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Discover whether being an electrician is the job for you !

I don’t know whether you’re aware that in Belgium there is a shortage of electrician-installers and maintenance electricians? For several years already, the sector has been struggling to recruit qualified electricians or even young people (or not-so young people) who would like to train for a profession with a real future.

Why is there such an imbalance in supply and demand in spite of attractive salaries?

Often it comes from a “lack of information and certain prejudices related to the building trade which are often perceived as tough”, explains Julien Habran, a self-employed electrician for 12 years based in Liège.

Expertise, attention to detail and new technologies: in this article, you can explore whether being an electrician is the job for you!

What does work as an electrician involve?

From diagnostics to maintenance, along with the installation of cables, sockets and electrical panels, an electrician is a tradesperson who is responsible for the correct operation of the entire electrical system within a building.

You’re never bored as an electrician!

An electrician might work on different sites with varying degrees of complexity, such as the electrical system for a private house, the installation of air conditioning in an apartment, a lift in a company premises or maintenance of a nuclear power station.

On large sites, electricians work alongside other construction industry professionals — architects, painters, tilers, plumbers… — with whom they must coordinate their work to execute the project successfully.

What does day-to-day work look like for an electrician?

When working on a new project, the electrician relies on plans and installation diagrams to determine the location of the various elements forming the electrical installation. They will then proceed to install ducts and supports, lay cables, install the different items of equipment such as boards, cabinets, outlets or heating units and then complete the connections. 

Then, the electrician will proceed to commissioning. It is also down to the electrician to ensure that the installations meet the required standards through a series of tests. The electrician’s role is therefore essential in terms of safety.

In renovation projects, the electrician is responsible for replacing old electrical installations to ensure compliance with current standards.

What makes the job of an electrician so interesting?

It’s the diversity of assignments, we’ve covered them above but there are also lots of other interesting aspects to the profession.

Team work

We need to dispel the myth that electricians work alone. An electrician nearly always works as part of a team. They are also in close contact with the end client (professional or individual) with whom the electrician will need to demonstrate their expertise in order to explain the diagnostics or what they are about to do.

Thanks to technology, it’s a constantly evolving profession

Home automation, IT, networked items, safety and security… The modern electrician is no longer there to simply install cables. An electrician is a jack-of-all-trades with an inquiring mind whose profession is in the midst of a technological revolution thanks to the arrival of IT which means the role has numerous opportunities for development. 

Additionally, there is a strong propensity for professionals from the IT sector to embark on a career as an electrician to leverage their skills in programming for example. 

A key player in energy transition

Electricians also play an important role in terms of sustainable development. They provide advice to clients on new products and how to use them, and can offer clients solutions on how to save energy. To do this, the electrician will need to have a solid understanding of energy and particular new energy sources.

They can also specialise in eco-construction, which means any construction that ensures the comfort and health of residents while still respecting the environment. Notably, the electrician will ensure that installations do not emit magnetic fields.

Set up on your own

If you’re of an entrepreneurial nature, this is the job for you. Work as an electrician is one of the building trades with the most amount of self-employed and SMEs.

Why is this? It’s mainly because working on small sites (individual houses, maintenance or renovation projects) requires a certain amount of organisation that sometimes a large company struggles to achieve at the best price.

They need to be able to respond quickly with the right expertise while controlling operating costs, which self-employed electricians are often very well equipped to do.

How do you become an electrician?

In Belgium, there are several routes to becoming an electrician. Many secondary level education institutions offer electrical qualifications. Daytime lessons take place during the fifth and sixth years of secondary school.

Another option is to enrol at a work-linked training centre on an electrical course (CEFA) lasting two years. Students aged 18-25 alternate between theory lessons and practical training as an apprentice to a qualified electrician.

Other training centres (IFAPME) offer an apprenticeship programme over three years. The learning courses take place either during the day or in the evening. Weeks are split into one or two days of theoretical learning and three or four days of practical training within a company.

Tempted? Are you already qualified? Be sure to check our job posts regularly on Betuned.

When recruiters turn marketers

Applicants seeking more authenticity, meaning and transparency, the massive use of social media by jobseekers, the war for talent: HR needs to adapt to a fast-changing labour market and society.

Recruitment and marketing

This swift change of paradigm has coincided with a shortage of applicants in certain sectors – especially healthcare and software development, as well as IT, engineering and technical in general.

In this wholly new context, the ‘talent acquisition manager’ function that appeared recently is significant. It is a response to the need for a more efficient, more business-oriented recruitment process that attracts and retains the best applicants at a lower cost. In short, recruiters are turning into marketers.

At the intersection of several internal company functions, these modern-day dowsers go beyond traditional recruitment. They implement a full-on candidate-search strategy that ranges from strengthening the employer brand to marketing, via the employee experience.

What issues does talent acquisition address and what are its main functions?

Facing new HR challenges

When an environment becomes more complex, it is not uncommon that hybrid worker types emerge to respond to new issues.

For instance, in the IT sector, the massive use of data analysis to feed algorithms and other machine-learning models has led to the emergence of functions such as data scientist or data analyst, designed to enable companies to use data directly in the service of their business and strategy.

The same applies to recruitment. As the economy continues to speed up, it is critical that companies acquire talent whose skills exactly match the company’s needs.

HR professionals are shifting from repetitive transactional recruitment to strategic conversational recruitment.

“It’s no longer a matter of simply filling holes in an organisational chart, posting ads online and conducting interviews. It’s about designing a strategy to genuinely capture the talent that’s essential to an organisation.” Amélie Alleman, founder of Betuned.

Talent acquisition managers differ from traditional recruiters – with whom they share certain tasks – in that they anticipate the needs of a company before and after recruitment.

Strategic analysis

A talent acquisition manager’s actions are not based on a moment of urgency. They collect data, analyse it and optimise the recruitment process by aligning it with the company’s vision.

According to a recent survey, 85% of the jobs of 2030 do not yet exist. No one can predict the future – but that, nevertheless, is what is demanded of a talent acquisition manager. It’s like designing a marketing plan: you have to ask the right questions and know how to find the answers.

What are the company’s new-talent requirements in the short, medium and long term? How will the job market evolve and which candidate pools are likely to dry up? How to keep a level head in such a situation?

The ultimate goal is to create a strong and consistent link between the organisation’s business goals and the setting-up of an efficient, supportive and complementary team.

Branding

The image of the company is in the hands of the talent acquisition manager. Here again, marketing comes into play, since it is a matter of making the employer brand, i.e. the company’s image, attractive to its staff and potential applicants. This also includes marketing and communications efforts to enhance and communicate it.

83% of recruiters say that employer branding is key to attracting the best talent.

The company values and culture, innovation, work atmosphere, in-house training: nothing should be left to chance, everything needs to be highlighted and the right channels used to reach the right audience.

Talent acquisition managers adjust their media mix like true marketers, who measure the achievement of their goals using carefully selected KPIs: number of views, clicks, shares or relevant applications received.

Specialised platforms, professional social media – such as LinkedIn – or mass media such as Facebook, professional events: nothing must be left to chance to reach the target applicants.

One of the most innovative current media, the recruitment video, makes it easier to get messages across to a wider audience by giving the company an image that is in step with the times. Another advantage is that it enables applicants to be better targeted for a specific position. This means recruiters waste less time sorting them out.

Acquisition

This is the core task of talent acquisition managers: to speed up and fine-tune the recruitment process with a view to profitability. Talent acquisition differs from traditional recruitment in that it is a proactive approach in which the applicant is supported well before and after the job interview:

• sourcing: identifying and contacting potential applicants;
• outsourcing: using specialist headhunting firms;
• job interview: validate the preliminary selection, determine the applicant’s motives and describe their future tasks;
• hiring: validate the application internally and offer the candidate a suitable position with related opportunities for development;
• onboarding: welcome the new recruit enthusiastically and ensure that they are well integrated into the team.

Support change and improve performance

Compartmentalised organisational systems known as ‘silos’ will soon be a thing of the past. Cross-team collaboration and multidisciplinarity are gradually becoming the norm.

The talent acquisition manager function perfectly matches this paradigm shift by taking the HR function beyond its usual tasks to involve all company functions: marketing, communications, IT and business teams.

A talent acquisition manager means that HR is not simply considered to be a support function, but instead ensures that recruitment is more strategic and marketing-oriented.

“In today’s competitive environment, all activity sectors need a talent-acquisition strategy. The best organisations are those that anticipate their future needs and make their HR policy a constant search for the best talent,” Dee Ann Turner, CEO of the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain.

Conclusion

It does indeed appear that talent acquisition is a function that the recruitment industry cannot escape. By giving the recruitment business a more strategic, marketing focus, the talent acquisition manager reinstates staff to the core of business performance. This is a crucial vision that has its place in HR departments that aim to anticipate change rather than undergo it.

Super Mario Boss: when recruitment becomes a game

Mark Twain once wrote: “Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” We all like to play. At least we all know how to play, because most of the mechanisms of play are instinctive and strongly linked to the social nature of our existence: we play with others, against others, and rarely alone.

In the age of entertainment, social networks and the digitisation of social interaction, more and more companies are integrating games into their recruitment processes, a move also known as ‘gamification’. The use of games in recruitment is a great success and enjoyed by most applicants. For companies, it is also an opportunity to view candidates in a different light, in particular by giving them an opportunity to showcase their soft skills.

Why gamification?

The term ‘gamification’ is derived from the word ‘game’ and refers to the methods adopted by companies to introduce games and role-playing into their recruitment processes. Once a mere form of entertainment, games have become a highly structured industry in just a few years, and companies have also taken to them.

For instance, in 2010, L’Oréal launched Reveal by L’Oréal, an online game intended to recruit interns worldwide. Students from all over the world log on to the site and can explore the group’s activities, test themselves and put themselves in various situations. According to the applicants, this is a promising direction but requires further development.

At the same time, KPMG also tried the experiment with an online challenge to recruit its interns, 80 Days: Race The World. The winner was offered an internship with the firm as well as a travel voucher worth €1,200.

Attracting Gen Z

At a time when HR departments need to retain employees who have become their employer’s ‘internal customers’, it is important that the HR tasks to be performed at the time of their integration and throughout their time at the company are not perceived as too lengthy or burdensome!

New recruits are likely to be more immediately attracted by an integration process presented in the form of a treasure hunt than by a list printed on an A4 sheet. An opportunity to make a good first impression on the younger generation.

A practical assessment

Another reason why HR managers use gamification is to simplify the recruitment process, increase its efficiency and cut costs. Gone are the days of meaningless cover letters that no one wants to write… or read. More seriously, the game enables an employer to assess a candidate’s behaviour in an actual situation, determine their aptitudes, creativity or ability to solve a problem: a life-size test that paints a more accurate and objective picture, without the stress and stiffness of a traditional interview.

Proven effectiveness

In practice, gamification is proving its effectiveness every day as a recruitment tool. According to the HR Média 2016 report on “Gamification and HR”, turnover at the Centre de Formation des Apprentis des Métiers de la Poste (in France) has fallen from 25% to 8% thanks to Facteur Academy, a ‘serious game’ used during the recruitment process that helps select the most suitable applicants for the positions to be filled.

And the employer brand benefits, too.

As well as helping you find the perfect applicant, gamification is a great tool for building and boosting your employer brand in a genuine way. It gives you the opportunity to communicate on innovative recruitment methods that are actually implemented at your company.

By using gamification in recruitment, you arouse the curiosity of a generation that attaches great importance to corporate culture. And at a time when a war for talent is raging, you need to explore all avenues to attract the best talents, the digital natives, the talents of tomorrow!

Decathlon also uses gamification in its recruitment processes. For instance, teams of four students are given the fictitious task of launching a product (presented to a jury of brand experts), then of the full-scale management of a shop for five days. “Decathlon has a great reputation with the general public, but young executives tend not to know about its various businesses,” says Stéphane Saigre, Managing Director of Decathlon France & Benelux, who intends to turn the situation around with games. “With these business games, we wanted to send several messages to students: Decathlon is ready to give people responsibilities, welcomes initiative and has a policy of letting people make mistakes, which is part of the learning process,” continues Stéphane Saigre. Of course, everything is reported in detail on the company’s blog and Facebook page to boost the employer brand.

Fair to applicants

And many candidates view games as fairer and more inclusive.

Paradoxically, the younger generation has greater confidence in the selection criteria of AI algorithms than in the subjective judgement of a recruiter who may not like them.

The experiment made at Unilever Belgium is interesting in more ways than one. The recruitment process is almost entirely game-based. During the first round, the applicants are given one hour to play fast games developed according to neuroscientific principles. “We use gamification to test the applicants’ personalities,” says Stefania Moncada, Talent Advisor at Unilever Belgium.

The total score reflects the applicants’ managerial potential. “The algorithm distinguishes between applicants for finance jobs and marketing jobs, which require totally different assessments. Although Unilever uses this system internationally, each region has its own version, which is adjusted to local HR requirements,” adds Sabine Blanchet, HR Director at Unilever Belgium.

Even more remarkably, recruitment gamification enables many unconscious human biases to be avoided. “At first, applicants are not judged on their CVs or diplomas. That only comes into play during the last round, the personal interviews. Also, the shortlisted applicants are more diverse,” concludes Sabine Blanchet. “We still get equally qualified candidates, but they often have different academic backgrounds. “

The various ways of introducing gamification

The choice of game-based recruitment depends on the budget allocated, the time available for recruitment, the profiles sought and the number of people to be recruited. Game types vary according to the type of position to be filled.

For instance, we know that IT companies and start-ups often use hackathons, which are easy to set up and inexpensive, but enable the best developers to be selected with a high rate of certainty.

Escape games are also popular: these are 15-, 30- or 60-minute scenarios during which the applicants are ‘trapped’ in a space and have to find a way out. The purpose of escape games is to assess the applicants’ soft skills, as well as their capacity for analysis and observation by means of puzzles to be cracked in teams.

Moreover, according to a survey of 1,237 candidates conducted by AssessFirst on 7 September 2018, escape games appear to be the most reliable (64%), most innovative (77%) and least discriminatory (34%) recruitment method.

They are very useful tools for recruiting sales teams or engineers, for instance. The best is to use a supplier specialised in recruitment escape-game design to design customised scenarios for your company.

Serious games are another way in which games can be included in your recruitment process. In serious games, the applicant’s goal is not to win, but to explore the environment of the company they are applying to join while performing a number of tasks. Some of these games include tasks that are supposed to reveal the applicants’ personality. The BNP Paribas group pioneered this approach with the StarBank application, which invites applicants and new hires to develop a bank from scratch.

Risks and conclusion

If, as Plato wrote, “you can learn more about someone in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”, gamified recruitment has its pitfalls. Among these, the commonest is relying entirely on technology to make decisions. The HRM needs to have their hand on the tiller at all times!

Trying to turn everything into a game is not only misleading, but can be counterproductive. Games must be used advisedly; for instance, in some contexts, challenges between teams or individuals generate a spirit of emulation. However, they can also bring out competitiveness and selfishness. The latter divide teams and make it impossible to recruit the best talent.

The most important factor in recruitment is human connection. A short debriefing interview after the game, to explain results, emphasise the skills observed, and above all give the applicants an opportunity to give an account of their personal experience. Not too difficult, right? Even if they are not selected, your applicants will learn from their experience, which will be positive.

Human after all? The impact of digital technology on sales jobs and skills

Impact. Is this word too strong? Or maybe not the right one to describe the upheaval now affecting the labour market?

For many sales professionals, the mention of concepts such as big data, marketing automation or artificial intelligence is a source of stress and even fear for the future of their jobs or profession: “Am I going to be replaced with a robot or an algorithm in the near future? “

Spoiler alert: the answer is “no, not immediately, and not everyone”. If you want to know more about the future of sales jobs in a 100% digital world, then read on!

Actually, it’s the customers that have changed.

If you believe the salesforce of tomorrow are going to be replaced with robots able to prospect, identify leads and write a business proposition faster and more efficiently than the most experienced salesperson, you are mistaken.

The first revolution is taking place upstream, at customer level. Both B2B and B2C customers are increasingly well-informed and wised up. Through the internet and social media, they have access to reviews, demonstration videos, and informative articles, and can even request an offer in a few clicks.

It has been estimated that by the time they make a decision to buy the customer has already gone through 70% of the decision-making process. For instance, by the time they get in touch with a car dealership, over 70% of customers know more than the salesperson about the competing models, their prices and their engines.

Google has even conceptualised this change, calling it ZMOT (‘Zero Moment Of Truth’) between the time we find out about a product’s existence (through an ad, a recommendation, etc.) and the time we actually make the purchase. We have got into the habit of seeking out and collecting large quantities of information that will inevitably influence our decision.

In the old days, things were definitely simpler. A customer would receive a ‘stimulus’ and contact the company, and the salesperson’s job was to clinch the sale by relying on their knowledge of the product, which was far more extensive than the customer’s. Today, therefore, thanks to – or due to – the new technologies, customers are more independent, unconstrained and demanding.

So which are the jobs that will disappear in the wake of tech?

Just as the internal combustion engine replaced animal traction, technological progress is continuing its implacable advance. This is also commonly known as ‘progress’.

In his reference work, Les robots, mon emploi et moi (‘Robots, my Job and Me’), researcher Erwann Tison has performed a tentative analysis by classifying jobs in four categories: jobs that will be replaced with robots, jobs that will face competition from AI, jobs that will be enhanced by the new technologies and those that will be protected from the effects of the revolution.

The author adds: “Sales jobs are somewhere between Categories 2 and 3. Salespersons who simply repeat the characteristics of a product without taking the time to understand the customer will just as simply be replaced by a chatbot or customer-interaction software. “

Obvious, right? Another study by Frey and Osborne estimates that salespersons with roles such as helpdesk agents or telemarketers are 99.99% sure of being replaced with software.

When performing simple, recurring tasks, machines perform just as well and can ‘sell’ as well as a human being. Do these studies herald the end of sales functions?

Not in the least! Dear salespersons, do not fear: you hold most of the trump cards you need to take advantage of the tech invasion.

Digitising the sales function

Companies and good salespersons need to anticipate future changes so as not to let themselves be overtaken.

In the case of sales processes, tech opens up new opportunities to attract, identify and convert leads to prospects to customers at minimum expense to the company. To approach a customer, you no longer send them an offer, but attract them to an exclusive, customised, high-added-value offer.

AI and big data have introduced new forms of pre-sales interaction, tools for analysing prospect and customer data, that open up sales opportunities and productivity gains.

This is known as ‘enhanced sales’: the use of tech to better map, target, use selling points and sell. It is no coincidence that more and more data analysts are being included in sales teams to develop data-storytelling and social-selling tools.

A few pointers concerning tech

The digitisation of the workplace has a twofold effect on knowledge: it makes it accessible very quickly and renders it obsolete just as fast. Just like the article you are reading.

The best advice to a salesperson keen to understand the impact of tech on their job is to keep a close watch on technologies such as AI or big data. Our advantage compared with last decade is that people can learn about many subjects continuously, at their own pace and at home. The winners of this fourth industrial revolution will be those who keep moving by acquiring new skills over time and realise that other skills are no longer relevant.

Conclusion

Tech provides major opportunities for the development of sales functions. New markets, the ability to interact remotely with customers, behavioural analysis by means of AI, development of loyalty systems… the list of potential opportunities is a long one! And long live our salesforce!

Engineer or manager, do you really have a choice?

The volatile and uncertain economic context of the past ten years has increasingly required that engineers acquire or demonstrate managerial skills.

In order to cover their backs and secure their future, companies are betting on versatile candidates who can adapt to highly changeable working conditions.

The ability to manage a team or prove that one is capable of doing so has become an important selection criterion for predominantly technical positions. This approach is in line with the development of soft skills, which are neither technical nor academic, but which relate to our ability to understand others and to grasp the real issues at stake in a situation.

Why be a manager as well as an engineer – and how? Can – or even should – everyone do it?

Why would anyone want to become an engineer/manager?

A most relevant question indeed! Why on earth would a scientist want to become a leader?

By definition, an engineer is someone who uses their mastery of scientific tools that allow them to take a logical look at the world around them and find solutions to complex problems in order to engage in invention and research.

Well, yes, but – with apologies to all technical purists – academic competencies are no longer enough, at least not all the time. Large companies are now seeking engineers with an overall vision of their business or sector and who fit in well with their strategy.

“HR managers are far more demanding in terms of values and human and leadership qualities than in terms of technical skills,” says Claire Lecoq, Deputy Training Manager at Télécom SudParis.

It is therefore a safe bet that any engineer, whatever their speciality or activity sector, will one day be required to lead a team and wear two hats: engineer and manager.

However, there is no such thing as a born team leader who only needs to activate their hidden skill when the time comes.

So, like the good engineer you are, why not prepare and/or train for the management professions so that you can face the future with all the trump cards you will need?

How to prepare yourself to become an engineer/manager

There are two potential scenarios: either you are still a student and have all your options, or you are already working and the struggle will be harder.

Dual qualifications

By the end of the 1990s, most engineering colleges had understood that scientific training spiced with a dose of management skills would be a formidable asset for their graduates… and considerably add to their attractiveness.

For this reason, many partnerships were forged with business schools, leading to ‘dual qualifications’ that are highly prized by recruiters.

“These days, business-development projects have to combine technical, marketing and management. Training experts who combine technical and people skills, who have both a creative and sales-oriented approach, gives them a dual skill set that is very attractive to recruiters,” says French business college ICN Business School.

Such courses include a full engineering curriculum and specialist training, combined with marketing, internal communication, human resources, management and, finally, external relations courses.

Back to school

After a few years in the workplace, engineers who wish to move to or train in management can do so.

This will largely depends on the company, its requirements and your ability to design a project that is consistent with what you can contribute to the organisation. There are many specialised Master’s degrees or MBAs that will ensure plenty of sleepless nights – but it’s truly worth it.

When changing employers, management training can be negotiated as well as remuneration.

What are the career options for engineer/managers?

According to Futura Sciences, 21% of engineers hold managerial positions and one in ten beginners supervises a small team. Young dual graduates immediately become managers, just like business-school graduates.

Young people with dual qualifications usually don’t regret it. They usually find jobs soon after graduating.

For engineers who are already working, acquired or proven managerial skills open up positions such as CTO, R&D Manager or VP Engineering, positions that require obvious leadership qualities.

A managerial background is also ideal for moving into consultancy. You rise from being a project manager to the position of senior consultant, and then why not buy shares in the company if the opportunity arises? Engineer/managers will find it easier to join an EXCOM if that is what they want!

Another way of seeing the world?

The new ways of organising work, silo-free and with mixed and agile teams, should make an increasing number of engineers keen to embrace change and acquire managerial skills that will serve them throughout their career.

However, as we said earlier, the genuine or imagined opposition between technical and managerial skills can make some people reluctant. Not to worry – there are many engineering careers in which purely academic knowledge is highly valued.

For despite all their good will, some scientist types can still be puzzled by situations involving human factors. Above all, management is about managing other people’s problems and being accountable to your superiors! Technical specialists who feel increasingly in touch with their inner manager should know that letting go of a purely rational worldview – whether inborn or acquired during their studies – can be a very difficult process, however ready and willing they.

Engineers vs artificial intelligence : the Great Replacement?

Will we still need engineers in 20 or 30 years’ time? This is the not-so-naïve question being asked by some scientists and observers of the labour market. In 2017, a very serious study by the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford questioned over 350 experts on the subject. To summarise, 43% of jobs in Europe may be threatened by the progress of artificial intelligence.

Faced with the meteoric progress of data analysis and the use of increasingly powerful algorithms, how will the engineers of tomorrow position themselves and how will they manage interactions with ‘machines’?

Digital, digital everywhere

The ‘digitisation’ of our lifestyles has not spared the workplace, and even less so the professions linked to the design and manufacture of physical or digital objects.

Doctors, civil engineers and computer network architects all make intensive daily use of technology to improve their diagnoses, design structures faster and without calculation errors, or correctly resize a network infrastructure. In short, technology is everywhere; AI, robotics and digitisation in the broadest sense are already part of the scientific landscape.

Sometimes, within their companies, some engineers help develop and perfect these algorithms and other machine learning tools. Digitisation is one of the major areas of innovation and competitiveness.

It should be noted in passing that, even at government level, most Western countries are investing massively in technologies linked to artificial intelligence, attracted as they are by its promise and all the opportunities for growth it is supposed to deliver in the near future, and also because it is fashionable to do so.

Disappearances foretold

It is undeniable that, in certain activity sectors, a number of repetitive tasks or even jobs will simply disappear. This applies for instance to some customer services that valiant chatbots will take over, or the banking sector, which is increasingly operating without humans for routine transactions performed by individuals.

The OECD figures are less alarmist than those from Oxford: 9 to 12% of jobs could disappear due to (some might say ‘thanks to’) robotisation. These are mainly low-skilled or unskilled jobs, but recently the concern has spread to scientific occupations: what if AI becomes so powerful that even the jobs that require the most ‘pure grey matter’ are threatened?

The limitations of artificial intelligence

Although machines manage many aspects of our lives, they are structurally not in a position to ‘replace’ humans. In order for a computer to perform a special task, computer engineers can create a kind of ‘neural network’. However, such networks bear no relation to the human neural network in our brain. In AI, a neural network always involves the prior design of a computer program (an algorithm) that links one piece of information to another.

No cause for concern

The brain is unique: it has over 100 trillion neurons or electrically conductive cells that give the human brain its unique and incredible computation power. We need to remember that we don’t even know how the brain works!

Before we can imitate it, decades of neuroscience research will be required to get a vague idea of how it functions. In this sense, we can be reassured that artificial intelligence will not be outperforming human intelligence in the near future.

The disaster scenario of the scientist losing control of his ‘creature’, as in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is therefore unlikely to happen in the short term.

Opportunities

For most engineers, artificial intelligence is a tool and an opportunity to restore the profession of engineer to its rightful place. With the globalisation of trade, businesspeople have taken precedence over scientists, who have often been downgraded to ‘geeks’ or ‘boffins’. However, the exploits of AI are precisely down to the well-stocked and well-intentioned minds in charge!

“Digital and artificial intelligence tools can help us, for instance, by allowing us to analyse big data much faster. This will really speed up decisions and ensure they are better informed. But the final decision will always be down to a human engineer. AI, robots and software are all tools created by engineers to be used, in particular, by engineers,” says bioscience engineer Claire Deligant.

The impact of AI on the engineering profession can be summarised by this statement from Robert Plana, Chief Technology Officer at Assystem: “The new tools that are available to us or currently under development turn engineers into designers, modellers and results analysts. And increase their capacity for informed decision-making. “

The real challenges of AI for engineers

While technological, digital and robotic innovations can reveal and enhance the abilities of the most brilliant engineers, they also place a heavy responsibility on their shoulders: that of the ultimate significance of their actions. Digitising, computerising, designing better and faster are all very well, but to what purpose? We need to take ownership of the tools of our time, but that is not enough.

The current economic, social and environmental challenges are causing all engineers to be faced with the issue of purpose. In the area of engineering, the challenge is to better describe the complexity of projects, to better understand hazards, to better anticipate failures, to build a more resilient and fairer world. Recently, oil giant Shell was ordered by a Dutch court to improve its climate-related goals. A good example of an ethical dilemma for engineers: how can they use technology to build a better world?

At the beginning of this century, by mastering AI, engineers have a unique opportunity to envision and shape a more positive industry that benefits the majority. Good luck to all of you!

The Engineer of the Future – an identikit portrait

If the engineering profession offers women a bright future, what about the challenges that the engineers of the future will all be facing in 10, 20, 30 years’ time? What will the engineer of the future look like, male or female?

Three major changes

A number of sweeping trends are irreversibly changing the environment in which engineers wield and will continue to wield their skills. By taking a holistic approach here – that is, assuming the environment influences the individual – it is important to highlight these trends in order to understand which skills and personal qualities the engineers of tomorrow will need to apply or acquire.

Global digitisation of exchanges

The first change is technological in nature. Digital technology now plays a central role in the economy and society. Further to the trade- and finance-based globalisation of trade in the 1980s and 1990s, we have entered an interconnected world in which digital technology is king. The exchange of information and ways of working are changing at warp speed.

In the background of this increasingly efficient and fast-paced world, environmental issues, especially the increasingly difficulty of access to the natural resources – oil, gas, and coal – that powered the success of the capitalist model, are partly challenging its hegemony and giving more say to rational minds capable of envisioning a new world.

You might call it the revenge of the geeks on the “smooth operator” of Sade’s 1984 hit. The Wall Street businessmen who made money simply by buying and selling are now giving way to the mechanics who are able to solve the world’s real problems.

Engineers are now back at the centre of the economic game. Once sidelined during the rise of services, they are once more able to take the lead and exercise more power and control over their environment. However, what is expected of them has nothing to do with responsibilities or expertise

Flattening

The second trend that will impact on engineers in the years to come is the flattening of organisations. We could also call it the disintermediation of exchanges or the ‘horizontalisation’ of companies. Of course, this upheaval has its origin in technology, by enabling ‘collaboration’ to become the dominant way of managing exchanges and human relations at companies.

For engineers, this means that, due to the democratisation of knowledge and its direct impact on the value chain, people skills and ‘collective intelligence’ have come into their own. This transfer of power to the user places the concepts of ‘the customer’ and ‘the user’ at the forefront, to the detriment of structures, organisations or plans.

In scientific terms, control of a horizontal mode no longer involves optimising systems, but controlling flows (e.g. cloud computing + link to article) and promoting an agile and/or decentralised production mode (the famous startup mindset) where the user is now king.

We are increasingly shifting from the lone engineer who designs the world in his own way to an economic player who is 100% integrated into his environment and aware of the fact that issues are not only technical, but linked to the users of the technology.

The Big Mix

A third trend is what one might call ‘hybridisation’. Diversity appears to be the key to a form of success that some call resilience or adaptability.

We are entering the era of ‘makers’, ‘workshops’, ‘labs’, the combination of design, production and iterative experimentation Even in the area of economics, terms such as ‘frugal innovation’ (making do with what you have) are appearing. This reconciles abstract design and actual ‘making’, professionals and amateurs.

This turns the traditional vision of the engineering profession on its head: once the masters of matter, engineers will no longer deal only with forms and functions, but also with users and needs.

Tomorrow’s engineers will have to act simultaneously on abstract and tangible reference systems. Will they be able to mediate between a world of specialists and a popular culture with immediate and changing expectations?

Five skills for the engineer of the future

In addition to purely technical knowledge, engineers will have to cultivate a base of cross-disciplinary skills to meet these new challenges. These are sometimes grouped under the somewhat reductive term ‘soft skills’. In reality, the challenge is quite different: they are expected to develop a new vision of the world by thinking and working.

Expertise

There was a time when engineers were expected to build or construct, to quantitatively and intelligently add their stone to the building. However, to put it simply, all bridges and roads have now been built. The challenge is to find new, more inclusive and less polluting modes of travel.

Now the structures are in place, it is the business models that are changing. The engineer of the future must become an expert in redefining the value chain, which extends no longer only from the manufacturer to the user, but also from the user to the designer. This is disruptive thinking that will be useful to engineers who want to have an impact on the world of tomorrow.

Ingenuity

In a world that is moving ever faster, engineers will increasingly be faced with problems that have no apparent solution. What is expected of them is not a miracle solution, but the ability to get around the problem or reduce risks at various points in the value chain in order to bring a project about.

Ingenious engineers no longer operate by accumulating knowledge, but by exceeding their reach or the apparent limitations of a project. They will also need to learn to constantly question their references and immerse themselves in practicalities rather than ‘books’.

Agility in an agile world

The de-siloing of economic activities and the flattening of flow charts make it both possible and necessary to work in agile mode. Engineers must start from the premise that they cannot achieve their goals alone, whether in terms of knowledge, time, or final satisfaction. The right solution necessarily lies elsewhere, with the other party.

Whereas the engineers of the past had specifications, the engineers of today have customers with whom they need to empathise.

This, for instance, is what Steve Jobs was the first to understand, by focusing on the habits of consumers and individuals rather than production issues (when, how much does it cost, how many, etc.).

The engineers of the future are resolutely aware of the fact that “the truth is elsewhere” and that only the quality of their network and ecosystem will enable them to understand, with the greatest possible acuity, the world around them (feedback culture) in order to solve certain problems.

“Increasingly widespread access to information will lead to a need for almost total transparency concerning industrial products and processes […], with consequences for the engineering profession in terms of responsibility”, comments Gabriel Plassat of Ademe.

Responsibility

As companies are increasingly perceived as players in civil society and environmental challenges become more and more prevalent, engineers are now have a role to play as responsible citizens.

Mastering the ethical, legal, societal and political effects of technology on the production chain is an absolutely crucial skill for those who want to find their place on the labour market of the next 20 years.

Responsible engineers are people who say no while proposing a solution that involves collective and ‘different’ innovation. They are full-fledged citizens who supply a critical reading of the present that is relevant enough to suggest a desirable future.

Influence

I have two words: soft skills One of the skills expected of the engineers of the future is undoubtedly the ability to influence their environment. In today’s world, nothing can be taken for granted: a budget, talents or priorities can change.

The ability to mobilise limited resources around a project or an ideal is a major skill that constitutes a huge departure from the cliché of engineers in their ivory tower, masters of absolute knowledge. It requires considerable understanding of human behaviour and teamwork to achieve its ends.

The ever-growing number of projects funded by means of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding is one of the signs of this need to attract resources and manage them intelligently in order to create something new.

Conclusion

The economic, sociological and environmental changes we are experiencing are what has enabled us to sketch a portrait of an engineer who is more in tune with the times and whose responsibilities are increasing both within and outside their company.

Ethics and morality must and will have to be part of the decision-making software of the engineers of the future, whose role, far more than solving the world’s problems, will be to give it meaning.

9 tips for a successful job interview

You’re looking for a job, you sent out loads of CVs… and you’ve been invited for an interview! Fantastic news! Congratulations!

Now, you’re wondering how best to prepare for your interview, and that’s good. Because you have to prepare for an interview. Preparation is in fact the key to a successful interview!

So here are a few tips to help you on the way:

1. Find out about the purpose of the interview. Is it a technical interview, an HR interview, will it be in French, in English, with several people? Will you be taking technical tests? Will it last one hour, two hours?

There’s nothing worse than stressing out because you have another appointment or you weren’t expecting to have to speak English!

2. Find out their location, if it’s a physical interview; how you’re going to travel there, if it’s easy to park there or if you’re going to need a little more time so as not to arrive at your interview all stressed out…

3. If it’s a digital interview, check that you know how to use the tool and test it… And remember to request a backup plan if your Teams isn’t working or your wifi’s down.

If you know what to expect, you can prepare for it, which will ensure you’re more relaxed and enable you to be the best version of yourself in order to impress your future employer!

4. Be prepared! Check out the company’s website – that’s one of the basics for preparing an interview!

One of my clients’ first question was always: “Tell me about my company”. That question let him see immediately whether someone was really interested in working there. What are their mission, their plans, their goals… And why are you interested in joining them?

5. Check out their social media to see how they present themselves, their values, and also pick up a great deal of valuable information: their turnover, the kind of project on which they work, their dress code, their way of life… Don’t turn up in a jacket and tie if they’re a laid-back startup, or in jeans and trainers if they’re a very formal consultancy firm…

6. Check if you have contacts in common with the company! You can soon see on LinkedIn if you know someone who knows someone who works or has worked there! Contact them, ask them for an insider’s view, for advice… That will either make you keener than ever to work there, or maybe not, the job may sound interesting but the company’s not a good fit.

7. When studying the job description, make connections between what they’re asking for and what you know, whether through a course, a work experience, a project… and be able to supply an instance of each.

8. If a skill is required that you don’t have, investigate. Google is your friend! All right, you may not know it all, but at least show that you’ve done some research, that you’re taking the job seriously. When I interview an applicant who doesn’t know what I expect but explains he’s already followed a tutorial and is ready to learn… and another who simply says “no, I don’t know about that”, the decision is obvious.

9. Don’t forget that recruitment is a two-way street: it’s up to you to convince them, but also up to them to attract you! You’re not the only one that needs to please!

Good luck with the interview and remember to believe in yourself! You’ll find the right job for you, it’s only a matter of time…

With that in mind, remember to check out our offers to find the one that suits you best!

Dear colleague, I hate you!

It’s simply not possible to like everyone. In fact, you can hate as many people if you like if that’s your thing. But what to do when you loathe an unpleasant colleague and feel you can never get along with them?

There are the people with whom you know from the beginning that you have absolutely nothing in common. Even worse: when you try to get to know a new colleague and can’t stand them after only a few weeks!

As in ‘real life’, there are all sorts at the office. The chatterboxes, the loud people, the ones who only pretend to be nice, the lazy, those that step outside for a smoke ten times a day and those who are forever telling you about their weekend, the braggarts, the dishonest and the incompetents who pretend to be good enough.

Except that in real life you don’t have to share an office or work on the same project with someone you can’t stand.

When a relationship with a line manager, a colleague or a team member goes bad, it can feel as though the world is collapsing around your ears. Even when you like your job and its content, the people with whom you work have a powerful effect on quality of life in the workplace.

So, what to do in this kind of situation? Here’s our survival guide on working and keeping a cool head when dealing with a colleague who is also a pr*t.

Inside the whirlwind

“I can’t stand her any more, she’s such an idiot!”, “My boss is unbearable!”… Human beings respond emotionally to most situations. We tend to get carried away by our emotions and passions even at the office.

In his Ethics, Spinoza describes the curse of being torn between reason and passion, when human beings fall prey to fluctuatio animi, the state of being concisely described by Ovid: “I see the best, I approve, and I do the worst. “

Fear, stress, anger, irritation, or all of the above can cause us to lose control. When dealing with an unbearable colleague, it’s common for people to take a dark and irrational view of the situation, when in reality – as you very well know – there is always a solution.

Piece of advice No. 1: keep your cool and don’t let rip in the open-space office. This doesn’t mean you have to brood on it forever before trying to change the situation.

Piece of advice No. 2: put up with it and protect yourself. In a world where people are apt to let their feelings run away with them, a little stoicism can be a good thing. Yes, Michel’s a pr*t; yes, Julie’s a b*tch; but what matters above all is that you carry on doing a good job.

Everyone has their own technique: some people adopt an air of detachment, others pretend they don’t know. In all cases, protect yourself against this pest of a colleague and concentrate on your personal goals at the company.

Identify the cause of the problem

How did it ever come to this? What are the human or material factors that caused this relationship fail? First of all: it takes two to disagree. And as they say, we’re all an irritation to someone, so how about having a talk with yourself?

Very often, what we dislike the most in other people are our own weaknesses and faults. This isn’t to say that your colleague is blameless, but that in some cases there may be blame on both sides.

Piece of advice No. 3: on a quiet Saturday afternoon, take half an hour to write down in simple sentences the main reasons that according to you may explain the situation that’s bothering you so much.

Piece of advice No. 4: make an honest list of what really bothers you about your colleague, boss or intern. Sooner or later, this boil will have to be lanced.

Get to know your colleague all over again

When you hate a colleague, you tend to avoid them, keep meetings short, take your lunch break at another time. Of course, that can bring some relief at first.

Oddly, though, the more you avoid someone, the more difficult the situation gets. Unless they’re insane, the person you hate will obviously realise something’s wrong. Of that you can be sure.

So, you are not expected to turn up at your colleague’s desk and let them have it with both barrels. Only in bad American sitcoms does the level of drama need to peak after 43 minutes, with a big fight during which people hurl things at each other, exchange verbal abuse or even throw the odd fake punch. Five minutes later, everyone’s apologising to everyone else, everyone admits they’re in the wrong, everyone makes peace and all’s well in the best of all possible worlds.

Piece of advice No. 5: slow and subtle does it. The only way for you to learn to get on and live in peace is to work on it together. There are various ways of opening talks, from “Could we talk about it?“ to “Are you feeling as awkward as I am? I think we should talk about it to find a solution together.”

If that doesn’t work

You’ve tried everything, and you feel the situation can’t change or can only get worse? Keep a cool head, and above all don’t fall into the trap of spreading gossip about your terrible colleague. This may come back to haunt you if things get so bad that the management needs to intervene.

Piece of advice No. 6: don’t get even by openly criticising your colleague, especially if they’re your line manager. However, in order to remember everything, you should keep a record of your difficult relationship with them: emails, cancelled appointments, comments by dissatisfied customers, descriptions of unbearable situations, etc. This may come in useful later.

Piece of advice No. 7: ask for external help Finally, if the situation is too painful, remember the human resources (HR) department at your company is there to listen to you. HR are under a performance obligation to keep the staff physically and mentally healthy. Once more, it’s important to have it all in writing. If you can no longer stand working with someone, tell your HR manager by email, with an accurate description (date, time, place, what was said in quotation marks) of what is wrong, provided this amounts to non-compliance with workplace regulations. The HR manager will act as a mediator so that a solution can be found.

So you’re not fated to work with someone you hate. You have resources with which to improve your relationships and your daily life. Use them!

What are your worst experiences with an office colleague? How did it end? Did you experience something similar with your manager? If so, this article may be of interest to you!

I don’t have a degree, what do I do?

Ah! The big issue of degrees. Is it important to have one? Do people really need them? Why do some parents put such pressure on their children to earn a degree, or even two? Probably because at this point in time people are recruited on the basis of their degrees and academic history – to the detriment, sometimes, of the person they are or of their non-academic experience.

So… The first thing you need to do (and likely the most important) if you don’t have a degree is not to let yourself become discouraged and lose confidence. Degrees don’t define who we are, and you can achieve the level of professional success you dream of without a degree. Remember Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to concentrate on developing Facebook, as did Bill Gates in order to launch Microsoft.

Define your career goal

OK, we’ve said it, so now what? First, you have to know what you want. A degree or diploma is a tool to achieve what you want, not an end in itself. So: what do you want? Do you want to join an established company? a startup? a nonprofit? Or do you want to start your own business? It’s like everything else: find out where you want to go, and then you can work out the way to get there.

Draw up a list of the qualifications you need

Once you’ve set your goal, consider the qualifications required to achieve it. Look around you. How did people with that type of job go about it? Who works for that industry? Go and meet with them (via LinkedIn, at trade fairs or meet-ups) and use their careers for inspiration.

Once you’ve done that, connect your own qualifications and experiences with each of those criteria. For instance, you may not have an accountancy degree, but you helped your parents keep the accounts for their shop for years. Use that experience! You may not have a degree in journalism, but you had a summer job at a radio station. Use that, too! You haven’t studied management, but you worked as a counsellor at a summer camp during the holidays? That means you have leadership qualities, you’re a responsible person and you’re not afraid of hard work! The principle behind the process is that you need to showcase what you can do and your work (or non-work) experience in order to show that you have the right attitudes and qualifications for a specific job.

Be willing

This means you both need to volunteer and show determination. Do both! Join projects in order to gain experience – that will show recruiters how motivated and determined you are! Not having a degree doesn’t mean you’re not able to do anything. Do you want to be a project manager despite never having done a business course? Manage projects for nonprofits or NGOs. You want to organise events? Volunteer to help organise cultural events. That way, you will gain experience.

Take vocational training courses

If, as well as your experience, you need to learn technical skills (there are some things you can’t make up as you go along), there are plenty of vocational courses or even night classes. There are plenty of continuing-training courses and short courses, both online and physical, that you can take to learn what you need to know in order to be confident at interviews, showcase your motivation and increase your skills. Check out Coursera, Udemy or Skillshare, for instance.

Showcase your soft skills.

You don’t just need to know things, you also need to know how to behave. Determined, hardworking people will always be valued and this will always be taken into account during a recruitment process. Indeed, your attitude and soft skills may be what makes the difference and boost your application at interviews. Communication, customer relations, negotiating skills, the ability to read body language, management, the ability to work in a team, the management of people junior to yourself, the ability to defuse difficult situations, the ability to motivate your troops and focus a group on a single goal… all of these are human skills that not everyone possesses. So if you’ve got it, show it! Managers often hire us for who we are, not only for what we can do. Technical skills can be learned, whereas knowing how to act around other people is something else!

Develop your network

In today’s labour market, who you know is as important as what you know, as wide professional networks open many doors! At the beginning, we advised you to go and meet people whose careers you can emulate, and this applies in general to people who work in your dream industry and elsewhere. Tell people about your career plans, go to events, conferences, interact and make a good impression! Who knows? It may be that in a few months’ time someone will have an opportunity for you, will remember you and help you up into the saddle. These people may even become mentors who will guide and advise you. Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you – make it!

Finally… showcase the variety of your background and experiences, whatever they are, and surround yourself with people who pull you upwards and believe in your potential. It’s never too late to make a start and climb the ladder. Learn on the job, it’s the best way, and experience is the best degree! Believe in yourself and hang in there – it’s the key to success!