What a Retired Engineer at Northrop Grumman Learned Aerospace
Reflecting on a career as an Aerospace Engineer, Michael wishes someone had emphasized the importance of attitude over aptitude, as "you hire for attitude" and can teach the rest, but also the significance of setting boundaries because consistently working "uncompensated anything" leads to being undervalued. Furthermore, Michael stresses the modern "job" is not a "career," rather a career is "something you've done well."
Aerospace Engineering, Management, Work Ethic, Industry Experience, Career Advice
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. Hire for attitude, you can teach aptitude.
2. The hourly technician knows more about putting an airplane together than you do.
3. Do not work uncompensated unless it's an emergency; otherwise, you risk being taken advantage of.
Transcript
What have you learned about this role that you wish someone would have told you before you entered the industry?
There are a few things to consider. One is that the person holding a degree is more important than the degree a person is holding. You hire for attitude; you can teach aptitude, but you can't teach attitude.
The customer is not always right. Another point is that the hourly technician often knows more about putting an airplane together than a manager does. Most modern managers' jobs are very temporary. The fascination with leadership has destroyed the manager as a mentor.
Here's another one. The word "career" has too many letters to spell "job." With all due respect, what you have is a job, a task, an assignment, something to do. That's what you get paid for. A career is something you've done well.
Another thing: do not do uncompensated work unless it's an emergency. An emergency means it has to be done now and is very short-term, maybe two or three days, perhaps a week. It also doesn't keep repeating.
If you do this too much, working uncompensated, you will not be respected. You'll be considered someone they can just throw work to. That's effectively your local "slave" or "patsy." You don't want to be that person. The company charges for your time, so you charge them for yours. That's how it works.