Interview Review
In the early 1980s, the Chinese government was promoting basic urban construction and as a result, the field of civil engineering entered a golden age. Primarily due to policies that were implemented, people became more interested in the field and it experienced a rise in its financial capital. After years of effort, China’s technology in the field of civil engineering became one of the best in the world. The managers and civil engineers undeniably contributed to this end. I intend to discover what kind of job the manager does and discuss the industry’s future development.
I feel very lucky to have had a chance to interview X, the vice president of a civil engineering school in Southwest Jiaotong University. X has been a manager for more than 4 years, and has been involved with civil engineering for about 30 years.
X was a top student in high school. Unfortunately, he didn’t do well in the University entrance exam. Initially, he chose civil engineering as his alternative major. However, after he graduated from school and got a job, he realized that the job is both significant and meaningful. He turned to love the job and became more energetic and involved with the field.
A manager is an important position in a company, and X thinks that the main characteristics a manager should possess are patience and endurance. Reaching the set goals is not an easy task as it is a time consuming process. You have to make sure your specialists are always on standby; set the plan before implementing a new project and finish your tasks step by step. X also mentions that the consensus surrounding a goal is another key point. The ideal thing to do is to not push your employee to do their job but to let them understand first how important their jobs are. However, there is no guarantee that every employee is able to meet the task requirement. If something wrong happens, he usually talks with their superior and lets him fix the problem. X mentions that people in higher positions are proven to be highly capable and have more experience. They possess the ability and responsibility to deal with the accident. When we reached this point in the interview, X mentions that a fully prepared and diversified procurement process will make a contribution to organization operations. The high potential of new employees helps increase the vitality of the organization and promotes competition with the older employees. X sometimes provides a job in the organization for his fresh graduate students; because he understands their capacity and that the best advantage for his students is that they are familiar with the operation.
In 2008, the Chinese populace suffered from a natural disaster. The earthquake killed about 70000 people with millions of victims losing their families and settlements. If people can be alerted to the disaster, even 30 seconds before an earthquake starts, everything would end up differently. After the tragedy, the Chinese government decided to build a national seismological laboratory. X and his colleagues made many efforts and finally won the project. The talented people are always hard to get. The quality of education and facilities are fundamental factors that people take into consideration when choosing their school. X thinks their second largest seismological laboratory has that capacity to attract many talents from other parts of the world. It provides the school with competitiveness and the cluster effect can help specialists to do research more effectively and efficiently. The main point is to provide a better environment.
With the government’s help, the civil engineering field is growing at a fast rate. China is now experiencing an age of urbanization. In the early 1980s and 1990s, due to the imperfection of government regulations and inadequate market mechanism, the building process did not meet the international standard. X mentioned that even if it is not perfect, the government already used to be able to achieve the best way to do their jobs.
The problem is now being solved as time goes on. The increasing number of high-quality structures with amazing appearances can now be seen standing before people’s eyes. X thinks that the civil engineering field is at its peak. They can build a 100 km highway in less than 3 months; a 60-meter skyscraper within 8 months; a 20 meters span bright in less than 4 days with quality guaranteed. Despite this, X mentions Western countries still has a lot to offer which they can learn from including structure design, material application, etc.
The development of civil engineering in the future has three main aspects in X’s view. Due to globalization, Chinese civil engineering organizations should not only focus on the home market. They should cooperate with foreign companies and share information with each other. They also need to bid in foreign projects. X believes that they have the price advantage if there is no regulation constraint. They can send their specialists there and collect the data then finish the design in China. As X mentioned before, the old building process may have some problems. The detecting techniques have the market. He says it is not to say that some structures like a house that is bright is not safe to use. Their concern is simply for safety and maintenance reasons. They have the responsibility to make sure that people are living in a safe place, using the safe infrastructure, and minimizing the social cost. The last aspect is more “traditional”. He explained that people should keep learning and researching. There is no perceived limit to academic development. The civil engineers should work with geologists, environmentalists, and social scientists in analyzing how to construct in a way that is more environmentally friendly. This should also enable them to analyze how to utilize materials with a lower cost but in a good quality premise. These are the things that people should improve on during the next few years.
After my interview with X, I practically started to understand the workings of the Chinese government. It is difficult to run such a big country without running into any mistakes. As X mentioned before, some old buildings are not perfect in trying to meet with the foreign quality standard. Presently, the Chinese economy does not make its people feel happy either. The Chinese government plays an important role in the market in that even if they don’t want to interfere, they will have to do it due to the current state of the economy. I hope I could be a person like X who is able to make some contributions to the Chinese economy.
Career Background
What made you choose management as a career?
What do you think are the characteristics that the manager should have?
What aspect of the job do you find most challenging?
How does this job enrich your life?
How would you describe your management style?
Goal seeking
How do you set your goal?
How do you make sure your employees are doing their job?
If someone makes a mistake, how do you handle it?
How do you coordinate the relationship between you and your employees?
Industry development
----The opportunities
----The challenges
---- Concern
Personal information
12. Considering you are both a teacher and a manager, what do you think is the difference between the two jobs?
13. How do you manage your time?
14. What do you do in your spare time?
