 Michael Gatz
Supervising Engineer
Caterpillar Incorporated
Peoria, IL
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 B.S. -
Electrical Engineering, Valparaiso University
M.S. -
Electrical Engineering/Business Administration, Bradley
University |
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Supervising Engineer
focused primarily on software development. |
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"Look for summer
work that is different and challenging. Especially valuable is
work that requires working with customers." |
Gatz:
"You shouldn't go to work someplace where you're not going to have fun,
where you're not going to enjoy what you do. And to me, finding new ways
to solve problems every day and to make it better and beat that
competitor, that's the thrill of the chase. That's what brings me into
work every day."
Michael Gatz loves the competition, and, as a supervisor for Caterpillar,
he hires people who have an appreciation for it too. He explains,
"Probably one of the most important elements in doing our job here is
teamwork. The competition can get ahead of you very quickly. So trying to
make sure everybody understands where you want to be and going in the same
direction at the same time is just real important to us." When hiring new
engineers, Gatz looks for what sets them apart from others: "maybe a
unique job that they may have had during a summer or unique experience
that they may have had in high school." He advises students to look for
summer work that is different and challenging. Especially valuable is work
that requires them to work with customers. Gatz is also interested in
candidates with good communication skills and a good GPA. In the
interview, he asks them to tell him about one of the most difficult
technical problems they have had to work on. From the answer, Gatz tries
to determine "whether or not the person has taken an analytical approach,
whether they've documented their results, whether they work together well
with their associates on that team, and" what the results of the project
were. In addition, he wants to know if the candidate got personal
satisfaction from the project; "how determined they were to make it work;
how much extra effort they put into it." In a competitive world, those
things are important.
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