Lift & Escalator Apprentice Engineer Personality Types

It takes a special person to become a great Lift/Escalator Apprentice – someone with ambition, the ability to work hard and train to the highest standards; someone with the maturity to focus and succeed and to emerge as a qualified Lift/Escalator Engineer, with all the rewards this brings.

Check out our quiz at the end of this blog post to see if you have what it takes.

Skill and Traits

Lift installers and repairers are typically interested in the Building, Thinking and Organising interest areas, according to the Holland Code framework, but what are the other skills and traits needed?

Interpersonal & Leadership Skills

Honesty, trustworthiness, and an excellent work ethic are fundamental to a profitable employer-employee relationship. Today’s engineers work on complicated projects across disciplines. Every engineer will regularly interact with multiple team members, so they must respect each team member and demonstrate leadership qualities.

Communication Skills

A good engineer needs to communicate well, both orally and in writing. Everything from the problem definition and discussions of the possible solutions, to the instructions on implementing the answer must be accurately and clearly conveyed to management, teammates, or clients. At the same time, an engineer must be able to listen and receive feedback to modify the project or product and satisfy evolving requirements and conditions.

Maths & Computer Skills

An engineer should understand maths well and the importance of following the data when making design decisions. Secondary to this is being a fluent user of the software, supporting their engineering discipline.

Organisation & Attention to Detail

Engineers must find and organise all critical data and use the information correctly. This requires a good memory and strict attention to detail, as lift and escalator engineers must keep accurate records of their service schedules. These records are used to schedule future maintenance.

Curiosity

Engineers are curious people, like a child who takes apart a toaster to find out how it works. The innate curiosity of any high-quality engineer should drive them to figure out how to make something that works even better.

Creativity

An engineer’s creativity looks different from what we typically think of as artistic creativity. Rather than focusing on a message or feeling, engineers must be able to look at the big picture, conceive a range of solutions, and then narrow down the possibilities through testing and experimentation. Many think “creative” and “engineer” are mutually exclusive. At first glance, it would seem that in a field structured by maths and science, there would be little to no room for a creative spirit, but when looking more deeply, the visionary engineer is changing the way we live and work as creativity; often spurs innovation! Check out our blog post for more innovative engineers.

Critical Thinking

Engineering solutions must work in the real world, where complex variables compete. As a result, engineers need critical thinking skills developed through experience and training to solve open-ended problems that have no single correct answer. Their job is to optimise a solution within the constraints, including time, money, material, and manufacturing capability, as presented by their employer. They rely on these critical thinking skills in every stage of their work, particularly when it comes to decision-making. Engineers who think critically can deftly handle various technical, administrative, policy, and interpersonal communication challenges that arise within a day’s work or a project’s timeline.

Intuition

Once they have developed and optimised a solution, a sound engineer must have the self-confidence to stand behind that solution, even without complete data or proof. This trait will manifest as an intuitive sense of what can or will work.

Do you have what it takes to be a great Lift/Escalator Apprentice? Let’s find out…

Quiz Time

We have created a Personality Quiz that will define you as being 1 of 4 personality types, including a combination of the above skills and traits.