S5E18 Joe Moak | Working at Apple, Premium Products, & Superior Project Management

Being an Engineer

Joe Moak shares his experience with the podcast working at high-profile companies such as Apple & Sonos, and also gives us a glimpse into “the best place he has ever worked” (Maestro PD). Companies are always looking for those elusive “A” players to join their teams, and it is very clear that Joe qualifies under that definition.

Joe Moak earned his mechanical engineering degree at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.

To sum up, Listen to this episode to learn all these!

Main Topics:

• Working at Apple
• Designing for manufacturing tolerance
• Product development challenges
• Interviewing techniques
• Design processes,
• Project management best practices

About the guest: Joe Moak, founder and chief engineer at Maestro PD, a product design and engineering firm. Joe also worked at Apple, Sonos, St. Jude Medical, and other companies.

Links:
Joe Moak - LinkedIn
Maestro PD
About Being An Engineer

The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.

The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us

Chapters

1. Prioritization strategies for product development teams (00:02:11)

2. Joe Moak's inspiration to become an engineer from a Sony sports camera (00:05:07)

3. Cal Poly's "Learn by Doing" motto and how it was incorporated into the curriculum (00:09:48)

4. Technical interview process at Apple and high expectations set for employees (00:13:22)

5. Collaboration and "we're all in this together" mentality fostered at Apple (00:17:17)

6. Using tolerance analysis in product design early in the development process (00:22:07)

7. Challenges of running a general product design company versus specializing (00:28:13)

8. Conducting technical interviews and prioritizing collaboration and technical skills (00:35:55)

9. Importance of thorough design reviews in catching issues before manufacturing (00:43:42)

10. Role of a project manager in prioritizing work and deconflicting issues (00:50:29)