I came across this post from my morning email blast from the Ladders.  Entitled the “12 Daily Practices to Boost Your Hire-ability” and written by Scott Ginsberg, the article highlights some really creative practices to make job hunters stand out.  While the tips are not geared specifically for reliabiity engineers and predictive maintenance professionals, they are certainly applicable. Of the 12, the one that hits home for me is the recommendation  to print business cards and to carry them.  I hate to admit it, but I always seem to forget to bring business cards with me.

I also like the idea of a personal website.  In as much as job hunting should be about what you know, in reality it is about the message/image you present.  A personal website allows you to not only tell people what you know about vibration, infrared or root cause analysis, but it also provides you an opportunity to show how you’ve successfully applied that knowledge.  You don’t get that chance in an intereview.

Lastly, I think the most important tip of all and the one most applicable to anyone regardless of whether or not they are applying for a reliability engineering job or a position as a bus boy is the importance of attitude.  As the article notes:

“You may be unemployed. You may be broke. But the reality is, finding a job needs to become your job until you find a job.

Let me say that again: Finding a job needs to become your job until you find a job. That means structuring your days. That means having regular lunch meetings. That means treating it like any other job.”

Fortunately, this job is about to get easier.  Its just a couple of days until NextUp Careers launches the beta version of our job board.  We can’t wait!

We know that Mondays are not fun for even  the most dedicated of reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals.  As such, we wanted to brighten your day with a little career advice.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNYHoI47fw0[/youtube]

Enjoy the clip and remember, if your looking for reliability engineering jobs or predictive maintenance jobs, our job board will be launching this Friday.  We can’t wait!

NextUp Careers is in the process of finalizing our job matching process and we need some help in developing the final piece of our approach.  We are looking for assistance from Subject Matter Experts (SME) in the following areas:

• Reliability Engineering
• Vibration Analysis
• Infrared Thermography
• Motor Circuit Analysis
• Oil/Lubrication Analysis
• Ultrasound
• All NDT technologies
• Lean & Six Sigma

All we ask is help in answering these three questions:

1. What are 10 technical areas of skill, knowledge and ability you look for the in the position of _____________?

2. Of the ten which:
a. Four are “must have’s” (if not possessed, individual is not a viable candidate for the position)?
b. Three are “nice to have?
c. Three are “could do with out’s but will need to develop within a specified period of time”?

3. If you were interviewing for this position, what three questions would you use to probe for the:
a. Must have’s?
b. Nice to have’s?
c. Do with out’s?

In addition to responses to these questions, we may also contact you for a brief interview to ask some follow up questions.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Responses can be posted here, or emailed to mvann@nextupcareers.com

Sincerely,

The NextUp Career Team

I just came across this article – Area Steel Mills Gird for even more Layoffs from the Post Tribune.  According to the article, AccelorMittal is contemplating shutdowns at its East Chicago plant and US Steels Gary Works was idled this past weekend.  Apparently the Gary Works location had a blow through on its blast furnace which will impact approximately 320 workers.  AccelorMittal is contemplating shutting down one of its furnaces for maintenance work and is also dealing with a decline in demand.  Both companies are working with the unions to minimize the impact of the shut downs.  If you have a reliability engineering job or a predictive maintenance job at either of these facilities and are concerned about the long-term prognosis for employment at these plants, now is a great time to check out NextUp Careers – the first site dedicated to providing job opportunities for reliability engineering and predictive maintenance professionals.  Once we launch on May 1st, we will have hundreds of jobs for reliabilty engineers, maintenance engineers, vibration analysts, oil analysts, infrared thermographers and every other category of maintenance jobs.  To get a jump start on the process, upload your resume here.

As we continue to build out our resume database and job postings for reliability engineering and predictive maintnance jobs, one of the things that strikes us as interesting is the wide variety of job titles in the industry, or specifically, the lack of standardization across companies.

As an example, Northrup Grunman has postings for a Sr. Reliability Engineer 4, a Reliability Engineer T3/T4 and a Reliability Engineer 5.  Several other companies, such as Rohm and Haas, Flir Systems and General Mills have general Reliability Engineer titles.

On the Predictive Maintenance job title listings, we’ve seen a variety of titles, including a Predictive Maintenance Vibration Analyst, a Maintenance Reliability Technician, and a Vibration Test Engineer.

One of the most frustrating elements of a reliability engineer or predictive maintenance professionals job search is determining whether or not a job is a right fit.  With all of these various titles, it becomes very time consuming as you need to read through each and every posting to see if its a fit.  With NextUp Careers matching system, you will know how well a job opportunity fits you just by uploading your resume into our system.  No longer will confusion reign with company specific job titles!

We just came across this story – Michelin to Shut US Factory over at Industry Week.  Michelin has announced that they are closing their facility in Opelika, Alabama due to the significant drop in demand for tires.  If you or someone you know was employed at this plant as a reliability engineer, a predictive maintenance professional or part of the maintenance team, please submit your resume to NextUp Careers.

First of all, I hope everyone out there had a wonderful holiday weekend.  Much to the delight of our girls, the Easter bunny arrived bright and early at our house and scattered way too many chocolate filled colored eggs across the house.  Watching our 2 year old run through the  house was quite exciting, although not as exciting as providing you with a further selection of resumes of reliability engineering and predictive maintenance professionals who are looking for jobs.  Check out this list:

• Infrared Thermographer – this individual has over 17 years of experience in reliability engineering fields and is ASNT level II certified in a host of NDT technologies including ultrasound, radiography and of course infrared thermography.  A former trainer, this individual also has pipeline experience and has presented several papers at industry conferences.
• Business Development Manager.  Based in South Carolina, this individual has a long history of bringing in the business as a regional account manager who doubled their last company’s sales.  Not only can they walk the walk but they can talk the talk with  a CMRP and a six sigma green belt.
• Maintenance Engineer.  Coming at you from British Columbia, this individual has years of experience guiding companies through end-to-end implementation of CMMS/EAM/RCM projects.
• Reliability Engineer.  This Midwest based candidate has five years of experience in the building materials field.  They are level I certified in thermography and have their MLT and MLA.

These are just a couple of the resumes we’ve received.  More are coming every day, so if your thinking about getting yourself out in the job market let us know.  Or, if you have a job opening for a reliability engineering or predictive maintenance professional, and these candidates sound like a fit, drop us a line.  We are here to help.

Even though we are not launching for several more weeks, I am pleased to report that resumes have been coming in every day.  In the past couple of days, we’ve received resumes of qualified professionals with the following titles and aptitudes:

1. A Maintenance & Capital Projects Manager. Located in Arizona, this maintenence professional has been leading reliability engineering initiatives in the chemical and paper/pulp industry for over 12 years. They have extensive knowledge of SAP and has had budget responsibility for over $2 million in annual maintenance spend.
2. A Maintenance Planner/Engineer.  This candidate is located in Michigan and has over 20 years of industrial maintenance experience.
3. A Vibration Analyst.  Located in South Carolina, this professional has Level II ISO certification, almost 20 years of experience and has a sales background.
4. A Sr. Reliability Engineer.  This professional has 30+ years of industry experience and is a recognized expert in Root Cause Failure Analysis.

These are just a few of the resumes we’ve been getting everyday.  If one of these reliability and predictive maintenance professionals looks like they might fit an open job, let us know.  Also, we’ll be posting these brief resume profiles everyday, so get us yours and we’ll get it out there.

This mornings edition of CNN has a great little article entitled “Twelve Amusing Excuses for Being Late to Work“.   Accordingly to the article, 20% of surveyed workers claim they are late to work at least once a week.  Of the surveyed workers, 33% blamed traffic and another 24% blamed a lack of sleep! Clearly a little creativity is needed to make sure your tardiness is not lumped in with your co-workers lame excuses. After all, in this time of economic uncertainty, employers are going to keep employees who add value.  One way to add value is to demonstrate how quick and witty you are!

The article has a great list of 12 imaginative excuses that are actual reasons employers were provided by tardy employees.  Using some of these is sure to make  you stand out when you walk in ten minutes late.  Check these out:

1. My heat was shut off so I had to stay home to keep my snake warm.

2. My husband thinks it’s funny to hide my car keys before he goes to work.

3. I walked into a spider web on the way out the door and couldn’t find the spider, so I had to go inside and shower again.

4. I got locked in my trunk by my son.

5. My left turn signal was out so I had to make all right turns to get to work.

6. A gurney fell out of an ambulance and delayed traffic.

7. I was attacked by a raccoon and had to stop by the hospital to make sure it wasn’t rabid.

8. I feel like I’m in everyone’s way if I show up on time.

9. My father didn’t wake me up.

10. A groundhog bit my bike tire and made it flat.

11. My driveway washed away in the rain last night.

12. I had to go to bingo

Of all these, I’m partial to number 2 the most.  After all, if your boss is married, its likely they also have a vindictive/playful husband or wife.

The news on jobs this morning wasn’t great. MSNBC in an article entitled “Jobless Rate soars to 8.5%” reports that approximately 633,000 jobs were lost in March, bringing unemployment to its highest rate since 1983.  Despite the continued job losses, we want to remind people that there are many companies out there hiring reliability engineers, vibration analysts, infrared thermographers, NDT technicians, lubrication analysts, planners and schedulers and maintenance managers.  To help you out, we are providing some links to available jobs for reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals.  Take a look at these:

• Resource Tek, a placement firm is advertising for a vibration analyst in Arkansas
• Covidien, a health care firm is looking for a Sr. Maintenance Engineer for its St. Louis facility.
• Parker Hannifin has an opening for a Reliability Engineer at its Elyria, Ohio location.
• Maintenance Strategies has several predictive maintenance technician positions open in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
• Bayou Tester has multiple NDT Level II RT positions available.  For these you need to be willing to work both onshore and offshore.
• Allied Reliability has multiple positions currently open.  This includes an Infrared Analyst in Bartow, Florida, Uncle Sam, LA, and Carlsbad, New Mexico.  Also in Carlsbad it has opening for a Predictive Maintenance Lead Analyst, a Vibration Analyst and a Reliability & Predictive Maintenance Manager

These are just a couple of the jobs out there for reliability engineering and predictive maintenance professionals.  A search of job boards like Reliability Web’s Reliability Resume, the SMRP Job Board and Plant Services will find you many more. Come May 1st, vibration analysts, infrared thermographers and reliability engineers will only need to go to one place – NextUp Careers!  Its only 27 days and counting until we launch.