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🎃 Amazing pumpkin production, how to ace a job interview, and how to survive on Mars

🎃 Amazing pumpkin production, how to ace a job interview, and how to survive on Mars

October 31, 2023

🎃 Happy Halloween! Whether you are planning to dress up, go trick or treating, attend a party, or stay in and keep things simple, we hope you have fun and stay safe today!

To celebrate here, we’ll discuss the largest pumpkin processing plant in the world, talk about overcoming spooky situations like job interviews, and more!

👀 In today’s newsletter:

MUST READ

🍁 Pumpkins are a staple of Fall and the Halloween season. Jack-O-Lanterns, pumpkin pie, and picking out the largest pumpkins you can find are traditions for many of us.

But did you know that 40 percent of the pumpkins produced in the United States come from Illinois? Yeah, me neither.

In 2021, Illinois produced over 650 million pounds of pumpkins, which is more than the next five top states combined.

The largest pumpkin processing plant is Nestle Libby’s in Morton, Illinois. That town has been dubbed the Pumpkin Capital of the World, and this plant produces over 90 percent of the world’s canned pumpkins. You better believe that producing that many cans of pumpkins, it’s a significant engineering operation!

🌽 The Libby’s plant was built in 1925 to process corn, peas, and string beans. By 1970, it had begun the pumpkin operation.

They do their best to be sustainable in some pretty cool ways, including:

  • 💧 Water reuse: By reusing water instead of using fresh water for each stage, they can reduce water consumption by about 75,000 gallons per day during the pack season.

  • 🌺 Embracing pollinators: Increasing the number of pollinators like bees, helps to support local habitats and improve healthy crop growth. The plant helps to give pollinators to local farmers by delivering beehives so the bees can get to work!

  • 🎃 Using the whole pumpkin: Not every single part of the pumpkin makes it to the can, so they do their best to limit waste and use the other parts for other things. This includes creating fertilizer, using seeds for squirrel seeds, and more!

So if you are enjoying a pumpkin dessert or decoration this year, think of Illinois and the engineering at work to make it happen!

Career tips

Using the Five Ps to Deliver a Great Job Interview

So you have a job interview coming up. You want to put your best foot forward, as this is a great opportunity. You know you can be a great asset to the company and the team, but you can only do that if they believe that about you from your interview.

How do you make sure you are ready to execute at a high level? What do you do in the days leading up to it and even those final moments to give yourself a good shot at landing the opportunity?

The Five Ps. Here they are:

  1. 📝 Prepare: You need to do everything you can to prepare well. Invest your time on this. Collect all your relevant resources beforehand. Get your stories ready in a STAR-based format so you can answer behavioral interview questions with confidence. Spend time doing appropriate research on the company and team you are applying for, getting to know their values and opportunities. Consider who will be in the interview and what they will want to know. Explore the essential things you need to know about the role and integrate how your skills and values can add value to the team.

  2. 🧻 Pee: Literally go to the bathroom right before the interview! You've got to relieve yourself so that it won't be a distraction for you. It may be simple, it can avoid a major embarrassment during the interview.

  3. 🚴🏼 Physical: One of the best ways to get ready in the moments before an interview is to keep your body active. You don't want to walk in there and feel drowsy or lack energy. Get your blood moving!. You can do some push-ups, go for a walk, or do any other movements you can think of to raise your energy without wearing you out.

  4. 🦸🏼‍♂️ Power Pose: One of the most widely watched TedTalks of all time comes from Amy Cuddy where she talks about the power of body language. Getting in a Superman pose with your hands on your hips with a strong body position for a couple of minutes can decrease your stress levels, and therefore increase your confidence going into a situation that is normally stressful. 

  5. 👀 Be Present: When you’re in the interview, focus on the moment and the people you are talking to, not what you said in the past or the outcome you want for the future. Doing so will help you stay calm and focus on what needs to happen right now!

Remember the Five Ps. Put them into action, do your very best, then leave the outcome to be whatever it is. You've done all you can and if this one doesn't work out, the next one might!

    This week’s hottest jobs

    In this section you’ll find the latest jobs as featured on: jobs.interestingengineering.com 

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    trending articles

    "Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success." 

    Henry Ford 

    book recommendation

    The Martian by Andy Weir

    Looking for a fun fiction read filled with engineering and science? Look no further! While you can watch the movie with Matt Damon too, I’m always of the opinion that books are best. 

    Here is a bit of a teaser:

    👩🏼‍🚀 Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

    Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

    After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

    Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.

    But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

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    Written by 

    Jeff Perry

    Engineering Career Coach

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