In today’s increasingly mobile society, even the job search can be accomplished simply using your smartphone, a few apps, and maybe a mobile web browser. This added convenience helps when you discover a potentially perfect engineering position on the go and you don’t have access to your desktop computer. A few finger presses and swipes and your résumé gets sent on its way — even with a cover letter!

Let’s take a closer look at smartphone résumé authoring and the mobile job process.

The Engineering Job Search at the Speed of Light

With a specialized discipline like engineering, HR personnel are beginning to see the advantages derived from the mobile job search. Weaning through potentially hundreds of paper résumés sent through the regular mail is a time-consuming process that siphons off productivity. So the job seeker isn’t the only one benefitting from the mobile résumé.

LinkedIn, Craigslist, and other online job forums also offer a means for HR and job hunters to virtually interact. Email, instant messaging, and even video chat services, like Skype all play their own role in fostering communication related to the job hunt.

A Wide Array of Résumé Building Apps for iOS and Android

A simple search reveals a wide variety of résumé authoring apps for both the iOS and Android platforms; LinkedIn even has their own app that easily connects with the service. Tablets also hold a usability advantage over the smartphone when it comes to any form of word processing or typography. Tablet users can leverage mobile versions of office software suites to put together a résumé, or even edit one created on the desktop.

Additionally, many apps connect to online services specifically formed to assist job seekers in résumé creation as well as helping to manage the job search. Zerply and ResumeBaking are two examples. With the growing popularity of these digital means for the mobile job hunter, the days of the paper résumé may be on their way out.

If you need any assistance in your engineering job search — mobile or otherwise — talk to the experts at The Talley Group. As one of the top engineering staffing agencies in the Seattle area, they have the knowledge — and the engineering job opportunities in Seattle — to ensure your success. Schedule some time with them today!

If your engineering career involves sales, with you spending time out in the field, meeting clients and trying to score that next contract, sometimes life can be a case of feast or famine. Either there is too much work for your team to accomplish in a timely manner or not enough to keep everyone in the office busy.

Here are some techniques you can apply to your sales efforts to help you earn more engineering contracts. Following this advice is a good way to ensure any downtime stays to a minimum.

Take an Active Role in the Client’s Decision Making

If you are faced with a client who has a difficult time deciding on what they want, find a way to inject your opinion into their decision making process. This involves walking a fine line without coming on too strong. See if the client has come up with their decision criteria, and share similar information from previous clients if you feel there are similarities to the current bid, as this helps to build trust between you and your client.

A Previous Success Story Always Helps

Clients need to know that going with your company is the right decision. Sharing a success story from a previous client also helps foster a trusting relationship between both parties. Use a story that relates to an issue at hand — for example, if the client is balking at the price, relay a similar concern from a previous client that ended up going well.

Provide Supporting Information

If there is a technical question related to the bid, share any relevant engineering information that answers the client’s query. Go the extra mile in providing any research and impact studies that support your conclusions on the bid statement. Once again, growing a level of trust plays a large role in earning your company that lucrative contract.

If you are looking to further your career in engineering, either in sales or not, be sure to talk to The Talley Group. As one of the leading engineering staffing companies in the Seattle area, they can help take your career to its highest level yet. If you are looking for engineering recruiters in Seattle, contact us today.

While Thomas Edison gets most of the attention as the “inventor of electricity,” George Westinghouse — someone with a famous name in the world of home appliances — contributed at least as much as Edison when it comes to the importance electricity plays in our lives today. Competing electrical distribution systems from Westinghouse and Edison fought it out for domination in 19th Century America, with Westinghouse’s AC system winning out.

Let’s take a closer look at this giant among inventors.

Westinghouse’s Early Life and Schooling

Westinghouse entered this life in 1846, in Central Bridge, NY. Being too young didn’t stop him from serving in both the Army and the Navy during the Civil War. He enrolled at UnionCollege after the war, but dropped out within the first year, finding that school didn’t inspire him as much as the process of invention.

George’s first invention was the rotary steam engine, earning him a patent at the age of 19. While not something he commercialized, it inspired a career interest in rotary power generation. Over his life, Westinghouse earned on average almost a patent and a half each month, with his railway patents seeing wide use, especially the air brake.

AC vs. DC

Thomas Edison’s plans for electricity distribution relied on a DC model which would require power stations every mile. Westinghouse developed a transformer that would allow AC power to be efficiently distributed, leveraging the help of Nikolai Tesla on the project in 1884. Westinghouse and Edison’s different approaches battled it out over the rest of the century, with the former’s solution still the basis of power transmission today.

Even though he lost most of fortune during the 1907 Depression, Westinghouse continued to invent until his death in 1914, serving as the President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as well.

If the constant invention of George Westinghouse’s life inspires you to take your engineering career to its ultimate level, talk to the recruiting experts at The Talley Group. Since they are one of the top engineering staffing companies in the Seattle area, they can help you and your career.

The emerging science of nanotechnology plays an important part in how engineering continues to change the world in which we live. These recent tends in nanotech are areas any practicing or fledgling engineer needs to pay attention to over the next few years. Expect nanotechnology to become a vital aspect in everyone’s daily life by the end of this decade.

Stronger Materials and Composites

Carbon nanotube-based technology allows the construction of stronger materials used in a variety of vehicles, including cars and bicycles, as well as in sporting equipment. Expect nanotechnology to improve your tennis racquet or golf clubs, in addition to the vehicle you use to get to the country club!

Improving Scalability of Nanotech Production

One thing holding back the growth in nanotechnology is the difficulty producing materials and products with nanotech at a reasonable cost. Advancements in the manufacturing process are expected to improve the scalability of nanotech production and therefore lower its overall price. If this process continues to drag out, the adaptation of nanotechnology will remain relatively slow.

Commercialization of Carbon Nanotube Technology

The continued commercialization of carbon nanotube technology makes it more likely that its manufacturing scale issues will get solved. “Advances will make the use of carbon nanotube materials even more compelling for mechanical engineers,” says David J. Arthur, CEO, SouthWest NanoTechnologies, a producer of carbon nanotubes. In addition to the advancements in vehicle and sporting goods technology, nanotubes will play a vital role in the areas of flat-screen displays and personal armor.

Nanotech Improving Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

Advancements in nanotechnology are playing a role in the development of energy efficient products that focus on improved sustainability. The previously mentioned vehicle technology innovations also are expected to lead to better fuel efficiency in addition to other enhancements, like more cost-effective construction.

Nanomedicine to Enhance the Quality of Life

The world of biomedicine is reaping the benefits of nanotechnology, for example the development of a therapy combining lasers and gold nanoshells to destroy cancer cells. Other innovations include nanosensors that improve the efficacy of hospital diagnostic equipment.

If you are inspired by the growing role played by nanotechnology in the practice of engineering, talk to the people at The Talley Group. Since they are one of the leading engineering staffing companies in the Seattle area, they can help steer your career towards working in the world of nanotech.

Organized competitions remain a great way to inspire the fledgling engineer. When they take place at the scholastic level, these competitions are able to show students that STEM education can be fun, and that a career in engineering is a goal worth striving for by both boys and girls.

The Mindstorms Challenge, a Lego Robotics Competition

Recently the 13th annual Mindstorms Challenge, a robotics competition featuring Lego toys, took place at Wichita State University. In addition to encouraging students to study their STEM subjects, the competition is also charged with promoting the principles of collaboration and teamwork. Those latter skills become highly important when engaged in an engineering career.

The students taking place in Mindstorms found that while building the Lego robots didn’t take too much time, programming the plastic devices involved a significant amount of effort. This year’s competition featured 31 different teams.

Wichita State’s School of Engineering sponsored the competition in collaboration with Spirit AeroSystems. “Kids come here [and] learn about some math principles that actually has application,” said WSU Professor Larry Whitman. Hopefully, today’s Lego robotic engineers will become tomorrow’s mechanical engineers.

Imagination Station Competition part of National Engineers Week

Another competition for students took place as part of National Engineers Week. This event, held at Toledo’s Imagination Station, involved the children designing and building towers made up of only old newspapers and masking tape. These structures needed to be able to hold the weight of a baseball while “towering” to the height of at least 18 inches.

Anna Kolin, Imagination Station spokesman, said the competition intended to teach children the principles of iterative design, construction, and testing. Each tower had to be able to stand while holding the baseball and standing up to the stress caused by a high-powered fan.

If you can remember fondly on the days when you first decided to be an engineer, these stories of youngsters dipping their toes into the engineering science water must inspire.

If you’d like to further your own engineering career, be sure to talk to the people at The Talley Group, one of the leading staffing companies in the industry. Their helpful recruiters can make sure your career stands up to the stresses of today’s market.

While nuclear power has the potential to solve many of the nation’s energy challenges, the risks are still wide-ranging. The disasters at the Japanese Fukushima reactor, the Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl still strike fear in many of the people responsible for making decisions on our energy future.

Nuclear engineers remain hard at work researching ways to make nuclear energy safer and a relevant part of any energy policy. They continue to apply the lessons learned at Fukushima and Chernobyl.

Engineers Devise System to Clean Contaminated Fukushima Water

A collection of engineers from the Washington-based company, AECOM, designed a system that helped to clean the contaminated water used to cool the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant. Kurion, the California company responsible for the project, choose AECOM to perform the engineering portion of the work.

They were able to design, build, and ship the system to Japan in five weeks; a similar project after Three-Mile Island took nearly 18 months to fully implement. Within the year after the tsunami hit the power plant, the Kurion system has cleaned over 36 million gallons of contaminated water.

Oregon State Engineers Develop a Nuclear Reactor that can’t Meltdown

The engineering students at Oregon State University developed a reactor they believe won’t meltdown, with the added benefit of a 30-40 percent improvement in energy output resulting in only half as much radioactive waste.

“You can’t get the thing hot enough to melt the core down so you’re really limiting the potential for these types of traumatic accidents that we’ve seen in the past with nuclear power,” said Brian Woods, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at OSU. Woods hopes the technology reaches a marketable state within the next 20 to 30 years.

Engineers once again prove that their innovation and ingenuity can make the world a better place. Do you want to improve the world through your engineering career? Talk the people at The Talley Group; they are one of the leading engineering staffing companies in the Seattle area, and they can help you reach your career goals.

A career in engineering doesn’t necessarily mean being tethered to an office and a desktop computer running a version of AutoCAD. In many cases, engineering entails a day spent out in the real world getting dirty. And in the case of “big” Bertha, it means getting real dirty!

Introducing Bertha: The World’s Biggest Single-Bore Drill

An example of something boring that is also quite exciting; Bertha is the world’s biggest single-bore drill. Made up of 41 separate pieces, with a cutter head that weighs 886 tons, Bertha sports a width of nearly 60 feet. This massive drill is currently being used in a two billion dollar project to build a tunnel for Highway 99 underneath downtown Seattle– from Sodo to South Lake Union.

When the Highway 99 tunnel project is completed in 2016, it will permit the demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. With that eyesore removed from the Seattle waterfront, the opportunity exists for new parkland development. But first they actually have to get Bertha tunneling underneath the Emerald City!

Starting Bertha on her Underground Journey

Just getting Bertha in place is a large engineering project in itself. Transported to Seattle from Japan, Bertha arrived, un-assembled, in late March. The drill’s parts are shuttled one by one at walking speed from the dock to a 100-foot pit where the final assembly is completed. Fully put together, Bertha weighs 6,800 tons — the same as 38 jumbo jets!

A figurative ton of concrete will surround the drill, keeping it aimed squarely at its final destination in South Lake Union. The concrete helps keep groundwater from flooding the drill, causing realignment. Additionally, beams under the Alaskan Way Viaduct are wrapped in carbon fiber to prevent tunneling vibrations from damaging the viaduct while it is still in use.

A conveyer belt system is being used to move soil from the tunnel project back to the dock area, where barges will ship it to a quarry. All told, this is a multi-faceted modern engineering operation.

Interested in working on exciting projects that involve something like Bertha? Contact the recruiters at The Talley Group, as one of the Northwest’s leading engineering staffing firms, they can help make sure your engineering career is never boring.

Andy Bechtolsheim is one of the greatest engineering alumni to ever attend Stanford University. The school recently inducted him into its second class of “Engineering Heroes,” a distinct group of 16 of Stanford’s School of Engineering’s finest.

Bechtolsheim created the SUN workstation and co-founded SUN Microsystems. He is also one of the original investors in Google. To say he has strong beliefs in the power of engineering innovation would be an understatement. He truly believes in the power of technology to enhance lives and create greater engineering marvels.

“What one can learn from the Apples of the world, the Googles of the world, the Amazons and the Facebooks, is that innovation is the essence of high technology and business,” Bechtolsheim said. “Over the years, the content changes but the underlying processes of how to focus on innovation, how to do the right things, don’t really change.”

In the early 1980s Bechtolsheim studied and created as an engineering graduate student at Stanford. He invented the workstation, a more affordable computer for engineers that mirrored the PC for an average American. It allowed engineers and companies to expand and innovate as they never had before, bypassing the hundreds of thousands of dollars they were spending on expensive IBM, DEC, and Wang mini-computers and mainframes that were the only option at that time.

The SUN (Stanford University Network) workstation was a 32-bit machine that allowed companies to run the same kind of programs they would on a gigantic computer on a smaller machine. It cost around $10,000 compared to hundreds of thousands. Because of this invention, Bechtolsheim was able to split his time between Stanford and XEROX PARC. Bechtolsheim and Stanford built and sold 15 of the workstations together before stepping aside. This was when Sun (a nod to Stanford) Microsystems was born.

Bechtolsheim maintained a strong connection with Stanford, the place that allowed him to birth his ideas and teach him the fundamentals he needed to succeed.

“I wouldn’t have done what I’ve done in my life, if I hadn’t been here,” he said. “Little did I know that I would come exactly to the right place where you couldn’t just learn about how to do this but you could actually then go off and start a company. I was very fortunate.”

Because of his connection to Stanford, Bechtolsheim was one of the first to see, experience and invest in what would be known as Google today. In 1998 professor David Cheriton invited Bechtolsheim over to see what his two students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had created. Bechtolsheim was immediately won over by the inner workings of Google search, remembering his experience in scientific research and publishing.

Page and Brin shared their revenue model of sponsored links and pay per click advertisements and Bechtolsheim was sold. He went out to his car and returned with a check for $100,000, made out to Google, Inc.

Bechtolsheim is a true engineering hero because not only did he create successful inventions, he recognized great innovations.

Contact The Talley Group finds the best positions for every engineering superhero out there. Call us today.

If you know someone that is looking to be an engineering hero, please refer an engineer today!