Engineering Management Institute

UPCOMING WEBINAR

Actions Speak Louder than Words in Your Presentation

By

Actions Speak Louder than Words in Your Presentation is a guest post by Shoots Veis, P.E.

Presentation
Most engineers, and most people, will tell you that giving a presentation is not something they look forward to.  However, given our love of efficiency, engineers should have a different outlook.  One reason we give a speech to an audience is because it should be the most efficient way to share information.  The presenter has information they need to disseminate to a lot of people, so why not get them all in a room and tell everyone at the same time?  Doing so might even generate questions that you can answer for the group that wouldn’t come up if there wasn’t a group of people in that room.

[Read more…]

Personal Accountability is the Foundation of all Success

By

Personal Accountability“John, you cannot speak and train on ‘ personal accountability.’ It’s not a topic.” I was told that in April 1995. After a decade of selling and implementing leadership and sales training systems in the corporate world, though, I knew this:

Personal accountability is the foundation of all success.

Period.

So I began marketing myself as a speaker on “Personal Accountability and the QBQ!” What is QBQ!? Well, it’s a book that’s sold 1.5 million copies, but more critically, it’s a methodology for eliminating some very human traps:

[Read more…]

How I Passed the P.E. Exam

By

How I Passed the P.E. Exam is a guest post by Thomas A. Anderson, P.E.
P.E. Exam

First off, let me say that if you are considering or already enrolled to take the P.E. exam, good for you. It will help your career tremendously. Your potential for advancement will increase and you will find avenues for career growth you never considered before. 

For more on why you should take the P.E. Exam visit my article here: My Top 5 Reasons to Get Your P.E. 

To pass the P.E. Exam, I went to PPI for their 18-week preparation course. The course is offered online and live, but also allows you to view the recordings later. I watched each recording repeatedly. 

Plan, plan, and plan some more. Nothing will help you more on the P.E. exam then having a solid plan. Lay it out on paper and follow through. This will ensure your preparations are complete. This is another reason why the PPI course is so valuable. They do the planning for you with their weekly lectures and homework assignments. 

P.E. Exam

[Read more…]

How to Begin your Speech Planning and Design

By

How to begin your speech planning and design is a guest post by Shoots Veis, P.E.Speech Planning

A long time ago in a conference room far, far away, speakers used to give their presentations using a slide projector.  Before computers were easy to move around, the slide projector was the all-in-one machine used to put graphics on the screen during a presentation.  You may have heard of the Kodak Slide Carousel.  You may have even used one in a presentation or two.  To use the carousel, the graphics the speaker wanted to show during the presentation were made into slides.  Those slides were loaded into a wheel and as the wheel advanced, a new slide was projected on the screen.

[Read more…]

10 Great Benefits of Using a Project Plan in Your Engineering Career

By

10 Great Benefits of Using a Project Plan in Your Engineering Career is a blog post by Chris Richardson

Project PlanEvery professional engineer must treat his projects seriously by allocating enough time to planning and organizing future actions. A project plan is useful not just for improving the quality of the end product, but also for developing better team dynamics and better results for the company you’re working for.

In today’s post, we’re discussing 10 great benefits that will result from proper project planning. Every engineer should acknowledge that a project plans’ quality will always be directly proportional to the quality of the results. 

1. In-Depth Planning, Thinking, and Visualizing 

[Read more…]

How to Think Like an Entrepreneur with this One Simple Step

By

How to Think Like an Entrepreneur is a guest blog post by Daniel Hayes, PE, PMP

Think Like an Entrepreneur When I started my engineering career, I worked hard to understand and apply engineering principles and processes required to prepare deliverables in a technically correct and efficient manner.

I consider myself a good engineer.  There was a time I believed the work should speak for itself.  Being an introvert by nature, I don’t like to sell and don’t want to come off as salesy.  I spoke of what I could do for the client.  Yet, clients and prospects always wanted something more.

Why does this happen?  Because as engineers, we are not selling construction plans.  We are not selling the latest in engineering technology.  We are not selling deliverables.  Instead, we are selling solutions to problems.  Real world problems that our clients need to be solved.

If a real estate developer retains a civil engineering firm to prepare a set of construction documents or to acquire the necessary permits and approvals for development, what the client wants is neither the construction documents nor the permit.  What he wants is a completed development, ready for resale or rent.  Engineering is just one of many means to this end and that is why you should start to think like an entrepreneur.

[Read more…]

5 Reasons Why an Entrepreneurial Mindset Is Essential for Business

By

This is a guest post by Johanna Cider

entrepreneurial mindset

Note from Founder: Hello this is Anthony Fasano, P.E., founder of the Engineering Management Institute (EMI).  At EMI we are focused on helping engineers become more effective managers and leaders.  In this post, guest author Johanna Cider talks about the importance an entrepreneurial mindset can have when growing a business.  Well, I believe that this mindset can also help you in growing a successful engineering career and becoming a partner/owner in your engineering company.  Enjoy the article, and please consider implementing some of the recommended strategies, whether you’re a student or an owner…

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

If you’re starting out in the business world, you might feel a little overwhelmed with all of the information out there. You’ve probably been doing plenty of research, and you might’ve come across the idea of an entrepreneurial mindset, which is, above all, a mindset that will help you to succeed in the world of business. The essentials of an entrepreneurial mindset are, among other characteristics, the lack of fear when it comes to innovation and taking risks, and the ability to take failures into stride. If you consider yourself an entrepreneur, it’s important to know why entrepreneurial mindset is important for business.

[Read more…]

Expect Murphy’s Law to Apply to all Engineering Presentations You Give

By

Expect Murphy’s Law to Apply to all Engineering Presentations You Give is a guest post by Shoots Veis, P.E.

Engineering PresentationsI’ve had the honor of speaking to thousands of engineers across the world over the years, which has helped me to understand why public speaking is so important to any professional.  It gives you the ability to reach and impact a lot of people.

That being said, there’s been a few times, where I showed up to speak and everything went wrong, and I had to adjust.  This happens more often than not and that’s why I am really excited to share the following story with you from our guest author for this week Shoots Veis, P.E, author of Public Speaking for Engineers, about engineering presentations. Enjoy it…

[Read more…]

5 Reasons Why You Should Encourage Flexible Engineering Work Hours

By

5 Reasons Why You Should Encourage Flexible Engineering Work Hours
is a guest blog post by Olivia Ryan

Flexible Engineering Work HoursFlexible working has been one of the main topics in the business world in the last couple of years. This trend has reached the engineering field too, with 77% of firms offering some kind of flextime to their employees. Seeing that we are now living in the world where the newest employees are millennials, employees demand more flexible work arrangements even if the firm has not considered them in the business strategy.

“As a former engineer at a big company, I really enjoyed the sense of control you get when they allow you to set your work hours. Of course, we did not enjoy full liberty, but the employer allowed us to set our own start and stop times, and choose if we want to spread our work hours to the weekends, too, or do the entire shifts from Monday to Friday and get weekends off.” – says Keith Jackson, now an engineering writing expert at aussiewritings.com.

If you are still wondering whether you should introduce more flexibility into your work routine or that of your engineers, here are five big reasons why you should consider this:

[Read more…]

How to become a Resume Genius Fresh Out of College: 7 Tips that Work

By

How to become a Resume Genius Fresh Out of College is a guest post by Kevin Nelson

Resume Genius

No doubt, writing a resume when you’re just out of college is a challenging task, especially if you think that most employers prefer candidates with experience. The first word of advice here would be to let go of this misconception — as a matter of fact, a lot of great companies are looking for young talent. This, however, does not mean that you should underestimate the importance of a well-crafted resume — after all, every job opening sees an average of 250 resumes, and only 2% of those candidates land an actual interview. Let’s find out how you can wind up in those lucky two percent and become a resume genius.

[Read more…]