Hands on Experience/Assignments for Women/Transferring Knowledge

By Eve Sprunt

Q:  How do you get hands on experience in an operating company when all they want you to do is train and attend classes?  Ditto for when there is a downturn in industry?

Look around your company and see who is doing the type of work that you think you would like to do. Learn as much as you can about those people by reading that person’s publications and any biographical material that may be available. After you have done your homework, call them to inquire if you may make an appointment to talk with them. Talk with your potential mentor about their career and what types of training and experience they think is most important. If you appear to be establishing a good rapport, ask if they have any projects on which can assist them. You should be prepared to get this hands on experience as an after hours investment in yourself if there is no budget for someone of your skill level to be involved in the project.  If the first meeting doesn’t work out try another potential mentor. 

Q.  What are some good expat assignments for women and for single women?

The perfect assignment depends on the person. We need to get away from the misconception that gender and marital status are sufficient to define that person’s career and personal aspirations. People have very different priorities and value systems.

Will you take whatever position will help you advance the fastest and the highest? In that case, the best expat assignment will vary from company to company and with time. To ride the corporate rocket ship, you be prepared to forgo a social life and to live in a dangerous and unpleasant location. The plum assignment would be one with high visibility in which you can make a significant positive impact and receive recognition and credit for you accomplishments or highly valued experience. 

If your career ambitions are tempered by lifestyle considerations, the best assignment would be highly dependent on your personal issues and the living conditions you would encounter working for your company in that country. The level of support, living conditions and social life may vary greatly between different companies and locations within a country. Start by networking within your company. Opinions may vary, so you should gather information from a range of people who share your lifestyle and concerns. If you are single woman, single men may provide insights on the social life that you would not get from a married woman with children. If you are married, men may be able to provide advice on obtaining work permits for a spouse and schools for children. If life in a company compound doesn’t dominate the situation and you can’t get sufficient information from within your company network, leverage external connections including professional society contacts to get guidance from people working for other companies. 

Q.  What does Lessons Learned mean to you?  How can you really transfer knowledge from the senior engineers to the younger ones, and even those transferring into new companies with many years experience?

Lessons learned are case studies of things that went wrong so that the same mistakes are not repeated. Sharing of lessons learned in company training classes and seminars is a best practice. While there is high demand for professional society presentations and papers on case studies of failed projects, very few companies and authors are willing to air their dirty linen in public publications and forums. 

Young employees will get far more formal training as new hires than mid-career people. Some companies have curricula to provide new college grads training in specific specialties. One-on-one mentoring is a very labor intensive and time-consuming method, but it is a good way to transfer knowledge from one generation to the next if there is good chemistry between mentor and mentee. Companies hope to expedite the transition from new grad to fully qualified professional, but often it takes at least five years.