Interview Assessment

 

Name: Allen Fosha

 

Work: Mechanical Engineer at Frito Lay

 

Date of Interview: 11/14/2017

 

Assessment:

 

    Mr. Fosha is a mechanical engineer at Frito Lay, one of the premier food and beverage companies. Mr. Fosha works with all the factories Frito Lay has. He goes all around the world helping to solve any factories problem. I have not interviewed someone that was this high up in a company before. This was able to give me a different perspective on the life of an engineer because you may not always be sitting behind a desk designing product. You could be out in the real world helping your company with the problems they may have. I had also never talked to an engineer working on the food and beverage industry. Whenever I would think of a food and beverage company, my mind would jump straight to the actual food they produce. But what helps production? Mechanical engineers are crucial in the production of food because they are able to design and make the assembly lines and, in some cases, robots programed to pack the bags of chips or the bottles of soda. Mr. Fosha also showed me the importance of making connections, which he mentioned multiple times during the interview. He told me it is important to make connections because you never know when you may need to go back and talk to that person. He told me that he has met thousands of people all around the world which has not only put his name out there, but also kept him in other people’s minds. He also told me that if you are meeting all these people you need to build a good reputation. If you are looking for a job and you have shown through your work and people know that you have a good reputation you are likely to be hired over someone who is not known or does not have a good reputation. Mr. Fosha also showed me the importance of making connections because he was able to give me two contacts of great engineers that he knows. One, works at Frito Lay, with him who does similar work and the other used to work at Frito Lay and now works in the financial world. Through Mr. Fosha I have learned that it is important to keep up a good reputation because you never know when you may need to go an talk to someone. Lastly, Mr Fosha was also able to explain why so many engineers end up working in fields other than engineering. He said that they have a certain level of high understanding and thinking alongside great problem solving abilities. I always knew that mechanical engineers have a high level of thinking, but was surprised to know that that is why, for example, financial and consulting firms are hiring engineers.

 

    All in all, I was very happy to meet with Mr. Fosha because he was able to explain a new side of engineering. I never knew how much of a role engineers played in the production of food. I also learned how important it is to meet new people and keep up a good reputation because it could end up helping you or other later on in life.