CPACE Primary Research: Draft Employer Interview Protocol
Goal is to have both an HR and Engineering Manager involved in the interview, if the company is large enough to have both.
This will allow each to answer questions that the other may not have enough information to answer.
Demographics
(This information is intended to be filled out by the interviewee before the interview via a web-based survey tool)
Employer Name:
Interviewee Name:
Interviewee Job Title/Position:
Employer type: Please choose one.
- Academic ________
- Government ________
- Private sector_______
What's the zip code for this location: ____________________
What is the total size of your company? Please choose one.
Small (5-199 Full Time Employees) _____
Medium (200-999 Full Time Employees) ____
Large (1000-6999 Full Time Employees) ____
Huge (7,000 or more Full Time Employees) ____
What is the estimated annual revenue of this location? ________
What industry is your firm part of? Please check any that apply.
- Aerospace _____
- Agriculture/foods _____
- Alternative energy _____
- Bio-based products _____
- Bio-medical _____
- Chemical ______
- Civil _____
- Computer/software _____
- Construction _____
- Electrical _____
- Electronics, except computer ______
- Environmental _____
- Health and safety _____
- Industrial _____
- Marine/naval ______
- Mechanical ______
- Mining and geological _____
- Nuclear ______
- Petroleum ______
- Work environment _____
What type of work does your firm specialize in? Please choose one.
- Design ____
- R&D____
- Manufacturing ____
- Construction _____
- Other (please specify) _______________________________________________________________________
Which of the following best describes the market of this location? Please choose one.
- local ___
- state ___
- multi-state ___
- national ___
- international ___
How many engineers does your company employ? We are defining an engineer as someone who holds at least a four-year degree in engineering. ________
How many engineering technicians does your company employ at this location? We are defining an engineering technician as someone who has at least an associate / two-year degree in engineering technology. _________
The occupations below correspond to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
occupational classifications. For our purposes, we are defining an
engineer as someone who holds at least a 4 year degree in engineering,
and an engineering technician as someone who holds at least an
associate/two-year degree in engineering technology. We recognize that
some companies use the term engineer more broadly, but we would ask you
to keep these definitions in mind for your answer. For each of the
occupations I listed, please indicate if your firm employs workers in
that occupation, and if so, how many total employees you have in that
occupation at all levels.
Engineering Managers |
Yes No |
## _____ |
Civil Engineers |
Yes No |
## _____ |
Computer Hardware Engineers |
Yes No |
## _____ |
Electrical Engineers |
Yes No |
## _____ |
Chemical Engineers |
Yes No |
## _____ |
Mechanical Engineers |
Yes No |
## _____ |
Civil Engineering Technicians |
Yes No |
## _____ |
Electrical Engineering Technicians |
Yes No |
## _____ |
Mechanical Engineering Technicians |
Yes No |
## _____ |
Manufacturing Engineering Technicians |
Yes No |
## _____ |
Industrial Manufacturing Engineering Technicians |
Yes No |
## _____ |
The next sets of questions are about your organization's demand for
entry-level engineering employees. When we talk about entry-level jobs,
we are specifically interested in jobs where you are are hiring newly
graduated applicants, either at the 4-year or 2-year level, not jobs
that require education and previous work experience. We would like you
to respond for each category of entry-level engineering job. (Note to interviewer - list only those they've said they employ in previous question.)
What
is your company's current hiring demand for the following types of
entry-level engineering employees? Please check High, Medium, Low, or NA
for each category.
High (More open jobs than applicants); Medium (Jobs roughly equal to
applicants); Low (Lots of qualified applicants for few jobs); NA (Do not
hire)
Job Categories |
High |
Med |
Low |
NA |
Civil Engineers |
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Computer Hardware Engineers |
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Electrical Engineers |
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Chemical Engineers |
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Mechanical Engineers |
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Civil Engineering Technicians |
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Electrical Engineering Technicians |
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Mechanical Engineering Technicians |
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Manufacturing Engineering Technicians |
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Industrial Manufacturing Engineering Technicians |
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Does
your company project notable changes in hiring demand for any of these
entry-level positions in the next three to five years? Please check Increase, Decrease, or NA for each category.
Job Categories |
Increase |
Decrease |
NA |
Civil Engineers |
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Computer Hardware Engineers |
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Electrical Engineers |
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Chemical Engineers |
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Mechanical Engineers |
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Civil Engineering Technicians |
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Electrical Engineering Technicians |
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Mechanical Engineering Technicians |
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Manufacturing Engineering Technicians |
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Industrial Manufacturing Engineering Technicians |
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What
are your current educational requirements for these entry-level
positions? Please check level of education for each category. HS= High
School Diploma; AA=Associates; BS=Bachelors of Science
Discussion on 4/9 to block out the options that are not applicable
Job Categories |
HS |
AA Degree |
Some College |
BS Degree |
More than BS |
Other |
Civil Engineers |
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Computer Hardware Engineers |
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Electrical Engineers |
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Mechanical Engineers |
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Chemical Engineers |
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Civil Engineering Technicians |
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Electrical Engineering Technicians |
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Mechanical Engineering Technicians |
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Manufacturing Engineering Technicians |
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Industrial Manufacturing Engineering Technicians |
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For
entry-level engineering technicians, do you anticipate the educational
requirements changing in the next be three to five years? To what level?
Please check level of education for each category. HS= High School
Diploma; AA=Associates; BS=Bachelors of Science
Discussion on 4/9 to block out the options that are not applicable
Job Categories |
HS |
AA Degree |
Some College |
BS Degree |
More than BS |
Other |
Civil Engineering Technicians |
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Electrical Engineering Technicians |
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Mechanical Engineering Technicians |
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Manufacturing Engineering Technicians |
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Industrial Manufacturing Engineering Technicians |
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Introduction
(Note - The interview questions will be sent to the interviewee(s) ahead of time to help the prepare for the interview)
Good morning/afternoon. ((Interviewer Script))
The CPACE project is a partnership with Michigan State University
(MSU), Lansing Community College (LCC) and the Corporation for a Skilled
Workforce (CSW). The project's goal is to design and implement a
process to create a collaboratively-defined undergraduate computing
education within the engineering and technology fields that is in
alignment with the computational problem-solving abilities needed to
transform mid-Michigan's economy and workforce.
Before we get started, I want to just quickly go over the goals of
this interview. We are reaching out to companies to learn more about the
skills they need from newly graduated engineers and engineering
technicians. In particular, we are focusing on computational skills. By
computation skills we mean using computers to analyze, design, model or
make decisions as part of the engineering practice. For a number of the
questions I'll ask today, I'll be asking you to think about your needs
3-5 years out. This is because we are collecting data to use in
redesigning curriculum, which is a long-term process.
As indicated when we set the interview up, we expect this interview
to take around 45 minutes to complete. I'm going to start off by asking
some general questions about your company and its engineering jobs. Then
I'll ask you some more specific questions about the kinds of
technologies your engineering workers use. Do you have any questions
before we begin?
(Note to interviewer - review demographic question and ask for clarity at this point if needed.)
Talent
What
are the core engineering-related jobs in your business? These aren't
necessarily the jobs where you have the most openings - although they
might be - but the ones where vacancies or skill gaps really hit your
bottom line?
Do you have difficulty filling entry-level engineering-related job openings that are filled with new 2 year or 4 year grads?
- For what type of engineering positions?
- For what type of technician positions?
- What do you perceive as the problem?
Is your company moving away or towards entry level engineers or a certain type of entry level talent?
Besides
formal education, what other qualifications are you looking for in
applicants for your entry-level engineering-related positions?
How important are computational skills for these particular positions?
- How do computational skills compare with other qualifications?
- How do you determine whether applicants have these computational skills at the necessary levels?
Please rate the college graduates you have hired in terms of the following computational skills (5 Excellent - 1 Poor)
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5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
n/a, other |
Ability to understand when and why to use the computational programs your firm uses most |
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Technical ability to readily use and apply the computational operations using the programs/tools firm most uses |
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Ability to creatively and independently use
computational capacities of the programs/tools firm most uses in ways
they were not trained to do.
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When you hire a new grad, when it comes to computational skills, which statement best applies to your typical experience?
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Expect and can find |
Expect but can't find |
Prefer but can develop |
Prefer but difficult to develop |
Don't need |
Other |
Ability to understand when and why to use the computational programs |
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Capacity to readily use and apply the computational operations using the programs/tools your firm most uses |
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Ability to innovate and think beyond computational operations of the programs/tools your firm most uses
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Up
until now, we've been talking about your current hiring trends and
practices. Looking three to five years out, what entry-level
engineering-related positions do you think will be in most demand by
your company?
- How will the qualifications for these jobs differ from those of the jobs currently in demand?
In what ways does your organization provide information about computational skill requirements to college and universities?
- We participate on education & training advisory committees
- We participate in curriculum development
- We participate in job shadowing & mentoring programs
- We participate in internships/co-op opportunities for students.
- No participation
- Other, please explain.
Technology
What are the effects of technology on your company and your industry?
- How are you being impacted by new technology?
- Can you give specific examples of new technology that is changing your industry?
- How do you anticipate technology changes affecting the computational skills you will need in your workforce in the future?
Specific Technologies
Interviewer instructions: Present interviewee with a paper copy
of the list of categories below and ask them to list software used by
categories, letting them select the category in which they list the
software. Reference example list if interviewee is uncertain about a
particular category.
What are the types software that your entry level engineers use on a regular basis?
Engineering Specific Technology Categories |
What is the actual software being used? |
Check if named as one of the top 2-3 most important pieces of software. |
Analytical or scientific software |
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Compiler and decompiler software |
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Computer aided design CAD software |
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Computer aided manufacturing CAM software |
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Data base user interface and query software |
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Development environment software |
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Enterprise resource planning ERP software |
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Industrial control software |
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Map creation software |
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Object or component oriented development software |
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Program testing software |
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General Technology Categories |
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Document management software |
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Financial analysis software |
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Graphics or photo imaging software |
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Information retrieval or search software |
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Internet browser software |
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Inventory management software |
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Materials requirements planning logistics and supply chain software |
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Requirements analysis and system architecture software |
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Operating system software |
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Pattern design software |
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General Purpose Software |
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Presentation software |
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Project management software |
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Accounting software |
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Microsoft Office suite software |
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Spreadsheet software |
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Time accounting software |
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Video creation and editing software |
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Electronic mail software |
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Desktop publishing software |
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Of
the software you listed above, which 2 or 3 are the most
mission-critical or important to your company? We recognize that email
and Excel might be really important to getting the job done, but what
we're most interested in are the ones that are crucial to your company's
competitive advantage in the marketplace.
For the 2 or 3 programs you mentioned, how do engineers use this software in your company?
- What are the engineering tasks that the software supports?
- Do all levels of engineers use the software?
- How do entry-level engineers use the software?
How has this software changed the nature of engineering work for your company's engineers?
- What does the software enable engineers to do that they cannot do without using the software?
- About what percentage of the work-week would you estimate is spent using these programs/software?
How do entry-level employees learn to use these programs/software?
What are the prerequisite skills that employees need to use these?
How do new engineers learn to use these programs/software?
Looking
into the future, are there new software programs and technologies that
you expect will become important to your business? (Things that are
currently considered cutting edge, but that will become critical to
getting your work done.) If so, what are they, and how do you anticipate
those changing the computational skills you expect from your
entry-level employees?
In
what ways do any of the software programs used by your engineering and
technical staff encapsulate or capture the engineering and design
knowledge of your company?
- For example, software may not only be used by individual
engineers to design components, but may consolidate and merge these
designs into a larger project and may support the collection of bids
from vendors.
- What knowledge or skills do your engineers need to have to leverage these tools?