In late September Ulyanovsk welcomed the TOP 100 Best Engineers of Russia contest. Its participants – corporate employees and undergraduate students from specialized colleges and universities who arrived from 30 regions of Russia should fulfill tasks for six hours in one of three nominations: Design, Development of Control Software for NC Machines, Engineering Graphics. Among the contestants were the specialists of such enterprises as JSC Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, Ulyanovsk Design Bureau – branch of Tupolev PJSC, Russian Design Bureau of Russian Helicopters Holding, OJSC Kamov.
The contest jury selected 15 best engineers among 235 participants and only three became the winners ranked as “the very best”. And one of these three winners was Leonid Petuhov from Progresstech. If we follow Leonid's professional advance, we have every reason to say this is a classic example of young employees maturing in the company.
Leonid was born in 1984. His craving for designing was inherited – his grandfather and grandmother were shipbuilders. And the aviation designing is his early childish dream which he decided to realize just finishing the high school and entered the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) in specialization “Aircraft and Helicopter Engineering”. Progresstech closely cooperating with MAI has formed each year groups of undergraduates for practical training and supplement special training to meet the operating needs of the company. Being the fourth-year student, Leonid was admitted to such group, underwent practical training and in 2005 joined Progresstech team as technician simultaneously having the second job at OJSC Tupolev. And upon defence of his graduation project he has faced a problem what company to join.
“Progresstech suggested me, young specialist, more interesting conditions, and I stayed here not feeling any regret in the least later”.
For ten years Leonid has worked in the company: first as a beginning design engineer, then he has passed certification test and now he is the cat. 1 design engineer. Leonid had a difficult time like any young specialist just graduated from the university and got his first job. But he did not feel alone:
“First, we came here in a group from the institute. And should any problem concerning our work appeared, at any time we could consult our more experienced colleagues. They organized for us additional trainings and workshops. They have widened our knowledge making us immerse in the industry specialities. I can call Vladimir Nenashev who is the coach at Progresstech Tushinskaya office my tutor for CATIA, he helped me in mastering this sophisticated software”.
Leonid has been involved in multiple design projects. According to his words, it was thanks to such involvement that he has acquired wide experience and professional skills. And there are two programs that have been particularly helpful in his professional improvement:
“Colambus Project helped me to develop the creative principle of designing. We have received a general task with minimum limitations and could carry it out by using many various techniques of any kind. And Airbus projects which were in contrary different, here we had to restrain our fantasy to comply with strict conditions of the project and also to find a way how to solve the problem designated by the customer. We had to be constantly concentrated, extremely attentive and serious. This a good design school!
At the Ulyanovsk contest Leonid has got just non-aviation task: to design an engine turbine blade and make it assembled with respective part. The designer who has dealt for many years with airframes has to display all his professional wit, recall the theory and apply it to solve the problem of the nature that is unusual to him. Using the trial-and-error method Leonid has outstripped this colleagues-engineers from engine manufacturing companies.
“I do not think I have attained the professional career peak”, Leonid says. “A real specialist shall constantly improve his skills. Certainly, the projects he is involved in are of great importance here. If my victory is considered as success, then it is not doubt that it is Progresstech that has contributed to this success, that during ten years has given me chances to learn something new, practically apply obtained knowledge and acquire new skills. I see an aim to pursue, a direction to improve myself in. In the future I would like to become a project leader and meet real challenges, take decisions and share my experience with young specialists”.
Besides Leonid Petuhov, there were another four Progresstech engineers who took part in the contest, namely German Majara, cat. 1 processing engineer, Eduard Moshikhin, cat. 2 processing engineer, Pavel Murin, design engineer and Evgeniy Furbover, design engineer. All of them have passed the qualification test to reach the final. And German Majara was ranked as the 21st among the TOP 100 Best Engineers of Russia. Reaching the final stage of the contest by our five employees is just a real achievement which is an evidence of the highly professional team of Progresstech!
”We are proud of success achieved by our specialists”, said Nikolay Vasiliev, Progresstech Ltd. Director General commenting the contest results. “This is a victory of not only Leonid, Eduard and other guys – the Ulyanovsk contest finalists. This is the achievement of all our team, an evidence that Progresstech has selected a right way of its development. Besides our primary line of activity, we has always given much attention to our employee potential. Over many years we have made active efforts to collaborate with the national higher education institutions. We search for talented students, they undergo their training in the company and prepare and defend their yearly and graduation diploma projects based on Progresstech activity. The corporate personnel policy is aimed at the all-round development of young specialists. Progresstech has developed a system of additional training courses enabling our employees to improve their professional level free of charge and to enhance their skills and expertize. The company has implemented the personnel motivation system which is developed to stimulate the employees' performance and reward the most initiative process participants. Progresstech performs on a regular basis the certification of their personnel, thus permitting also to raise the status of each employee in the company and to increase the salary level. We are diligent in moving toward this direction because we know perfectly that our personnel is our most important values!
