b"XYLEM SPOTLIGHTWhat advice would you give people interested in a career in engineering? Metzger: Id warn them to run and scream in the other direction! (Laughter) I kid. I kid. My sage-like advice would be to make sure you're doing what you want to do, not what others want you to do with your career. Quite a few of the students I went to school with became engineers on paper but lacked an engineering mindset. They ended up working in an unrelated field and half their education was scrapped because it wasnt something they really wanted to do with their lives. Tuition isnt something to joke about these days, so make sure you focus on fields youre actually interested in. Id say if you're not inherently interested in solving other people's problems, fixing things, or inventing the next best thing, this may not be your calling in life. And if it's not your calling, you wontRon regularly participates in enjoy what youre doing each day.Watermark events. Pictured here, in August of 2018, Again, it goes back to the age-old adage, Do whathe kayaked down the Little Miami River surveying for you like to do, and find a way to turn it into a career. water quality.Can you speak to the collaboration between engineering and marketing to build productsIt took 30 years to finally get a cup holder in a car!that customers love?30 years! (Laughter) Metzger: Great instruments are built from a strongEngineers were so far removed from actual drivers that partnership between our engineers and commercialit became a barrier to designing even basic features leaders at YSI. [Marketing] provides the blueprint forthat buyers demanded. Thats an extreme example, but what we can develop to solve our customers biggestcreating successful instruments requires us to be well problems, so they need to be deeply connected withaligned with our customers.the environmental industry to fill that role in new product development.Let's shift gears and discuss your involvement Luckily for us, our team has decades of experiencewith Watermark. What inspired you to get working with customers from around the world, soinvolved in the volunteer program?we have our thumb on the pulse of the environmental community. We dont stop there though; we validateMetzger: Getting involved with Watermark (Xylems our assumptions with third-party research to ensurephilanthropic arm) was a natural extension of the were building sensors and instrumentation thatsvolunteer work Ive done for years. Collaborating with meaningful to water quality professionals in the field.grassroots non-profits to support environmentalism and conservation efforts fits naturally into what we do Sometimes product development can feel like playingas a company.a game of telephone, where customer requests can become distorted after funneling through severalI was excited to see Xylem not only offer, but people to reach the engineering team. We avoid thisincentivize our employees to volunteer their time to confusion by immersing our engineering team in thebetter the world and communities around them, so I field where possible. Weve found that dealing withtook advantage of it. Now Im cleaning up rivers and customer applications directly helps us design morestreams around our facility in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and streamlined solutions for field instrumentation. educating kids on the importance of water quality. 46 MISSION: WATER"