Alyssa Scaminaci

EE 294
9 September 2018
Competency Survey Reflection

To be completely honest, I really didn’t know all the competencies or even how many there

were. I did not know that were 80 competencies that focuses on everything from interactions to

personal work. The one that I found most important is that we are taught the current engineering

tools which would help us transfer smoothly to the workforce. The others did focus on

interactions with other people and even other diversities. A lot of the competencies talk about

effectively solving problems with proper communication while respecting others. Personality is a

key component an employer would be looking for in candidates. One competency is to learn how

to handle working with customers and receiving feedback which is crucial when working at a

company. It is really great to know that Iowa State wants to focus on the person and not just the

student. The other competencies are the more technical ones that include being able to plan and

organize in order to accomplish a task at hand. I am glad that I know Iowa State focuses on

creating well rounded motivated students. These competencies do help explain why the

engineering program has us take classes outside of our major. They want us to have more

knowledge on various items which helps makes us more marketable and will probably make us

more skillful. One could take a programming class and that could very well help us in a future

job. It makes it very easy to talk to employers because we don’t have to explain and prove that

we are getting a great education. That way all of our attention is to just show the employer that

we personally can do a great job when entering the work force and maybe their company. This is

very useful information because it lets us have the confidence that we are getting the right

education that focuses on the items that will help succeed. Iowa State wants to make sure that the
students know what to wear and say to look professional. This will help because the major goal

is to a get job and these competencies are the stepping stones to our future. The other crucial

thing that we have learned is the STAR method. The STAR method is a great system to use to

answer an employer’s question to showcase your talent. The only thing that they want to hear.

They only want to hear what the situation was, what the task was at hand, the action taken, and

the result. It is the most effective method to use at the career fair and in interviews. This will help

us to appear to be the best candidate we can be when we enter into interviews. I am really glad

we got to do this survey. I really feel that I have a new perspective and appreciation on my

engineering education.