Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Graham Ross. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Graham, really appreciate you joining us to talk about a really relevant, albeit unfortunate topic – layoffs and getting fired. Can you talk to us about your experience and how you overcame being let go?
Over the course of my 40-year engineering career, I have changed jobs 8 times. My tenure at these companies ranged from 3 years to 12 years and several occurred while my wife and I were raising our children. Three of those job changes were my decision, related to career development, but the other five “departures” were involuntary for a variety of reasons. Two of the companies were start-ups that failed because of poor choices in the features of the products that they developed. I was laid off by the other three companies as a result of changes within the company that eliminated my position. Only one layoff was a surprise, as the writing was on the wall months in advance at the other companies.
In retrospect, it really didn’t matter why I left a company. When it was my choice, the gap between jobs was a week at most. When it wasn’t my choice, the gap was a a few weeks to 6 months but I was fortunate to always receive a severance package that carried me through. The common aspect to all my job changes was reaching out to my personal network of family, friends, and professional contacts to ask if they knew of a company, their own or others, seeking people with my skills. Once, my brother passed my resume to an engineering group who needed staff. Once it was a friend from college who was in marketing and connected me to the R&D department at her company. Once it was a electronic component distributor who introduced me to one of his clients. I have NEVER received a job offer by applying to a job posting or submitting a resume to the HR department. I have always found my jobs through connections.
The other vital aspect of finding each new job was being willing to re-invent yourself. Every time I took a new job, the new job was completely different from the prior job. For my first three jobs, I first worked on plastic molding for the automotive industry, moved to a job building guidance equipment for a spacecraft, then took a job designing an inkjet printer for the consumer market. At first glance, these would appear to be three wildly different markets yet I found the underlying skills and technologies to be remarkably similar.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
One of my long-time friends is deeply involved in the worlds of comic books, fantasy, and science fiction and he has convinced me that EVERYONE has a superpower, although most people don’t realize it. His personal superpower is making and maintaining connections with people and I believe that he can contact ANYONE on the planet through his network. My superpower is technology. In the course of my many jobs across widely disparate fields, I have worked with almost every technology there is – including niche fields such as cryogenics, class-10 cleanrooms, precision metrology, and medical disinfection.
I have found that my professional positions must include an aspect of creativity for me to be happy. The collision of my deep knowledge of technology and my need for an outlet for my creativity has guided me into developing new products based on new technologies, which then led into the world of patents, which is inherently based on doing things that were not previously possible, as well as the world of teaching in order to foster creativity and inquisitiveness in the next generation.
I am the quintessential engineer. One example of what excites me is taking on projects that that other people think are impossible. It’s a chance to apply my skill in problem analysis to identify the “key log” in the logjam of project objectives, constraints, and beliefs that is preventing others from moving the project forward. Once the key problem is identified, I can then consider what technologies can be applied and select one or more that can solve the problem. After that, I put on my project management hat to set the proper goals, issue clear assignments to everyone, and provide the necessary resources. With my best teams, the final step was to leap out of the way to avoid being run over by the team as they headed off to take on the project.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Personal relationships. A network requires care and maintenance – call everyone periodically so the connection does not wither.
Understand the fundamentals in your field. Learning only enough to pass a test is not enough. Rote application of a tool or technique is for drones. Creatively coming up with a new way to do something, or finding the well-hidden error while reviewing a design, requires a thorough knowledge of not only the “how” but the “why” that underlies the field.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
My academic advisor for my PhD was Dan Debra. The word “brilliant” does not even come close to being superlative enough to describe his knowledge and insight. He had served as the president’s science advisor, who overseas all the scientific projects funded by the federal government. He was brought in to review the design of the F-117, erroneously called a stealth fighter, as the flat panels made the aircraft inherently unstable and flying it required a computer that was programmed to compensate for the unstable aerodynamics. Dan was a pioneer in the control of unstable systems and I doubt that the F-117 would ever have flown without his involvement.
The most important thing that Dan taught me was that precision manual calculations are a waste of time in the world of engineering. The goal is to be able to instantly identify whether the answer is even close. For example, he would simplify an equation “1.4567 x 568.45” by rounding each number to one significant digit so the the equation was converted to “1 x 600.” The simplified answer of “600” is close enough to the precise answer of “828.06” when you only need to know that the right answer will be in the range of 100-1000 and that answers around “82” and “8280” are wrong.
Dan also extolled problem solving by turning the problem around. For example, if there is too much “noise” in an electrical signal, he would advocate considering the obvious solution to filter out the noise AND then turning the problem around to identify the source of the noise and eliminating the source. Maybe the problem was caused by a poor grounding design and it would be faster/quicker/cheaper to revise the grounding than to add an electrical filter to the circuit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://BlueSkyTA.com
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/drgrahamross
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