a position, what do organisations fear in discussing pay rises?

I’d like to point out, I’m not a greedy, self entitled GenYer, but I do have a mortgage, as many of my peers do, and the moment one has that sack of debt hanging over ones head, money can become more important than that dream job.

Have other people experienced similar problems, or am I just doing something wrong, or is it the norm now, to just change jobs if you want a pay rise.

What has driven organisations to think/act like this? Can we do anything to change it?

My opening paragraph might have been a little misleading. I gave you the impression I was going to provide some magic bullet for getting pay rises, I’m sorry, but I don’t own such a bullet. I’d love to hear from someone that does though, as I'm sure our members would.

 

What happened to quality infrastructure?

I’ve just come back from Sri Lanka and it was fascinating looking at a country that has had significant colonial development and infrastructure in its history, but has recently been through 25 years of civil unrest. They appear to be a nation that is struggling with understanding how to build quality infrastructure.

People still live in tin sheds built by the British in the late 19^th Century. The Galle Fort built by the Portuguese and the Dutch in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries withstood the Boxing Day tsunami, while the rest of Galle was washed away. Are we, as a global society losing the ability to design and build quality infrastructure?

The east coast of Australia is currently having the discussion regarding building a high speed rail line to connect Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, but the adversaries’ simple statement is, it is not economically feasible. When was it decided that infrastructures’ main role was to make a profit rather than support society?

When I look at Sri Lanka and the colonial infrastructure that is now 300-400 years old and is still in every day use, and I look at the infrastructure in Melbourne, for example the Monash freeway upgrade that is less than 5 years old, I wonder what is missing from our design process. We have a better understanding of the laws of nature, we have a better understanding of materials and how they react to the laws of nature, we have access to some fantastic synthetic materials, yet the Monash is already disintegrating in 3 places that I know of. In what state will it be in 25 years?

We designed and constructed the Melbourne Star, only to have it pulled down after the first summer due to structural flaws, what are we doing wrong?

The Romans build aqueducts, bridges and roads throughout their empire, how much profit did they make from these investments? Sure labour was cheap, but building 3,200 km of road in Britain alone is a massive undertaking. It was obviously about something more intangible than money. Maybe it was to ensure their army could always get to the front line and that supplies could be brought forward en masse. Maybe it was done in an attempt to pacify the locals. Maybe it was done as part of some ego power play to show all their rivals how big and important they were. Whatever the reason, the result was they built infrastructure that was quality to its core.

Sadly, I am not a discipline that understands the term quality. I am a computer systems engineer, and as I am sure we all accept, computers are constantly changing, upgrading and are generally unreliable. What is even sadder is that society has been conditioned to accept this poor performance, Microsoft has been key in generating this tolerance, while Apple attempted to fight against it. Is it our dependence on transient unreliable technology that has lead us to accepting the same standards in our infrastructure? Or that we are used to building something new every 6 months, so it does not occur to us to build something that will be viable in 50 years or 100 years.

I don’t have an answer as to the why, but I do know that we cannot continue down this path of short sightedness. We cannot continue to develop housing estates on flood plains simply because it hasn’t rained in 10 years, we cannot write off a mode of transport which could support nearly 80% of our population and freight needs because it costs a lot. We need to start thinking bigger picture, longer term, and look at the effect on society now and in the future.

Infrastructure is not about polls or elections, it’s about people!

 

Corporate Social Responsibility and what it means to our members

I watched Metropolis, the 1927 sci-fi classic, last night, and it explored the concept of two classes of citizens trying to destroy each other, with the net result being they destroyed themselves. This is true in today’s world as well, we, the society needs the corporate world, we need stuff to be made and created, but equally they need us to need the stuff and that is why CSR is necessary, because without society there is no need for corporations. Metropolis had a wonderful tag line:

“There can be no understanding between the hands and the head unless the heart acts as mediator.”

As a young engineer keep it in mind when you are deciding where to put the road, or what chemicals to use in the production process.

If you have come here from my Chair report you will be aware that EA recently ran a workshop on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The YEA National Committee, representatives from EWB, YEA-V and EA staff attended a day workshop event facilitated by Net Balance Foundation to attempt to identify what CSR is, what it means to EA as an organisation, and what it means to our members and the profession.

As warfare has morphed over the past century, so has the concept of ‘corporation’. Where in WW1 it was all about trench warfare, finding something you were good at, and just sticking to it. In WW2 it became more about agility, pre-emptive reactions and surprise of the Panzer divisions, this then transitioned through the Vietnam era, where the guerrilla enemy was relatively unknown, their tactics a mystery and the only option was to remain as flexible as possible and react as quickly as possible. We are now in the 21^st Century and the nature of the war we fight has changed again, we now exist in what is sometimes referred to as the ‘Three block war’. No longer are soldiers heading out to kill a known enemy who lives in a trench across the field, they are walking streets with women, children, fathers and grandparents, of which any and all may be the enemy or equally none of them may be the enemy. A war is only as successful as the number of people that believe in it and hence it is critical a solider conquers the hearts and minds of the street.

The corporate world has also morphed through similar phases and is now at a point where the people of the streets have the information, knowledge and power to question the corporate world, and critically, the ability to take their money elsewhere (to the enemy).

It is a corporation’s responsibility to act in a way that society sees as fair, true and beneficial to the majority of the population, including the shareholders, however, they can do it for several reasons, people will like them and therefore buy more of their product, which is one end of the scale, all the way to the other end, which is, it’s the right thing to do. I will provide some examples.

Changing your processing plant so you produce less waste is beneficial to society, but people are unlikely to be aware of it, and it is unlike to affect their decision to do business with you, but it’s the right thing to do.

Giving work experience jobs to troubled teens that are dropping out of Year 9 and 10 will definitely cost you money, but there is a reasonable chance that these kids will straighten out and be contributing members of society. It is the right thing to do, and it might make your customers look fondly on you and buy more of your product.

You only supply paper bags to your shoppers and you charge a fee for their use. Customers will come to your shop, because they feel they are making a socially responsibly decision, but you are on charging the cost, and the driver is, it will make you money. The corporation is not being socially responsible; they are facilitating the end consumer to be socially responsible.

So what does it mean to you as a practicing engineer, who is a long way from owning their own company? Every action and decision you make has an effect on society, consider those effects:

• Are they positive or negative?
• What are the follow-on consequences?
• Would you like to be on the receiving end?

When you are comfortable answering these questions, get your boss to start asking them and your peers, ask the simple question…So What?

 

Gamila MacRury

Chair YEA-V

 

Changes to the Royal Charter, here is one view put forward by Dario Tomat FIEAust National President APESMA.
Have a read and consider the points raised, remember voting closes this Monday.
We'll have an article by Peter Godfrey FIEAust CPEng National President EA 2009, the champion of the changes, shortly.
Feel free to discuss any issues here

http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/shadomx/apps/fms/fmsdownload.cfm?file_uuid=2EB561B5-B783-DD8A-8A3A-0854E93EE24B&siteName=ieaust

Tips for Chartered Status

Young engineers who attended the YEA-V Chartered Status Forum wanted to hear more tips for writing Career Episode Reports. So here are some that weren't mentioned on the night.

 

1. In your introduction link what your role on the project was with the majority of the claimed elements of competency.

            Example:

- Introduction – “I was a design engineer with specific responsibility for the design of the electrical component of the project.”  Most of the elements claimed, were from unit C2 – Engineering Planning and Design.

 

- If however in the introduction you stated – “I was responsible for managing the design of the electrical component of the project…"  Then the assessor will relate this statement of your role/tasks to a unit of competency such as E1B Engineering Project Management and thus would expect the majority of the claimed elements of competency to be from that unit.

 

2. After writing a CER, check if you can attain any other elements using the same experience. Then rewrite part of your CER to suit the defining activities of the other element.

                        Example:

- Write a CER for the unit E1B: Engineering Project Management

 

- Then look at the element "C3.6: Manages Information". Write, "As stated above..." and reword what you have already written and claim another element in the same CER.

 

3. Write units C1 and C3 as time-based CERs and unit C2 as a project-based CER.

            Example:

- For C1, write about the past 6 months or 1 year. Describe the tasks that you have carried out that show you have demonstrated the elements of this unit.

 

- For C2, write about a single project (it could last anywhere from 1 week to 1 year or longer). Describe what your role was and the tasks you performed for this particular project to be completed.

 

4. Sometimes it can seem difficult to write about what you did because as a young engineer you don't have as much responsibility. Hence take credit for what you did do. It may help to view your supervisor as the client when writing.

            Example:

- You may not have made the final decision, but you may have analysed and provided the relevant information to your supervisor for them to make an informed decision. If that's what you did, then write about it.

 

If you have any more tips, queries or suggestions, please share them with your fellow young engineers. Thank you to Joanne Gashumba, Rowan Crosbie-Goold and the other Chartered engineers who helped with these tips.

 

The presentation from the Forum can be downloaded from the YEA-V website (www.engineersaustralia.org.au/yeavic) or viewed online at http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/search/events/mediavision

Chartered Status Forum Discussion

On Thursday, 25 February 2010 YEA-V will be holding a (sold-out) forum on Chartered Status.  Topics to be covered at the Forum include:

• Motivation to achieve Chartered Status
•  How to achieve Chartered Status from the perspectives of young engineers involved with a  PDP as well as not on a PDP
• Tips and tricks for writing CERs

 

The Forum will be available for viewing from the Engineers Australia website 

(http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/search/events/mediavision) early next week and the powerpoint presentation will be available from the YEA-V website (www.engineersaustralia.org.au/yeavic) after the event.

 

Although I have been working for seven years, I only recently began writing my career episode reports. My main motivation for doing so was to identify the skills that I can develop further and the projects that I need to work on to do so. I have included progress towards Chartered Status as a performance measure in my annual performance agreement and this justifies my working on projects relevant to the skills I need to develop.

 

Other reasons young engineers have for attaining Chartered Status are:

• Better employability, both in Australia and overseas
•  Ability to become NPER registered
• Opportunities to participate in certain programs e.g. Engineers Australia’s Emerging Leaders Program

 

Becoming a Chartered engineer requires time and dedication so motivation is essential. What is your motivation for pursuing Chartered Status?

 

Ben Aldham YEA-V Chair

 

The Adventures of Sustainability Person Episode 1: Xmas Special Edition

It’s a 40 degree Celsius afternoon in suburban Melbourne, a young engineering graduate named Sarah, plans her first holiday season as host to all her family.  She is seated in the dining room, looking flustered next to an open window, her apartment’s air conditioner humming in the background. Without notice, her favourite 0.1mm mechanical pencil snaps under the load of her panicked scribbling, she cries out “How, how, how can I make this holiday season sustainable, I just don’t have the time or knowledge!”.

From outside, a booming voice shouts back “Never fear! Sustainability Person is here!” Our hero, Sustainability Person (SP) appears outside Sarah’s window poised in mid air.  SP looks heroic in a green organic cotton body suit and cape with a brown ‘SP’ boldly printed across the chest. “How may I help you today young lady?” inquires SP, as the hero floats through the window and stands next to her. “Oh Sustainability Person, I can’t believe you’re really here”, our hero reaches over and takes the notepad containing Sarah’s panicked scribbling from her hands. Her list is as follows:

• How can I ensure my family’s travel to my house, is as sustainable as         possible?

• What can I do to make my house more energy efficient?

SP congratulates Sarah for taking the first step to think about our impact. Our hero then goes on to say “Do you know Sarah that transport is currently responsible for approximately 23% of world energy related GHG emissions”. Sarah’s eyebrows lift “really?” She goes on to tell SP that some of her family lives interstate and will be flying down for the holidays. SP follows by saying that aeroplanes are the most carbon intensive transport, with carbon emissions per passenger per kilometre many times larger than other mass passenger transportation modes. “However if you’re family has to fly, then why not consider purchasing offsets for the trip”. SP shows Sarah that Australian domestic airlines now offer the ability to neutralise your personal greenhouse gas emissions at a small extra cost when booking. “Now while somebody doesn’t follow the plane with a sack to catch your share of emissions” SP says with a chuckle, “you can feel comfortable in the fact that you’re small extra fee is going to government certified initiatives aimed at reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission”. Sarah sighs in relief, “thank you SP, but what about my home?”

SP reaches for his utility belt and detaches his ‘triple bottom line laser’ and points it at the wall on the opposite side of the room. The laser projects a webpage, to which SP remarks “A great place to find energy saving ideas is at the Victorian Governments save energy website” (http://www.saveenergy.vic.gov.au/). Sarah smiles and nods her head in appreciation and then with a flick of our hero’s wrist, SP’s laser displays another webpage, “Also Sarah, if you’re looking for a way to manage your holiday event’s impact on the environment, you may wish to try the sustainable events calculator, developed by Origin in conjunction with EPA Victoria and Melbourne City Council” (http://www.originenergy.com.au/2837/The-sustainable-event)

Sarah reads from the webpage, that the sustainable events calculator will help you to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with your event and provide you with solutions to help reduce those emissions. Suddenly SPs ‘climate change sense’ tingles and SP moves towards the window “This has been a pleasure Sarah, but I must go help others now”. SP levitates slowly through Sarah’s window and turns to fly away, “thank you, thank you sustainability person” Sarah calls out. Our hero turns again to face Sarah “Oh and don’t forget the Sustainable Living Festival will be showing at Federation Square, from the 19-21 of February 2010, with local events also running from 6-21 of February” (http://festival.slf.org.au/)

With Sarah waving goodbye, SP flies off into the sunset, as a heroic musical piece plays softly in the background.

 

Hayden Bed

(Sustainability Representative YEA-V 09)

 

 

Generation Exchange Dinner Debate 2009

The 2009 Generation Exchange dinner served up another entertaining debate, a summary of the debate is contained below. On the night the negative side won both topics do you agree? Or do you have something else to add to the debate? Leave your comments using the link below.

 

TOPIC 1:

Engineers have achieved more in the last 90 years than any other time in history.

 

AFFIRMATIVE ARGUMENTS:

• Although there has been significant achievements in the past, the pace and the number achievements in the last 90 years outstrips any other time.
• The expansion of Engineering from pre 1919 Military and Civil fields, into the broad range of fields we have today such as bio-medical, chemical & aerospace, shows engineers have accomplished more in this period of time and that these achievements have affected a broader range of areas.
• The quality of life people enjoy today has been improved more in the last 90 yrs than any other time. In addition today’s engineers are rectifying the mistakes made in the past.

NEGATIVE ARGUMENTS:

• Today’s achievements are merely past achievements re-invented i.e. bridges.
• Engineers today are just adding on to the work of past engineers who had to overcome much greater challenges (some of the examples given were cars, planes and supply of essential services).
• Pre 1919 achievements such as the industrial revolution have changed the world more significantly than any achievement in the last 90 yrs.

TOPIC 2:

Since the economic crisis, there is no longer an engineering skills shortage in Australia.

AFFIRMATIVE ARGUMENTS:

o        The skills of engineers are a valued commodity and many engineers are poached to work in other professional roles such as management and finance. The true skills shortage is in these professions not in Engineering.

o        Their may be shortages in some fields of engineering but there is an oversupply in others if employers and employees were open to working/employing engineers in other fields their would be no skills shortage (an example given was aerospace engineers working in the automotive industry).

o        In today’s global economy you cannot consider Australia in isolation. The topic is wrong and you must consider the world view and as such there is no shortage.

 

NEGATIVE ARGUMENTS:

• Overseas job advertisements for Australian engineering Jobs were shown. The point was made that we are so desperate for engineering skills in Australia, we would be willing to hear about Australia loosing the ashes for the next two years by recruiting English Engineers.

• Australia cannot meet the demand for engineering skills with the current levels of migration and new graduates. Engineers Australia's work at addressing this problem was highlighted in Make It So
• Recent engineering failures were highlighted (the Southern Star was used as an example) possibly caused by a skills shortage.
• The skills of engineers are needed in other areas such as management, having engineers in these areas is a good thing.

 

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS RAISED BY THE AUDIENCE:

• With massive numbers of graduates coming out of China and India is their a shortage of engineering skills globally?
• Are graduates of 3 year engineering degrees recognized as professional engineers?

         Answer: Engineers Australia is the accrediting body for courses in Australia; they along with the university can provide information on which courses are accredited. As a general rule though graduates of 3 year courses are not recognized as professional engineers.

Generation Exchange Debate Discussion coming soon...

Keep your eyes open for the discussion on the Generation Exchange Debate, topics will include:

• Engineers have achieved more in the last 90 years than any other time in history.
• Since the economic crisis there is no longer an engineering shortage in Australia.

YEA-V Chair Blog August 2008 - Engineering Industry Week

It was Engineering Industry Week last week (25-29 August 2008) and this has kept everyone at YEA-V and Engineers Australia very busy.  YEA-V actually started its involvement in Engineering Industry week on Tuesday, 19 August with a presentation from the 2007 Young Professional Engineer of the Year, Patrick Hill.  There were also many young engineers present at the launch of Engineering Industry Week - a photo exhibition called “The Changing Face of Melbourne” which was held in the grand La Trobe Reading Room at the State Library of Victoria.

During Engineering Industry week numerous events were run for the general public, students and members of Engineers Australia encompassing the broad range of engineering disciplines.  There have been a variety of site visits around the centre of Melbourne and regional cities, including major sporting precincts landmarks and major projects as well as discussions on sustainability and other technical seminars.

It has been a jam packed week of engineering to promote the profession to students, the general public as well as the members of Engineers Australia.  Now I would like to ask the readers of this blog some questions:

• What did you do for Engineering Industry Week?
• What did your company/university do to promote the week to their employees and/or the general public?
• Did you visit any of the events that were held over the week either by Young Engineers of by Engineers Australia?
• Do you have any comments or queries about the week itself?

Many hours are devoted to promoting the week and running events during this time and so it is always worthwhile hearing back from the people that the events were targeted towards.  So here is your chance to have your say on the matter.  Post a comment to this blog or email us at yeavic@engineersaustralia.org.au with your comments or answers to the questions above.

Don't forget YEA-V's upcoming events:

Tuesday, 16 September - Financial Fitness Seminar

Saturday, 11 October - YEA-V Amazing Race. 

For further information or to register email yeavic@engineersaustralia.org.au

William Gielewski

YEA-V Co-Chair