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Help from the Community requested....

Hi everyone


I have recently gained my CEng and volunteered to be the industry representative at Gartner UK.  I was wondering if any of you could advise on an approach to kick starting my role within Gartner Consulting?


I was thinking of arranging some 'brown bag lunches/lunch and learn/drop-in sessions' for our consultants so that they can come and find out what the IET is all about.  To do this though I would need some marketing material (which I gather I can order) and probably a greater in-depth understanding of the IET offer.  Are there any individuals in the Egham, Surrey area that could assist in a small event or just meet with me to help steer me in the right direction?


To keep in line with the INSPIRE - INFORM - INFLUENCE moto, I believe my role is to do the following:

- INSPIRE: inform colleagues who the IET is; why they should join the IET; and the benefits of joining

- INFORM: inform colleagues of the application process and facilitate help from other volunteer colleauges who do this regularly

- INFLUENCE: help broaden opinion amongst the IT consultant community that being a member of the IET is a good thing!!


Anyone able to steer me in the right direction


Yours

An eager volunteer

  • Teresa

    Welcome to the volunteer community. Your enthusiasm will be appreciated.  I think your overall approach is sound if you encourage conversations.  Informal meetings will help identify the level of interest and you can then develop further activity and support for questions that need more attention.  I can’t offer any local support but good luck with your efforts.  There’s plenty of support available.  I think there will be other volunteers who will be interested to hear of your progress. 

    Best wishes

    David
  • Hi Teresa, does you company have some kind of graduate training scheme? If so, I'd start by looking at how that aligns to the development of competencies needed for registration. Then talk to the people on that scheme, or who have completed it in recent years, and get them interested. Ideally get that scheme to extend on from (usually) +2yrs onto CEng registration as continuing personal development.     Best wishes, Brian (not in the Surrey area, either).
  • Hello Teresa,


    In all of the things you are looking for the IET staff and website contains a lot of information (once you have convinced someone to spend time to look!)


    Using your bullet points:

    - INSPIRE: Think about what motivated you to be a CEng? The same would apply to others! For IT professionals, the (natural) choice would be The IET or British Computer Society (BCS). Note that BCS is also part of Engineering Council and so can award IEng and CEng (just like IET). So what is the difference? I would claim that BCS is a "narrow specialist" field for computer scientists / engineers whereas IET is much broader and includes computer scientists / engineers. For you and your colleagues the choice as a consultant then becomes "narrow specialist" or "broader strategic" - not everybody wishes (or feels comfortable) to have a broader viewpoint!

    - INFORM: Besides the very useful IET website and the requirements set out by Engineering Council, within IET, the IET will have (I)PRA who can assist in the application process

    - INFLUENCE: The IET is consulted regularly by UK Government and through its association with many Engineering Socs. in many other countries as well! Hence IET = Global influence.

    Note: There has been a "debate" about what does "an Engineer" mean in UK since at least before 1970 when I joined the precursor IEE so would advise you to avoid this, except that in many countries you need to be a qualified engineer (CEng) to carry out related work - just like a medical doctor needs to be recognised. Hence you may face an uphill battle to convince someone what it means to be a professional engineer (irrespective of via BCS or IET)


    Hope the above helps! Good luck!


    PS: I am an IPRA (International Professional Registration Advisor)
  • Hi David, Brian and Kiritkumah

    Thank you for your responses, I wasn't sure how active the community was so feared I may be shouting in an empty room!! 

    David - I like the idea of taking the lead from the lunch&learns/drop-in sessions to then develop relationships and help target my efforts.

    Brian - Good call ref guaduate entrants, I am pretty sure they are intending to start recruiting younger consultants; however, I do know they have a graduate scheme for those joining as sales (selling Gartner research subscriptions) but they are not necessarily engineers.  I will go and find out. 

    Kiritkumah - thank you for your Inspire/Inform/Influence info, I will make sure I have an answer to the, "...so why did you join" question!!  The global nature of the IET will fit well with Gartner's global footprint.  We have offices across Europe and North America, among a few other locations - I would be specially interested in raising the profile of female engineers where I can!!

    Thank you for your help

    Teri
  • Hi Theresa,


    First of all, well done for asking this important question. It is easy to forget we all started somewhere and the shear volume of information and support available is vast.


    I like the informal idea of lunch bags and as my colleagues have already said much of value I will just add one more thing. Rather than just giving out information, marketing glossy's (real engineers really love those ha ha) and the like, perhaps also get some dialogue going on the following topics:


    1. What does a professional engineer look like ? - it is amazing that we don't often consider what professionalism means and so end up not spending time of the activities that will enhance us

    2. What do you (them) actually want ? - the IET is a broad family and there is so much available to help, support and enhance a lifetime in engineering. But what expectations initially do people have. Let that guide.


    Good luck and don't be afraid to keep asking ... it is a journey, not a single activity
  • Thank you Graham for responding to me.  I like the idea of using thought provoking questions to use in an informal setting - this could be quite effective.
  • Hi, sorry, just seen this thread :)


    We have an active local network in the Surrey area who I am sure would be happy to talk to you and give you advice. The can be contact at surreyln@ietvolunteer.org.