As a reliability engineer or a predictive maintenance professional, it is important to attend industry related events, such as conferences. Not only do these events provide important industry related information, but they also provide you with a great opportunity to network. Networking is an excellent way to advance your career in reliability or predictive maintenance. You can network in a variety of settings and situations. You can network at conferences, at social events, you can network as a full-time employee as well as an intern.

The top 10 networking tips to remember are: 

1. Keep in mind networking is about being genuine
2. Ask yourself what your goals are in participating in networking
3. Visit as many groups as possible that spark your interest
4. Hold volunteer positions in organizations
5. Ask open-ended questions
6. Become known as a powerful resource for others
7. Have a clear understanding of what you do and why, for whom, and what makes your doing it special
8. Be able to articulate what you are looking for and how others may help you
9. Follow through quickly and efficiently on referrals you are given
10. Call those you meet who may benefit from what you do and vice versa

If you are just starting out in a reliability career or a predictive maintenance career, these networking tips can help you advance your career to where you want to be. It is also important to remember that you are never too old or too young, to start networking. Once you have established some contacts through networking, it is time to build a relationship with those contacts because you never know when they might be useful for you to have.

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Although many companies say they care about their employees’ professional development, the truth is that the responsibility fall on the individual. With the job market as it is today, it is even more important for people to plan out their career path. Reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals should know how to reach news points in their careers as well as how to keep moving along your intended career path.

The 9 most important career planning tips are:

1. Never Stop Learning
2. Ask, Listen, and Learn
3. Fulfill Your Current Job
4. Build Your Network
5. Identify Your Current Job
6. Identify Your Next Job
7. Prepare Yourself
8. Pick the Right Tools
9. Realize Your Dreams

For a reliability engineer or predictive maintenance professional, NextUp Careersprovides services to help you pursue your career goals. With an active job board, you are sure to find the job you have been waiting for. And if you need assistance with your resume, take advantage of NextUp Careers Resume Lady. You’ll be one step closer to finding you perfect job!

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Fired Network is a business networking community that caters to those who have found themselves jobless and may be considering a professional change. Two careers that many people seem to be unaware of are reliability engineering and predictive maintenance. Fired Network is similar to LinkedIn, but the founder, Matthew Pizzi, says the difference between the two is that Fired Network, “revolves around a resource wiki.” There are over 1,500 information items that have been researched and posted by the Fired Network team, and members can add their own resources as well. The site gives free information to its members ranging from head-hunting firms to venture capital firms to graduate school test preparation. A more in depth article can be read at Cheezhead.

Considering that many people do not know anything about the reliability and predictive maintenance fields, this network may be a good opportunity to spread the word about the industries. For the people who are looking to make a career change, having more knowledge on reliability and predictive maintenance careers may provide them with another possible career path. Reliability engineering jobs and predictive maintenance jobs are out there, people just need more knowledge about the industries!

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With the future of the economy still up in the air, more and more people are finding themselves back on the job market, unfortunately there are fewer jobs available. The manufacturing industry is just one industry that is being hit hard in the United States. The decrease in manufacturing plants effects many people in the reliability and PdM field. Resume Lady has posted the following 7 tips for people going through the interview process. 

• Tip 1:  Plan Ahead
• Tip 2:  Role Play
• Tip 3:  Eye Contact
• Tip 4:  Be Positive
• Tip 5:  Adapt
• Tip 6:  Relate
• Tip7:  Encourage

The competition is growing between people for PdM and reliability engineering jobs, make yourself the best possible candidate by following the interview tips provided. Visit the Resume Lady to read more about these interviewing tips.

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Talecris Biotherapeutics is a global biotherapeutic and biotechnology company that has just launched a Total Process Reliability initiative. They believe they have found the answer to transforming the equipment failure rate of a 21 day average to 415 days. The Total Process Reliability initiative is a comprehensive training program with an emphasis on equipment stewardship and a systematic approach to increasing employee engagement. Talecris sees this program as an ideal approach to solving equipment problems. The Talecris article is posted on the Maintenance Technologywebsite and goes into more detail of the Total Process Reliability initiative for those that are intrigued.

The Total Process Reliability has many other aspects to it, like building a new culture, dealing with change and challenges, and training leaders. Talecris seems to be on the right track in recognizing that reliability engineering is crucial to their organization. Reliability engineers and predictive maintenance are aways to help companies avoid equipment problems that usually lead to production issues. Although I think that this a positive step for Talecris Biotherapeutics to be taking, the I would guess that the cost of training their own employees to due the routine equipment tests and maintenance must be high. Which leads me to believe that it would be more beneficial to organization to hire a reliability engineer or predictive maintenance professional to do the job.

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Predictive maintenance professionals and reliability engineers who are currently looking for jobs may decide to use twitter as a resource. An article posted on the Society of Human Resource Management website discusses what seems to be the newest way recruiters are finding candidates. Although Twitter has gained popularity since its launch, the facts are that 10 percent of tweeters accounted for 90 percent of last month’s tweets. So even though Twitter has an estimated 5 million users worldwide, only a small percentage understand Twitter enough to fully engage in its resources. However, if an organization understands how to use all aspects of Twitter, it can be one of the fastest and easiest ways to market. Mark Stelzner who started @JobAngels with a single tweet at the end of January 2009, now has a community of 20,000 people without having to do any formal marketing.

People looking for a job in the reliability or predictive maintenance field can get up-to-date information on Twitter. One group, @NextupCareers, is devoted to reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals. Even though Twitter has many job recruiters on it, NextUp Careers is a job board specifically designed for the reliability and predictive maintenance fields. Employers are invited to post job openings and potential candidates should post their resumes!

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An article entitled Fighting Spirit, published in Business West, is based on the launch of Paul Kozub’s new vodka label (V-One). Paul talks about the mind set some people have in regards to selling a product. He states, “a lot of people think you can just put a bottle on a shelf and it will sell itself.” This statement is true to all types of products and services. A good question for those involved in the reliability and predictive maintenance field is do they sell themselves enough? Even though these are important fields, many companies are unaware of the benefits of a hiring a reliability engineer or predictive maintenance professional. Paul Kozub also says in the article, “you’ve always got to be growing.” For a company to stay successful, it needs to expand their boundaries. A company should also grow and change with the times. The way reliability engineers did their jobs 10 years ago, is not the same as they do their job today.

Growth, change, and adaptation are important to all companies. However, they are even more important to companies that have a lot of machinery. Reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals stay up-to-date on new machinery or improvements to current machinery so they can better service their customers.

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