I've recruited engineers in South East Queensland since 1999, and every year I ask hundreds of graduates, junior engineers and drafters the same thing: what would make your next role better? This year, the most common answer wasn't more money. It was having someone to learn from. If you've been feeling that too, you're not alone.
Key takeaways
- Early in your career, who you learn from matters more than what you earn.
- Juniors often leave within weeks when a senior mentor resigns, because they follow the learning.
- Ask four direct questions about mentoring before you accept any offer.
- Vague answers in an interview tell you something too.
- Own your learning: ask questions, take stretching work and find more than one mentor.
What juniors told me this year
These are four conversations from the past few months. I've left out the details, but every one of them is real.
The graduate running 12 projects. Every engineer who had mentored them had left the firm. They were managing a dozen projects with no one to check their work or answer their questions. They were good, but they knew they weren't learning, and that worried them more than anything else about the job.
The drafter with no one to teach them. There was one designer in the team, stretched so thin they had no time to show anyone anything. The drafter wanted to move into design but had no way to get there.
The engineer who paid for his own 12D course. He was tired of waiting for training that never came, so he paid for it himself and learnt at home. I admire that, but he shouldn't have had to. And then there was the engineer inheriting a mess: people had left without leaving their calculations behind, so he was working backwards to understand decisions he'd had no part in.
None of them called me because of their salary. They called because they had stopped growing.
Why the first few years shape your whole career
The first few years set you up for everything that follows. Who checks your calculations, who explains why a design works, and who lets you sit in on client meetings will shape the engineer you become far more than an extra few thousand dollars. The engineers I've seen build great careers almost always had someone who invested in them early.
Mentors move on, too. When a senior engineer resigns, the juniors in that team often start looking within weeks. That's not disloyalty. They're following the learning. So don't just think about the firm. Think about who you'll be learning from, and what happens if they leave.
Four questions to ask before you accept an offer
Find out about mentoring before you sign. These are questions worth asking in an interview:
- Who will I sit next to, and who will check my work?
- How do you hand over projects when someone leaves?
- When did your last graduate get promoted, and what did that take?
- What training have juniors done here in the past year?
A good firm will be happy to answer. If the answers are vague, that tells you something too. You can browse current engineering roles to find teams worth asking.
Take charge of your own learning
Even in great teams, seniors get busy. The juniors who grow fastest don't wait for someone to hand them a learning plan.
- Ask questions, even ones you think are obvious.
- Put your hand up for the work that stretches you.
- Learn the skills that open doors.
- Find more than one mentor.
If 12D or Civil 3D would get you closer to design, go after it. And look beyond your desk for mentors: a senior in another team, a former lecturer, or someone you met at an industry event.
A note for employers: mentoring is real work
If you're a hiring manager, protecting the time of the people who train your juniors costs far less than replacing them. When one senior resigns, two or three juniors often follow. The firms that hold on to their people treat mentoring as real work, not something squeezed in after hours.
Simone's original thoughts are on LinkedIn. Salary matters, but early in your career, who you learn from matters more. Choose your mentor, not just your job. If you're a junior engineer or drafter who has stopped learning where you are, send me a message. I know which teams in SEQ invest in their people.
- Recruiting engineers in South East Queensland since 1999
- Civil and structural engineering recruitment
- Building services recruitment
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