Significant Career Lesson From a Retired Aerospace Engineer at Northrop Grumman
Michael, a retired aerospace engineer, learned the valuable lesson that "it's often much easier to get forgiveness than permission," which he applied by encouraging his team to strategically use all their allocated research and development funds early, ensuring they would be considered for additional funding that others hadn't used, and then subsequently create formal reports to "get credit" for their work. This ensured continuous funding and proper documentation, allowing the team to stand out and receive recognition for their efforts within the large organization.
Aerospace Engineering, Project Management, Budgeting, Teamwork, Career Strategy
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Michael Capoccia
Retired Aerospace Engineer
Northrop Grumman Corp.
Cal State University Long Beach
Pepperdine University Masters In Business Administration , Graduate Studies In Program Mngt. and Systems Engineering Cal Tech
Engineering - Chemical
Aerospace, Aviation & Defense
Research and Development (R&D)
Honors Student, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Transfer Student, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Importance of Utilizing Resources: Emphasizes the strategic use of available R&D funds within a specific timeframe (by the end of November) to ensure continued project funding and avoid budget reallocation.
2. Seeking Forgiveness Over Permission: Highlights a proactive approach in large organizations, suggesting that it's often more effective to act and then address any resulting issues rather than seeking prior approval for every action.
3. Value of Formal Documentation: Stresses the significance of documenting completed work in formal reports to gain recognition and credit for contributions, rather than just providing data without context.
Transcript
What is one lesson that you have learned that has proven significant in your career?
Okay, this is going to sound funny. It's often much easier to get forgiveness than permission.
In a large organization, I taught all my guys to use up all your non-contractual technical money. Your R&D money, burn it up by the end of November. I wanted them to be broke at the end of November, by Thanksgiving.
I told them, "But we need to get paid for December. You're going to get paid for December. They're not going to lay you off for that." The reason is, there are always people who don't spend their money.
So they come back and say, "Okay, we're going to go harvest this money. I'm going to give it to you guys because you did your work." Then I always told my guys, "Now you have the opportunity to write up what you did in a nice formal report. This way you get credit for it."
Otherwise, you're just working, working, working, working, working. You don't get formal credit. You don't have a nice, beautiful technical report at the end. You're just giving up data.
So that combined lesson was the most important thing I learned and that I think I taught all my team members.