I've seen a few applications for professional registration recently which have fallen into the trap of being written like a CV or a Role Profile. They might be accurate, but they really don't give an idea of whether the candidate is actually working professionally. And they're - sorry - REALLY boring.
When I first meet a potential registrant the first thing I (and I know many other PRAs) do is to put their application or CV to one side and say "tell me about what you do". Almost invariably they tell a completely different story to their application, they tell a lively story of how - because of their expertise - their work contributed to the company, the customers, and the world. And we then go through a process of getting THAT story into their application.
So I thought I'd spread the advice (anonymised) I've just emailed to one potential candidate as hopefully it will help others:
When thinking about your responsibilities, I suggest you take a step back from your CV and your Role Profile. Instead, look out of the office window at the new facility and think "Which parts of that did I make that happen and how did I keep them safe? Where did the buck stop with me? Where would I like to point to something - however small - and say proudly 'I did that'?" It's a really useful thing to do anyway - we all need to do it occasionally to make our jobs feel worthwhile! - but it should particularly help get the right perspective on your application. With any luck you'll be able to think of 2-3 occasions where you can say "because I intervened in this way, that potential risk was avoided", and there you've got excellent examples to show what your actual responsibility is and how you handled it, and then show how your knowledge allowed you to do spot that problem and make that intervention.
If you struggle to think of examples, try to find the most upbeat of your colleagues and see if they'll help talk it through with you, we often downplay the impact of our own work whereas someone else can put it in better perspective.
If you struggle to think of examples, try to find the most upbeat of your colleagues and see if they'll help talk it through with you, we often downplay the impact of our own work whereas someone else can put it in better perspective.
Perhaps key in that last sentence is "upbeat colleague" - as engineers we can be a miserable bunch when we get in a group. Now you absolutely mustn't overclaim in your application, that will get spotted and will cast doubt on the rest of it. But sometimes it's really helpful to have someone else point out to you "yes, someone else finally signed off that work, but it was your work that actually swung that decision, and everyone trusted you to have come to the right conclusions because you're seen as the expert in xxx and you always act professionally".
Of course, once you have that perspective you still need to make clear how you achieved what you achieved - but once you have good examples to talk about that usually comes much more easily.
Hope that helps someone and makes sense - general comments welcomed! (Of course individual cases can't be discussed on an open forum.)
Cheers,
Andy
