After having dealt with and presented aptitude diagnostics for engineers in general in the PREVIOUS PART of this series of topics, this one is devoted specifically to engineering-specific characteristics, i.e. the question of whether there are characteristics that typically make an engineer. Likewise, the question naturally arises as to whether there are qualities and, if so, which ones are responsible for success in one's career.
In this observation, one must identify both the personality traits that remain stable over the entire course of an engineer's career and those personality traits that develop extremely in relation to age and hierarchy. Only then can reliable statements be made about so-called typical engineer characteristics and also about a development of characteristics that are responsible for a successful career, a climb up the career ladder.
The basis for this was the approach of looking for personality traits that do not change across all hierarchy levels. These would then be characteristics in which the engineer still rates himself equally highly both as a starter in professional life and as a manager.
If the hierarchy is used as a basis for comparing the different traits, it becomes clearly visible that personality traits, such as reliability and the ability to cooperate, hardly change over the course of a career. But issues such as perfectionism and planning for incidents are also personality traits on which the engineer adopts the same attitude throughout his career.
The characteristics in Table 7.1. and Figure 7.1. represent the development from the lowest to the highest hierarchical level, which show the least changes. These characteristics are therefore least influenced by climbing the career ladder. It can thus be deduced that the characteristics shown are those that are characteristic of an engineer - from the perspective of climbing the career ladder, i.e. the development over time during his professional career - because they change almost nothing.
Regarding the personality traits
- Cooperation skills,
- Meaning and commitment,
- Incident planning,
- Irrational assessments,
- Perfectionism and
- Reliability
the attitude of engineers does not change and the conclusion suggests itself that with regard to these personality traits the adage applies: engineer remains engineer .
In the search for personality traits that are responsible for development and advancement on the career ladder, a search was now made for the traits that undergo the greatest changes over the duration of an engineer's career. For this purpose, the results of the engineers as specialists, project managers, department managers and division managers were compared with each other. It was found that there was a continuous development in the personality traits concerned across all hierarchy levels, so that it is sufficient to consider only the lowest and highest hierarchy levels in the presentation.
A look at the personality traits with the greatest changes from the lowest to the highest hierarchical level is shown in the table with diagram below. Examples are leadership tasks or willingness to take responsibility.
These characteristics (Table 7.4. and Figure 7.3.) show the greatest changes when moving from the lowest to the highest hierarchical level.
For example, the great change in interest in leadership tasks thus seems eminently important for successful development on the career ladder.
It can thus be deduced that the characteristics shown are those that hold the greatest development potential for an engineer - from the perspective of climbing the career ladder, i.e. the development over time during his professional career - because they change the most.
By comparing the development fields / potentials that emerge from the perspective of a temporal development ("hierarchy" cluster) and the other, time-independent clusters, thus static differences of the individual norm profiles, the following results:
One can create a division in Table 7.9. into the 1st order dimension "Professional Interests" and the 1st order dimensions "Commitment" and "Communication ". The former symbolises interests, as the name already suggests. As is well known, interests are something that cannot be directly influenced, but are intrinsically formed and shaped.
In the engineer, therefore, interests develop in the course of his career, which are awakened by climbing the career ladder and develop further and further to the point where there is a clear difference in characteristics when comparing the standard profiles of "specialist" and "business manager".
The situation is different with the characteristics of the other two 1st order dimensions "Commitment" and "Communication": They represent such areas that can be changed through training and further education. Thus, they can contribute to further advancement.
Within the framework of personnel development, the personality traits and areas of interest should thus be
- Leadership tasks,
- Marketing,
- Counselling,
- Sale,
- Initiative,
- Willingness to take responsibility,
- Enthusiasm and
- Persuasiveness
be particularly highlighted, addressed and further developed.
In summary, it can be said that for a successful career, not only the consistent personality traits are important, but also the traits that develop during the career. Only when both are taken into account does the chance of a successful career as an engineer maximise.
The next article on the topic of aptitude testing deals with norm and best practice profiles. These are needed to mirror any aptitude assessment. Do you know how norm profiles and best practice profiles are compared?
Image source:
Betz, Armin: Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz - "Ingenieur bleibt Ingenieur", German National Library, 2015, p. 165, 169, 174, ISBN 978-3-00-052093-8
About the author
After graduating as an automotive engineer and industrial engineer, he began his career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development and marketing and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.
He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing in Japan and South America and marketing strategy in North and South America.
In 1994 he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consultancy in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
With his doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics, he ideally rounds off his fields of competence, especially with regard to personnel and management consultancy. The dissertation deals with the identification and proof of typical personality traits of engineers as well as the definition of development areas for a successful professional career.
These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz".
At the same time, his focus is on building networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous further development of systems and processes in HR consulting.
Within the last 20 years in personnel consulting, he has developed several brands that are still successful on the market today.
