Finding your own work when working at a corporation?
Finding your own work when working at a corporation?
(OP)
Had an interview with a company today that is employee owned. They mentioned that they would give me projects for a while and then it would be my responsibility to go out and find my own projects. I only have a year experience and I have no idea how to go out and wrangle up engineering jobs. I don't have any type of a sales or retail background so I'm definitely not a salesperson, plus I'm a complete introvert. So I was curious if this is normal and if it is how long would it be before I would have to bring my own jobs into the company.
Thank you
Thank you





RE: Finding your own work when working at a corporation?
If you get the position, start right away in social networks looking for projects (Facebook, Twitter, etc).
Chris, CSWA
SolidWorks 14
SolidWorks Legion
RE: Finding your own work when working at a corporation?
RE: Finding your own work when working at a corporation?
RE: Finding your own work when working at a corporation?
RE: Finding your own work when working at a corporation?
RE: Finding your own work when working at a corporation?
It's a far cry from the reasonable and inevitable expectation that you will help supply SOME work to the firm, to what the OP describes. If the intention of the prospective employer is that a young engineer with a year or two of experience will be selling enough work to fill their billable hours target for the month each and every month after "a while" working there, then the OP is being set up for failure.
You can approach unreasonable expectations a couple different ways: by ignoring them and hoping that they'll become more reasonable over time, by avoiding the situation entirely by not working there, or by discussing the issue in detail prior and hoping that you can readjust the expectations to something more reasonable beforehand- and do so somehow without scaring them off entirely. The latter approach is worth a try. What have you got to lose?
RE: Finding your own work when working at a corporation?
I've worked here close to a year and part of my job is client relations, proposals, marketting, and other non-billable efforts. But as an employee owner I benefit from the potential business that I bring in personally (bonuses and equity). It's not seen as greatly when you first get hired on, but over the period of several years it becomes HUGE in terms of compensation. Another portion of time (if I ever actually do get a slow period) is to make sure that people know I'm slow - selling myself to other projects or other teams to see if they need any assistance. They may also mean it as "finding your own work" within the company as well. I highly doubt every project is a single engineer project and that nobody in the company would need your assistance once your started.
Hope that helps. It's a great feeling to get personal benefit from projects you work hard to complete, especially if it's projects that you bring in yourself.
-G
RE: Finding your own work when working at a corporation?