IEM@ProjectNetworking
- HEARTH
- Dec 7, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 22, 2021
Within the discipline of PIEGI, our group was challenged to interview an Industrial Engineering and Management professional. Because of the rules of this project, our team split in 4 groups. Luís and Gonçalo, Tomás and Catarina, Maria and Inês, Dalva and Luísa. Each group chose a different professional to interview.
Luís and Gonçalo
We decided to interview André Cruz, project manager at Farfetch.
He explained to us a summary of his path through university until finding and adapting to his first job as an intern at Bosch. He explained to us that, although the job at Bosch was a good one, he didn't feel a connection with it. Because of this, he decided to change the pace of his career. In 2019, Andre decided to leave the internship at Bosch and applied for a job at Farfetch. This job required some technology knowledge that André simply did not have, however, the abilities that André had made him stand out from the rest of the competition, making room for him in the company. Finally, André, unfortunately, couldn't explain to us about the software that Farfetch uses daily. For that reason, we had to contact another professional to answer these questions (for privacy reasons we are not able to disclose this information).
In the end, we believe that this project was a learning experience for both of the members involved. We had the chance to talk to someone who already has some experience in their future area of work which is not only helpful but not something that happens often.
“We are grateful for this challenge, we have created new bonds with someone that already is involved in big projects and a well-known company and this can, and will be, something really important in our future as engineers.”
Tomás and Catarina
We decided to interview Rita Castro, a stock manager and sales analyst, of the company Aldo Shoes.
She explained to us a summary of her path through university until finding and adapting to her first job in Bosch. Also, she told us how she contributes to the optimization of the processes at Aldo, and although all companies have the same base, so to speak, of logistics, planning and production management, each company is unique, as it has its processes. Finally, she told us which program Aldo Shoes uses, Infinity Solutions For
Retail, that allows the company to manage its stocks.
So, we believe this was a wonderful experience because we could learn more about how companies work, what kind of job an industrial manager can do and especially, how important they are for companies nowadays. Without their work, companies would be doomed to close. Actually, in this interview, we started to see the relationship between all the stuff we still have to learn and how we can use their logic to applicate all the knowledge acquired in concrete contexts.
Maria and Inês
We decided to interview Ricardo Portela. Despite not having a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management, he is currently an industrial director at bysteel and administrator at bysteel fs.
His experience in the job market and his regular interaction with professionals licensed in our course, allowed him to answer all our questions without any difficulty.
He considers that our course is extremely sought after nationally and internationally, being related to any function in the industry.
Besides that, he explained to us how the company works in terms of data storage and processing, that is, the software used.
We feel very grateful for having this opportunity, of talking with professionals in our area, because it provided us with a different perspective of work, which was very interesting.
After this task, we are clearly more elucidated about the job market in engineering and industrial management, so it was very educational and interesting.
Dalva and Luísa
We interviewed 2 engineers, engineer Carla Santos and engineer Jorge Cruz, both working at Continental, a company that manufactures vehicle tires. Engineer Carla is a production supervisor, as she heads a team of engineers focused on continuous improvement of the production process and other aspects related to project management. Engineer Jorge is part of that team, as a production coordinator, and his tasks are directed to the calculation of setup time, that is, the calculation of the period in which production is interrupted so that the equipment can be adjusted, reconfigured for input new products or for preparing and changing tools used in production. During the interview, the engineers were very helpful, since they not only answered all the questions asked but also gave us great advice that we will always take into account in our professional future. We both feel that this interview brought us many advantages, as they gained knowledge about the functions of engineers in our area and really understood the importance of an industrial engineer in a company.
As a team, we believe that this project was helpful in countless ways. For the first time, we were able to contact workers in our future area. Each one of us had the opportunity to let our curiosity strike and enjoy the information these professionals had to offer.
Each individual had a different view on what the world of an Industrial manager and engineer looked like, because of that we were able to see and learn from various points of view. This made us more open-minded about the possible outcomes that this degree might be able to provide. Now, we are more knowledgeable about our future and we have created connections with professionals from our area of work.
We are also grateful and want to thank our teachers since they provided this opportunity and showed us a little bit more of what our future might look like.
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