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evaluation process to hire Pro/E users...

design-engine

design-engine

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I have been asked by an unemployment office in another state how will Design engine evaluate the success of a student after completing training. I have always had a feeling for this evaluation by what questions the student asks. Now I am asked to write up a formal evaluation process for what I have always done from feeling. My unwritten process has always been geared at "if I sat next to the student at a job (since I have contracted Pro/E for so long) by gauging from those questions how many hours would the student have?

How do you evaluate a Pro/E users when set to hire them?


The Design Engine grading system is not like the old academic system of A-F where A is 90 percent and D is fail.Instead we developed a system related to how hiring managers choose to hire designers with Pro/ENGINEER experience. So what we have devised is a sliding scale system that if you were a consultant/contractor/employee how many hours of Pro/ENGINEER would it appear like if you sat next to the instructor at a job somewhere. I have had contractors ask me "whats insert mode".Good thing they asked me... others would stab you in the back to your manager for that question.

the scale the hiring team might use:
1. Does the participant understand how to re-define a feature?

2. Doe the candidate understand how to redefine an assembly failure.

3. does the candidate understand top down design and can they set up a top down skeleton model?


Drawings...
1. Can the candidate use a drawing as a design tool

2 Ever released drawings or managed people who released drawings?

3 Cross section thru a part?

4 Does the candidate use Exploded states or basic explode.

[B}Manufacturing...[/b]
1 Is the candidate familiar with Plastics? Ever made a plastic part in Pro/E?

2 Medical? Ever worked at a medical company or is candidate familiar with Medical process/codes?

Icing:
1 Does candidate know Surfacing? Pro/Sheetmetal? Mechanica?

2 Ergonomic forms?


Depending upon how the student answers gives the hiring manager a feeling of how many hours a person has on Pro/ENGINEER.

If I am consulting at a company and a fellow Pro/E contractor asks me a question like "what is insert mode" I have a feeling that the guy must have under 200 hours on Pro/E. If he asks what is top down design... then I don't have such a bad feeling because people with over 8000 hours dabble in such things as top down design. If the person knows sheet metal or surfing at any level then i think they probably have over 1000 hours on Pro/E. See where I am going with this?

What other questions or criteria might a manager or team looking to hire use to weed them Pro/E folks out?
Edited by: design-engine
 
How well can they manipulate, redefine, and work with existing models?

Do they control resolve mode, or does resolve mode control them?

Do they construct their models with parent/child relationships in mind?
 
Do they understand the concept of robust models?
Do they use datums to control the geometry & for assembly constraints?
Do they know how to use relations at the feature, part & assembly level & know how many regens it will take for a change to propagate completely through?
Do they understand family tables & simplified reps?
Do they use shown dimensions & model parameters on drawings?
Can they create & redefine drawing symbols?
Do they understand drawing tables?
Do they know the difference between a drawing template & a format?
 
Bart,


Consider.....
<UL>
<LI>Knowledge of PTC online support, Knowledge base and help files. When they get stuck do they know where to go to get help.</LI>
<LI>Ask the candidate about a challenging design project they worked on and how they solved any problems.</LI>
<LI =Msonormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"><?:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:smarttags" /><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placeName w:st="on">PTC</st1:placeName> <st1:place w:st="on">University</st1:place></st1:place> also offers basic Proe testing for job candidate
 
It doesnt matter what it sounds like.. its still an interesting topic! I think judging anybody on a "time used " basis is pretty pointless though, although I guess its about all You can go on when at interview point.


I was dealing with a client this week who, as far as I know,has been using Pro-e for 5 years and states that he is an advanced user.I was asked to help out on a design they were working on. It was quite apparent to me that even though somebody has been using Pro-e for 5 years doesnt necessarily mean they know and use each part of Pro-e.


This particular instance I was asked to figure out " Why his offset sketch would not work ? ". I took a look at how He was trying to achieve an offset and He had NO idea about the way pro-e selects the offset feature. He was fully zoomed into a part and when clicking the particular part to offset He didnt realise that pro-e was infact selecting a complete extrusion located around his extrusion. He was working on it for an hour. I talked him through the " Next, Accept " process and hey presto it was fine.


The moral of the story ....


5 years or 1000 hours may not mean anything.... Give em a test !
smiley4.gif
 
I have to agree with Skint on the point that length of time in Pro/E doesn't necessarily mean higher skill level. I have seen people with years in Pro/E who don't know much outside their area of use.


I think you are going to have to test them. Either a standard model and have them recreate it, or an old fashioned paper exam style test.
 
take an engineer/draftman and ask about his daily tasks,

collect and give them to student to solve

100% confidence of what exactly tested person is able to do for You. Not less, not more.

Simple and reliable
 
I think I agree with skint, as I remember going to have an interview,


The employer or the interviewer was a straight forward guy, First he asked me about my experience in the mechanical and industrialfield. Then he pointed at the desk at which he was setting and he grab a door locker.


He told me.. "So Hazem, go ahead and do the modeling of this one". Of course, this was after he asked me about my experience in using pro/E.


First it was a shock for me to have a technical exam at the first interview. Nevertheless, I went on with the exam and to be honest, by that time I didn't know much about pro/sheetmetal and the whole locker should be created using sheetmetal module.


I did it using the part module. After 3hrs, the guy told me that I am ok but need more training which he told me that he will afford and he shocked me when he told me that the whole should have been created using sheet metal!!!!!!!


CONCLUSION: It depends on what kind of product they produce at work, sheet metal, plastics, etc.. and what kind of sophistication they need at the end: Mfg, assembly, 2d drawings 3d model, etc.....
 
As a contractor in 1997 at an aircraft seating manufacture in North Carolina where I worked with 6 or so contractors and 30 permanents. One of the contractors I was working with (raced motocross with his 12 year old) found a potential job right near his home. I think it was Erickson. later to become Sony/Erickson. Anyway, in order for this contractor to feel confident to get that job near his home, at night after work we worked together on surfacing. In so part of our exercises was... I showed him how to fix an IGES file full of gaps.

He got the interview right away, only they wanted a personal interview not one of those phone interviews seasoned contractors are accustomed. They wanted a administer Pro/E test. Now the stres is on! "What if they ask me how to heal an IGES file?", he asked me.

"Calm down, its no big deal" I exclaimed, "this is the kind of stress we want in life!" Only problem to practice we had to export from Pro/E an IGES file since we did not have Alias to play with there.

During the personal interview the manager asked the applicant to fix the gaps In Pro/ENGINEER.... in this IGES file. "You must know how to repair IGES files for this job", the contract agency told him... as that was one of the requirements to get this job.

Hardly anyone knew surfacing back in those days and hardly still don't.

After 30 minutes the interviewer came back and asked, "howz it going?", with a cocky tone of voice.

The replay was, "almost got it".

I wish i could have seen that interviewers face when the part was almost healed. And some nerve giving the IGES problem they needed converted into Pro/E in the first place as a Pro/E test... the project they wanted to hire him for in the first place. Luckily they hired him anyway.


This was not my first taste at teaching Pro/SURFACE but sure gave me the confidence to continue helping people ... especially to get that job.

http://www.proetools.com/testimonials/ericsson.htm
Edited by: design-engine
 
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