YOUNG ENGINEERS’ DEBATE INDUSTRY BODIES
Stephen Matthews (left) and Jairo Jaramillo
Some of the committees can be hard to break into – they are a bit of a clique and the institutions need to work on being more welcoming – Jolyon Thompson
said ASHRAE executive vice president Jeff Littleton. ‘That is why we send a lot of letters thanking employers for helping their engineers attend our meetings.’
Ruth Shilston (left) and Angela Malynn
Left to right: Morwenna Wilson, Jeff Littleton, Tom Watson and Jolyon Thompson
Win over the employers ASHRAE has set up a roundtable of 15 major US employers that will gather for the first time at the its Winter Meeting in Dallas in January. Littleton stressed that links with employers needed to be forged at a local level and the society intended to do this through regional chapters and its Young Engineers in ASHRAE (YEA) network. ASHRAE president Tom Watson said
his employer saw a clear economic benefit from his involvement with the society as a young engineer: ‘I got involved in the committees that were relevant to our areas of work – so it was quite a commercial decision at the beginning because I was a source of information for my employer. Then I got more involved in wider society issues and it grew from there.’ Involvement in voluntary work through
your professional body can be a ‘major CV enhancer’, according to Jolyon Thompson, a tunnel ventilation expert with Parsons Brinkerhoff and young member of the IoR. ‘However, some of those committees can be hard to break into – they are a bit of a clique and the institutions need to work on being
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more welcoming,’ he added. Morwenna Wilson, a recent CIBSE ASHRAE Graduate of the Year, said smaller employers were the key. ‘It is harder for them – most participants come from the larger firms that have the money and flexibility to be supportive – but most employers in our industry are SMEs and they need to see some benefit,’ said Wilson, who now works for King’s Cross developer, Argent. Employers value positive PR, according
to Ruth Shilston, vice chair of the IMechE Young Members’ Board. The IMechE monitors national and local press and reports back on coverage gained by young engineers that reflects well on their employers. If an employer is supportive, then a young engineer is more likely to feel loyal to them, according to Jairo Jaramillo, chairman of CIBSE’s Young Engineers’ Network (YEN) London Centre. ‘I would like to think that loyalty is not an archaic thing; my employer has supported me in my work with YEN and that makes me feel a sense of loyalty,’ he said. Many employers seem to fear that if they
invest too much time in a young engineer and give them opportunities they will leave. Jaramillo said it was better to invest in someone good and encourage them to stay, rather than end up with a less competent person who then can’t – or won’t – leave. However, IoR president Andy Pearson
November 2012 CIBSE Journal 33
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