During the Apollo program, NASA engineers had to do many things for the first time.
Engineering is a cool art. People usually expect engineers to know the answers to everything, or dominate all skills and technologies of their domain, and if they don't, they are not "good enough". Unbeknownst to us, that is the total opposite of what engineering is about. Actually, engineering is about knowing how to find answers and solve problems.
Contrary to popular belief, the name of this precious career doesn't come from "engine" (the guy in the engine room -> the "engine-er"), but instead it comes from the latin ingenium, meaning that an engineer is a person that invents solutions to solve problems. Hence a real engineer is somebody with such characteristics as creative, analytic, curious and a tester, having a never-ending will to try and discover new things.
Very often I find in my job as director of software development with two situations that make me reflect on the etymology of the word. First, when we are looking for candidates for a required technology and second, when a team comes up with a problem during software development. Let me take you through a deeper look at my process of thought to overcome them (as an engineer).
It is known to all us the high demand of software developers and the high dispersion of technologies available, making the task of building teams a little bit more difficult and requiring more attention. Developers are scarce, and the good talent is not with you because somebody else is paying them more, or they are even working from their home in the PJs and have no interest to join a company.
If you find yourself in this situation, then it is a good moment to find good engineers. Human Resources will present you the candidates that better fit, but it's not a perfect match, but then during the process you have got to find the potential. Maybe sacrifice experience for cost, or a framework for availability, but go for the hunger of knowledge. Ask questions like "what do you study in your free time", or "what was the latest beta technology you tested", or also "what was the latest project you implement on your own".
Let's imagine for a second when NASA was created in 1962, and needed to recruit thousands of engineers for the Apollo program. It would be funny to picture the job postings like this:
- Company: NASA
- Location: Houston, Tx
- Job Vacancy: Junior Aeronautics Engineer
- Experience: Must have 2 years working or research equivalent on projects related to rocket and space vehicles.
- Must have experience working on projects landing on the moon.
- Perks: Friendly workspace, can impact on human history and good life-work balance.
Needless to say, NASA recruited very smart and ingenious personnel that not only managed to research, learn and create rockets, orbits, processes and communications, but also integrate them with 400.000 other colleagues to take 3 guys to the moon and back, from scratch, and most of the times, having only one shot to get it right. It is enough to watch any non-traditional and moon-hoax-debunking video like this one to realize how big of a feat this was, or something about the missile-eyed John Aaron to get pumped about accomplishing any goal you have in mind.
The second situation is when a team encounters a big problem or bump. Aside from the motivation and right words for the team to push and solve, the customer, management, commercial and finance jump and rant about "how you guy's can't estimate properly", or "why wasn't this taken into account" and all the special quotes that take us to the world of a Dilbert cartoon (remember pointy haired?).
It is important to handle this situation by giving visibility that teams are not supposed to know everything, they cannot preview and account for all issues to encounter, and technology has it's own black soul that will squish your knowledge and make things not-work, BUT you are in the hands of engineers, they are the lost (and last?) artists filled with ingenium and hunger to find solutions and at the end of the day, they are smart enough create a survival action and deliver, and as we always have, and as we always will, and as we always do,.. we will solve for you (nice rhyme).
John Aaron - The steely-eyed missile man who understood "things" and made crucial calls during Apollo 11 and Apollo 12.
