Calvin T. Engineer:

I’m a young professional engineer and have been working with my current employer for the past seven years. I’ve applied for a few different internal roles during my time here that I feel would improve my personal and professional development but on every occasion I’ve been turned down.

This is where you find out who your real friends are - it's well worth trying to find out why you keep being turned down. It might be the company, in which case go for another job. But if it's something to do with you then you may struggle to find that other job as well. Maybe you're too quiet? Too aggressive? Too much focused on your own work at the expense of other people's? Too much focused on other people's work at the expense of your own? Know your work but can't talk about it clearly? Talk a lot but your work doesn't seem to back it up? To make it worse, it often it appears that someone shows one or more of these traits when actually they don't have them - it's just how they come across.


The best thing, if you can, is to find a manager (it doesn't have to be your manager) in the company who will be honest with you. It's absolutely fine to ask for a chat, all (competent) managers want staff to progress - it's good for everybody, including the company. Be prepared to hear some things you may not want to hear - but if you know of any weaknesses in your work, or problems in the way you come across to others, you can either change and develop, or you can make sure that you are applying for jobs that really suit you.


Be very careful listening to "mates" who try to make you feel better by either saying it's disgusting that you didn't get a job, or that it's a conspiracy by the company, or that you're better off without it. They may be right, but it's very likely they are just trying to make you feel better in the moment. 



Doing all this before you start applying for jobs elsewhere is really good if you can - sadly many employers don't give candidates very good feedback (for all sorts of reasons), which makes it hard to learn lessons from the recruitment process. But also, candidates do very much better if they apply for jobs with a really clear idea of their strengths and weaknesses.



You haven't said where you are with professional registration (EngTech / IEng / CEng) - but if you haven't applied yet it could be well worth it. Not just for the added credibility on your CV, but also because it will give you a chance to sit down with a Professional Registration Adviser who will impartially help you look through your career strengths and weaknesses, and again this might give you a clue either as to what is holding you back at your company, or give you some ideas of how you could spread your wings elsewhere.


And finally, I would particularly recommend the IET's Mentoring service - not nearly enough people take advantage of this, it's a free way of getting one-to-one independent and confidential advice from an experienced professional engineer in your field. https://www.theiet.org/membership/career/mentoring/iservice/index.cfm


Good luck!


Thanks, Andy  

Calvin T. Engineer:

I’m a young professional engineer and have been working with my current employer for the past seven years. I’ve applied for a few different internal roles during my time here that I feel would improve my personal and professional development but on every occasion I’ve been turned down.

This is where you find out who your real friends are - it's well worth trying to find out why you keep being turned down. It might be the company, in which case go for another job. But if it's something to do with you then you may struggle to find that other job as well. Maybe you're too quiet? Too aggressive? Too much focused on your own work at the expense of other people's? Too much focused on other people's work at the expense of your own? Know your work but can't talk about it clearly? Talk a lot but your work doesn't seem to back it up? To make it worse, it often it appears that someone shows one or more of these traits when actually they don't have them - it's just how they come across.


The best thing, if you can, is to find a manager (it doesn't have to be your manager) in the company who will be honest with you. It's absolutely fine to ask for a chat, all (competent) managers want staff to progress - it's good for everybody, including the company. Be prepared to hear some things you may not want to hear - but if you know of any weaknesses in your work, or problems in the way you come across to others, you can either change and develop, or you can make sure that you are applying for jobs that really suit you.


Be very careful listening to "mates" who try to make you feel better by either saying it's disgusting that you didn't get a job, or that it's a conspiracy by the company, or that you're better off without it. They may be right, but it's very likely they are just trying to make you feel better in the moment. 



Doing all this before you start applying for jobs elsewhere is really good if you can - sadly many employers don't give candidates very good feedback (for all sorts of reasons), which makes it hard to learn lessons from the recruitment process. But also, candidates do very much better if they apply for jobs with a really clear idea of their strengths and weaknesses.



You haven't said where you are with professional registration (EngTech / IEng / CEng) - but if you haven't applied yet it could be well worth it. Not just for the added credibility on your CV, but also because it will give you a chance to sit down with a Professional Registration Adviser who will impartially help you look through your career strengths and weaknesses, and again this might give you a clue either as to what is holding you back at your company, or give you some ideas of how you could spread your wings elsewhere.


And finally, I would particularly recommend the IET's Mentoring service - not nearly enough people take advantage of this, it's a free way of getting one-to-one independent and confidential advice from an experienced professional engineer in your field. https://www.theiet.org/membership/career/mentoring/iservice/index.cfm


Good luck!


Thanks, Andy