Technical fundamentals and an entrepreneurial mindset — this is what Boeing looks for when hiring new graduates.
At least that’s according to Boeing CTO John Tracy, who gave a keynote presentation at the American Society for Engineering Education annual conference in Seattle on Tuesday.
Tracy spent most of his 30-minute speech talking about a recent study that explored how technology is impacting the world of manufacturing. But the first audience question after his talk was about what qualifications, experiences, and skill-sets Boeing looks for when hiring potential employees fresh out of college.
Tracy’s answer was about balance — Boeing wants employees that can think like an entrepreneur, but also understand the basic principles often taught in school.
Here’s his full answer:
“We need these young people to come in and have the ability to look at a problem, understand how they could make that situation better, and then do the complete lifecycle of conceiving a solution with a detailed design, figuring out how the manufacturing process could be put together, actually building the thing, testing it, knowing how to service it, understanding how the finances work — we want someone with that full lifecycle of knowledge.
But we’re not willing to give up having them learn the Navier-Stokes Equations or any fundamental thing that’s been talked about in the last 50 years — we’re not willing to give those things up. The problem we have today is sometimes we have students that show up that have been exposed to a lot on the teamwork and leadership side, which is absolutely essential. But they’ll run a computer code and produce a stack of graphs and have no clue on how to determine whether the answers are right or not with a pencil.
We need students that have it all. They have a good understanding of the fundamentals, they have the ability to approximate the answers within at least a factor of two with pencil and paper, and they have these team-based and communications skills as well. Maybe that’s a 5-year program, I don’t know.”
Tracy added that it’s important for students to learn the basics of entrepreneurism.
“Employees who can think creatively and apply entrepreneurial behaviors and thought processes to their work play a key role in helping companies like Boeing be better innovators,” he said. “Students can hone these skills not just in entrepreneurship and business classes, but also with hands-on opportunities that give them a set of skills they can apply anywhere — not just with starting their own business, but in solving any problem a company may have.”
Tracy also touched on how technologies like robotics, pervasive computing, Internet of Things and others are completely redefining how products are manufactured, including those at Boeing. He noted how this has created a higher level of expectation in terms of creating value and why thinking like an entrepreneur can help the process.
“Manufacturing is no longer just about how you make a thing,” Tracy said. “It’s about conceiving the item, understanding what a problem is, coming up with a solution, designing that solution, knowing how to build that solution, and market, sell, and finance it from conception through servicing.”
The move toward more automation and efficiency in manufacturing — in aerospace and other industries — is undoubtedly forcing some people out of work, particularly for repetitive jobs that require less qualification. In fact, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics found that total manufacturing employment in the U.S. dropped from 19 million in 1980 to 11.5 million in 2010. And the study Tracy referenced found that some factories now only need a third of the people to do the same amount of work compared to 1965.
Therefore, Tracy said it’s important for schools to place an emphasis on teaching specific technical skills and for companies to provide access to education training, particularly for lower-skilled workers who are most affected by these changes.
“These changes may eliminate some jobs,” he added, “but they also may create new ones and offer companies new ways to understand their customers needs and increase demands for their products.”
