F1 Job interview

[mep]

It would be interesting indeed to learn more about Christian Horner's questions when interviewing Adrian Newey?

I can imagine it was in a bar after a couple of Vodka-Bulls.
Horner offered full command of the technical department and Newey was asking for a couple of Millions a year.

[monkeyboy1976]

Hello nyc8405.
I had an interview with Renault about 6 years ago for the same type of job (Model design engineer).
I failed to get the job (had another offer with more money and closer to home anyway. Although I am gutted that I missed the chance to experience life in F1).
Anyway, the main thing is that I can tell you what it was like.
To be honest, it was like any other interview for any other design engineer job. All they look for is design engineering talent. They are looking for the very same things that any other company outside F1 would look for. It is just that they have the benefit of being able to cream the best off the top due to the high interest they get for an open position.
So, my advice is to not treat it any different form any other interview. Sell your strengths and show enthusiasm. Don't get starry eyed and tell them that you've been an avid fan since you were 4 years old. They won't give a toss about it.

However, do make the most of waiting in reception and have a look at the trophies and cars if they are displaying some!
Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

Remember it's models you'll be doing not the real thing. Fixings and assembly etc.. will be differnt.

[Carlos]

Reference to Fausto Cedros identifying Mr Alan Jenkins. A Bing translated interview extract, circa 2008:
Mr Alan Jenkins, designers of various editions and new editions of the Desmosedici and guru of aerodynamics DUCATIS.
“ They speak a little of how the project is being developed, Ducati and a House so expert must control a lot of variables, having several options for the future, not necessarily radical.
There will be one or two new components in the near future; We build prototypes to see if the concept actually works. History of engines is full of great concepts that then have not worked.
Can't say anything about the GP9, if not that there's a bike we're currently testing that could become the GP9. Vittoriano Guareschi and Niccolo Canepa the are trying and developing and next steps you will see a short “.

Gives a flavour of definition for a model making job -at least in MotoGP - which is probably similar to an F1 modeling position. Generally supports many of the threads comments.

[czt]

How did it go then?

[mep]

I had in Ferrari some 10 years ago...
In the end, the economic treatment proposed was simply unbearable so i declined.

Hello nyc8405.
I failed to get the job (had another offer with more money and closer to home anyway...

...They are looking for the very same things that any other company outside F1 would look for. It is just that they have the benefit of being able to cream the best off the top due to the high interest they get for an open position.

Interresting that they can get the best guys but still don't pay them much.

[Richard]

mep - people tolerate less pay if the job is technically rewarding. It's probably a key feature of a vocational career like engineering. We value job satisfaction and tend to stay in jobs for longer. (compared to sales people for example)

I know that world leading engineering consultancies and architects pay approx 10%-15% less than their lower profile "commercial" counterparts. If you are an engineer and want to earn a better living, then leave engineering!

[Richard]

It would be interesting indeed to learn more about Christian Horner's questions when interviewing Adrian Newey?

Horner's only question was probably "tea of coffe?". After that he would be answering, not asking.

Salary would have been a factor, but I bet Newey was more interested in assurance of would get freedom to run things his way, plus investment in the design & technology.

[marcush.]

I cannot follow your reasoning there .
I can only get more money than others when I have something on offer that another guy has not but my employer is desperate to have.
In germany we are in desperate need of 70k engineers..so even Expensive with his "interesting" car preferences and bad swede attitude easily gets a job luring him away from the fjords to the krauts..
And look at me I got an engineering job even without being an engineer.. and paid as such.
If someone is willing to work his rear off just to be in F1 for peanuts ...thats alright with me but to think those who are the specilists would give a discount ..
I have to laugh mildly.
You get what you pay for ,at best. true in all the world.As soon as you got family your wife will tell you where to go in terms of working hours being abroad and salary like a untrained ... and rightly so.

[mycadcae]

how to design composite interview office.? tips-tips

[mep]

I cannot follow your reasoning there .
I can only get more money than others when I have something on offer that another guy has not but my employer is desperate to have.

It’s quite simple to explain because you already gave the answer yourself:

You get what you pay,

When you want the best engineers in your company you must offer them something. This doesn’t need to be just money there are many other things too.
Why you even want the best engineers you could also just take what you can get?
You work yourself as engineer, I am sure you noticed that there are big differences between.
I think a company can safe lots of money when they have good engineer even when they cost a bit more a month.

In germany we are in desperate need of 70k engineers..so even Expensive with his "interesting" car preferences and bad swede attitude easily gets a job luring him away from the fjords to the krauts..

Expensive is a very bad example for this because he keeps working for the same company and this is good so because otherwise I would know a couple of persons who have good reason to be very pissed.

Actually I am not sure if the lack of engineers + other qualified workers in Germany is so urgent like we hear it in the media at the moment. We already had the same lack of qualified workers before the crisis but during the crisis those companies kicked out the mans they had. Some even had a lack of engineers during the crisis but still didn’t hire or kept anyone. Now the crisis is almost over and they cry even more but what they do is not offering new jobs they take people from temporary employment agencies. Many times even the same guys they kicked out months before. Do you expect them to be very motivated workers?

So what are politics doing as they noticed the lack of qualified workers?
They go out and search them in foreign countries and possible even offer them some kind of special conditions when they come here. Sounds ridiculous for me and even makes me angry.
Why we can’t have qualified workers that grew up here?
Maybe because the schools here are not what they should be. Companies are not just complaining about a lack of qualified people they also complain about the idiots they get from the schools. Still politics prefer to take people from foreign countries than investing into the school system where science subjects got cut down. The problem is not even new. I can remember when they searched IT people from India many years ago.

[safeaschuck]

mep, It's amazing you talk about how Germany is undervaluing it's engineers.
I'm sure a lot of it is a hasty effort by British politicians to look like they weren't betting everything they had on the banking sector, but over here Germany is regularly quoted as an example of how a successful engineering sector should be run and why it is important to an economy. Do you feel it is in decline over there?
Obviously I'd like to see a broader range of jobs available over here, but I get the sense that things that we were previously O.K. at and have been badly neglected recently, like engineering, are being looked at as the growth opportunities that will rescue us??? If you guys aren't making jobs and money out of it, I can't see how we can.

[safeaschuck]

double posted, oops

[Moxie]

It would be interesting indeed to learn more about Christian Horner's questions when interviewing Adrian Newey?

There was only one question

[mx_tifoso]

Excellent thread revival, I read it all and a lot of things hit home with my newly begun career in IT.

And I have to admit to missing the past here at F1T, so many members are no longer present
.

[beelsebob]

mep - people tolerate less pay if the job is technically rewarding. It's probably a key feature of a vocational career like engineering. We value job satisfaction and tend to stay in jobs for longer. (compared to sales people for example)

I know that world leading engineering consultancies and architects pay approx 10%-15% less than their lower profile "commercial" counterparts. If you are an engineer and want to earn a better living, then leave engineering!

To back this up, this has actually been demonstrated that this is true pretty much across the board. Once you hit a minimum wage at which you're able to live comfortably, it turns out that job satisfaction, and interest count for far more in retaining employees than money.

That said, I disagree about "leave engineering" – there are plenty of good, high paying jobs out there that are also highly rewarding engineering positions.