For my job analysis, I decided to conduct a search on CareerBuilder.com following my registration to narrow recommended job results. The best suited career opportunity posted is a Controls Engineer for Sargent and Lundy. My first priority when choosing the beginning of my career path is location. My preference is to work in the Chicago land area in Illinois for a few years. Not only does Sargent and Lundy provide me with the location in Chicago, the Controls Engineer position that is open is looking for recent graduates (something I’ve learned that is hard to come by when searching on CareerBuilder.com).
To begin with, upon receiving my Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology, my related course work would establish a strong ground for this position. The main focus for the Controls Engineer is working in engineering teams engaged in nuclear power plant instrumentation and controls for efficient project operation. Mechanical Engineering Technology has provided me with several courses directly related to power plant instrumentation and operation. I have both theoretical and applied knowledge in thermodynamics related to several different power plant processes and practices with power plant devices. This course work involves hands on experience valuable to this position as well as conceptual education. Also included in my related course work is my learned skill in fluid mechanics. Specifically, power plant operation deals with a heavy amount of fluid mechanics in and in between its instrumentation. The nature of the Controls Engineer is to work in computer control design, maintenance, and services. I have education based on computer controls that is similar to operations and devices utilizing logic diagrams, PLC programming, and automation. This knowledge gives me a great deal of experience and qualifies myself to work in power plant operations.
In addition to related course work, I have had an extensive amount of multi-disciplinary teamwork in engineering projects. As the position requests, the Controls Engineer will work in project teams of several qualified disciplines. I was involved with Engineering Projects in Community Service to develop several apparatuses for educational goals. In order to achieve our team goals, I had to work between pharmacists, chemical engineers, electrical engineers, and other mechanical engineers for a single purpose. Through the course of the semester, it was important for me to grow my teamwork abilities to balance a healthy group. More importantly, I’ve learned the magnitude of knowing the capabilities in other disciplines so mesh with my own course related work. By the end of the semester, our EPICS group spent a good amount of time collectively working together and perfectly matching our team goals.
Furthermore, I held an intern position this past summer in controls in power plant functionality for Emerson Process Management, Power and Water Solutions. My training during this internship program is parallel with the description of the job opening. This is the major variable that leaves me to believe I am qualified for this job. The applied skills I developed over the past program are common between power plants. More importantly, I developed experience of practical control systems in the industry in business leading computer software. The only difference in the explanation is their field is nuclear power and my internship dealt with coal power. However, this is not a major concern for instrumentation control because both typically utilize the same type of equipment.
Included in my past experiences outside of my education that is valuable for this position is a cross country cycling trek where I developed teamwork abilities. I bicycled in one of three teams from San Francisco to Washington DC over the course of a summer with 29 other students to raise funds and spread awareness for people with disabilities. Sixty-four days is a long time to spend with strangers; however, completing such a challenging mission requires a developing sense of teamwork to cycle almost 4,000 miles and fund raise over $500,000.
Sargent and Lundy’s website shows a promising amount of related career paths. More importantly, the power and energy solutions they engineer are secure and innovative such as renewable energy resources.
Instructor Response
You have done a very good job of articulating what you have done with what the job requires. This will serve you well as you begin writing your job application letter. My suggestion is to highlight two or three things (skills, abilities, values, experiences) about yourself that you want to identify and demonstrate in the letter. Then, tell two or three stories that demonstrates these. For instance, you can discuss course projects in the area power plant practices and powers where you, perhaps, had a multi-disciplinary team. What you want is a story that demonstrates your skills and abilities by showing you at work. You want to avoid merely listing things about yourself: you want to give them a clear picture of the kind of employee you would be.
To help you do this you need to do more research on the company. You mention having visited their site: what values do they express there? What key words show-up again and again? Use your knowledge of the company (which should be substantial) to help you make decisions about what to include in your letter.