What Companies Are Looking For In Their Engineers

As an engineer, you understand how important your talents are to the strength of a company. Engineers innovate and create – they can be instrumental to a company reaching its goals and projections. Employers are focused on hiring the right engineers with the right skills and experience. They can’t afford to make mistakes. You need to demonstrate in your resume and interview that you are the right person for the job.

What Do Employers Want?

Experience. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the right experience. When you are looking for a job, be sure that your resume details each relevant aspect of your experience. Customize your resume for each job posting. At your interview, be prepared to discuss projects that will be of interest to the interviewer. Problems you solved, challenges you overcame, credentials that apply.

Problem-Solving Ability. Normally people with analytic ability are the ones attracted to engineering – if it doesn’t come naturally to you, your career could be an uphill battle. Demonstrate your skills in your interview examples and include bullet-pointed references to problems you have solved in your resume.

Ability to Work as Part of a Team. As an engineer, you will frequently be called upon to work on projects with other people – those who understand engineering and those who don’t. Be willing to share credit with fellow engineers and to collaborate with team members from other departments. List group projects on your resume and be prepared to discuss how well you were able to work with your teammates.

Communication Skills. As important as it is to be a competent engineer, it’s critical that you are able to communicate well with both engineers and non-engineers. You need to be able to understand the objective of the projects and also explain results and obstacles.

Adaptability. As an engineer in the energy industry, you will frequently be required to travel to where the work is. This means having the ability to travel, often for extended periods of time, to complete specific projects. You must be able to fit into different organizations and departments and contribute from the first day on the job.

Likeability. This might seem obvious, but employers want to hire people that they like! A top engineer who is surly or standoffish might get results, but at what cost? During your interview, be friendly and engaging, even if you are normally a bit of an introvert.

Need a hand translating your experience and hireability to employers? FootBridge Energy Services can help. Contact our energy recruiting professionals today, and we can help you to find the right opportunity and present yourself in the best light.