VAULT
Selling One’s Services
In this excerpt of an article that first appeared in April 1935, a prominent engineer discusses the importance of communication and exercising sound judgment.
Written by William McClellan
A GENERAL FACTOR WHICH MY EXPERIENCE tells me is of more than ordinary importance is the ability to express oneself in writing and in speech, particularly the latter. It is really striking how few engineers can write well. A great many are deficient even in clarity of expression, not to speak of any ability to make use of striking illustrations drawn from other more familiar fields which would help impress the reader.
Too many engineering reports are deadly dull, in no way incisive; they are inconclusive, do not really demonstrate, and leave the non-technical executive or director, who perhaps must finally decide to spend or not to spend a large amount of money in a particular way, the task of digging out as best he can the answer which enables him to make his decision.
More important still is the ability to express one’s ideas clearly and forcibly in speech. After all, most great ideas are “put over” in oral argument. Engineers are notoriously unable to speak well, especially when on their feet I confess that this is often due to the fact that they, like men in other fields of activity, have really not mastered the particular subject they are discussing, have not clearly arranged their own thoughts on the subject, and of course cannot then express themselves well. Someone has said that if a man has thoroughly mastered an idea from all angles, he will have no difficulty in discussing it.
This is not the place nor is there time to give an elaborate exposition of this general subject of expression. I will say, however, that incessant practice is absolutely necessary.
The young engineer should aim to train himself better than the average in writing reports on subjects on which he has been working. Sometimes these need be hardly more than elaborate notes or summaries for his own benefit. Even though his conclusions have not been asked for, he would gain much by asking himself “What conclusions have I derived from my study?” and then attempt to express these.
In order to do this well, he will be wise not to confine his reading and thinking to purely technical subjects. Wider reading in other fields will not only give him facility of expression by way of forceful illustration but will also enable him to see his technical problems in their social setting much more clearly.
William McClellan supervised the layout and installation of a high-voltage substation and the car equipment for the Erie Railroad. He also worked at University of Pennsylvania as a university professor and dean. Photo: Library of Congress
An Engineer Must Exercise Judgment
For fine success in the engineering or any other profession one must prove that he has judgment. This is what the world really pays for highly. It may pay well for technical ability, but the highest rewards, both in position and money, come to those who prove that they have judgment.
The research worker in the laboratory can put his time on a dozen different things, but his success will come from his ability to decide among the dozen which will lead somewhere, which will accomplish something, and which are worth some time and energy expenditure. The salesman starting out in the morning has fifty prospects, but only five of them will result in a sale, and the success of that salesman depends upon his judgment in selecting that five to work on. Thousands of surgeons can actually do the mechanical work of opening and closing the body for an operation, but the great surgeon is the one who has judgment in facing conditions in connection with an operation and deciding upon the proper thing to do under some extraordinary conditions.
Any engineering problem may have a number of solutions, any one of which if adopted would not result in failure, but among these solutions there is always one or perhaps two that would be much better than the others. The decision among these, again, is perhaps, first, a question of distinguishing between nonessentials and essentials, and second, in relating all sorts of social and business factors to the technical factors involved. The man who impresses his superiors with the fact that he has this kind of judgment and strengthens his ability by constant thought on this subject is going to succeed far more than the man who does not develop this quality of judgment.
There is a current expression which you may have heard; namely, that technical ability is cheap, and I confess that in my long experience this is true.
In discussing selling one’s services, I have been really discussing selling oneself. I know a large number of engineers who have done this so successfully that they never have to hunt a job. They have established themselves by their human contacts, by their exhibitions of judgment, and by their exhibition of professional spirit, so that the job seeks them. They are known from one end of the country to the other. Many organizations would be glad to get them as full-time members. They are in a position to work independently if they have the necessary additional business qualities to maintain such a position. While preserving their independence of thought and action, they have learned how to fit themselves into any organization so that the whole machine gets the full benefit of their energy.
Engineers, like other professional men, are not supposed to advertise their personal qualifications directly, but, like all other professional men, they have all kinds of opportunities as they go through life to advertise themselves. By reason of their qualities and work so that their personalities stand out, they are inevitable candidates, without immediate pressure at the time from anybody, for various positions for which they may be otherwise properly qualified.
This question of selling oneself, of creating a personality, is after all the essence of selling one’s services.
William McClellan was president of the Potomac Electric Power Co. in Washington, D. C. He had also served in the U.S. Food Administration in 1918 and had been the director of public education at the Pennsylvania Council of National Defense.
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