Let me share with you a short story, few days ago i have been asked from a client to recommend a Senior Planning Engineer to work in one Project in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, i made an advertisement in the job section in the website and start to receive jobs applications. Very good resumes i have received and i started the phone technical interview with the following questions:

1- Are you Expert in Orcale Primavera P6?
2- Are you Expert in Microsoft Excel?
3- Do you know what is Power BI, can you do some reports using it?
4- Have you developed an Extension of Time (EOT) or aware of claims delay analysis methods?
5- Can you do Professional Reports and dashboards?
6- What is Cost Loading? How to do this?
7- What is Resource Loading? How to do this?
8- How to import and export data from P6 using Excel?
9- What is Productivity Rates and How to use them?

To be honest, i was surprised that 90% of who claims they are senior planning engineers could not answer all the 9 questions above correctly. When i asked them why? Tell me why you reached to this stage of your career and you did not invest in yourself; the answer was we do not have much time to study something new. My answer to them, well good luck with your current situation because If you Change Nothing, Nothing will Change.

You need a better company to work at, better salary, and better life style right? This is the goal of most of us. But what did you do to reach this? A goal without a Plan is just a Wish!

The sad part of this story is the answer of one of the Planning Engineers i have interviewed them when i was asking him about the cost loading. His answer was yes, i heard one of your videos talking about this but i had no time to know more about it. Really! You are loading the cost directly to primavera p6 and then you forget what you did. How to verify your calculations? how to update your progress? how you are a senior planning engineer?

Although, i was upset from the 90% who could not answer my technical interview questions; but i was proud of those who were confident about their answers because they keep learning and developing themselves. Now one of those 10% will be hired for this job with better company to work at, better salary, and better life style.

Now What about You? Do you have a goal or just a wish?

If you do not know the answer of the 9 questions above, you may consider study the relevant course from the link below. If you are not sure which course relevant to you, send an email to: [email protected] and tell me which question of the above you need to know its answer and i will recommend the correct course for you.

Planning Engineer Courses