I joined Motivo at the end of December 2016 and was immediately assigned to a project team. This type of “hot start” was a lot different from my previous job at a typical, slow-moving corporation. It was great to get involved right away and to be able to put my skills to use. I never needed to worry about boredom during my onboarding process!
I was initially attracted to Motivo because of the diversity of the projects they work on (plus the projects are all really cool). It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I particularly like the aerospace and electric vehicle projects. It’s great to be on the cutting edge of technology and see things evolve. In just these few months, I’ve already been heavily involved with a battery swap system for an electric airplane, an innovative interior design for an airliner, thermal simulation for an electric vehicle, plus supporting roles on a mobile fabrication lab for a school and a four-wheel-drive hub dyno for an electric vehicle. The battery swap system was a challenge due to tight packaging and weight constraints, but we came up with a clever solution as a team. I’m looking forward to seeing projects I worked on take flight and make headlines.
What surprised me the most was the fast pace that Motivo moves at. We get things done in weeks that would normally take months by working smart and hard instead of just really hard. My advice for anyone considering Motivo is to be prepared for that fast pace from concept to detailed design to fabrication. It’s more like a racing team than a typical company in that regard. Also, if you do not feel comfortable tackling problems with vague boundary conditions then you would probably not enjoy Motivo.
Motivo has a “communal” work environment, which is great. The shop engineers work closely with the rest of the team, which is a big help when designing for manufacturing and tooling. One of the first things I noticed when I joined was that not only is everyone here incredibly smart, friendly, and willing to share their expertise, but they are also open to listening to others who have different specialties, even if they are new to the company.
Overall, my favorite aspect about Motivo is that we come up with clever solutions for a range of challenging and real-world problems. It can be a mental workout at times, but it is fun to be able to do something that has never been done before, while also making the customer happy.