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Embrace the Power of Networking to Unlock Opportunities and Insights

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This is a guest post by Jeff Perry, MBA

Networking

“Networking is not about just connecting people. It’s about connecting people with people, people with ideas, and people with opportunities.” ~ Michele Jennae

Networking and its validity or importance is written and talked about extensively — but what do you actually do about it?

While I am a proponent of networking both inside and outside your organization, this article will be mostly focused on networking with those you don’t work with currently. You need to look outside and learn from people who are in different companies, roles, and environments from you.

Networking

Doing so will expand your insights, understanding, and opportunities beyond what you can do if you are only creating connections inside your current organization.

Networking on the Outside

Let’s look at a few reasons why establishing your network outside of your organization can be helpful. Reasons include, but are not limited to:

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How to Become a Better Engineering Leader

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This is a guest post by Steve Armstrong

Engineering LeaderBeing an engineering leader is about understanding what is going on around you.

In the military, it is called “Situational Awareness.” Often, the people with the most pertinent and relevant information about the situation are those working for you.

Questions are powerful tools, and knowing how to ask them is key to becoming a better engineering leader.

How to Ask Questions

How do you ask the right questions in the right way?

  1. Ask your questions like you care and want to know the answers. You’re not reading from a script — ask with sincerity.
  2. You asked, so be prepared to hear answers that you may not like, and be sure to take the time to truly listen.
  3. The answer you need may not come forth the first time you ask. But if you ask sincerely and humbly, you will build trust and confidence. So, ask regularly, and the quality of the information you gather will improve.

Engineering Leader

Read about the six things you need to communicate.

What Questions to Ask

These are the five questions to ask your team members every month, as well as why you should ask them:

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The Importance and Benefits of Getting Involved in Your Community

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This is a guest blog by Jon Savage

Getting Involved

Volunteer work and philanthropic efforts have been an integral part of Pennoni’s core values since 1966. And even prior to joining the firm in 2005, I’ve always valued the importance of them in both business and personal life.

“Getting Involved” With Your Community

“Getting involved” with your community is straightforward, and fun in many ways, but also involves your day-to-day routines, church, children, and other activities. My interests include improving local conditions and applying my expertise to my volunteer efforts. Most importantly, I’ve always had a sense of giving back to individuals and organizations that have helped me. I believe, in my heart of hearts, that’s really the best message I can relay to folks who do want to get involved in their communities.

getting involved

At the beginning of my career, after receiving my degree from Penn State and attempting to apply the expertise I had learned gaining a geography degree, I thought it might be useful to apply my planning skills to my local community where I grew up. As it turned out, there was a need on the local planning board for someone of my capabilities, even though I had just graduated with limited planning experience. While my tenure on the local planning board was about a year in length, I did learn many insights into local politics, and was able to contribute to objectives that the board was attempting to carry out and other areas of concern.

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Technology’s Role in Civil Engineering Inspection — Autonomous Drafting

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This is a guest blog by Nick Heim, P.E.

Autonomous DraftingCivil engineers are designers and builders of everything related to infrastructure: roads, bridges, dams, ports, and many others. While new construction of any asset gets a lot of attention for several reasons, that asset must be maintained over its lifespan — and civil engineers play a critical role in the inspection of it. As the third in a multipart series on technology’s role in civil engineering, I would like to talk about autonomous drafting and how it can improve your civil engineering inspections.

Note: The examples used in this month’s article relate to parking structures, because that is what the author specializes in. The author’s intent is that the technology showcased through these specific examples can be applied broadly to other civil engineering projects.

1. Inspection Drawing Creation

One of the first steps in any inspection is creating an accurate set of plans. Often, requests for existing drawings are not fulfilled, leaving us to create our own. This process is often very tedious and time-consuming due to the scale and repetitive nature of the tasks required.

To remove as much of this manual and laborious effort from your workflow as possible, consider use of software such as Airworks. Given inputs in the form of aerial imagery (Airworks also accepts three-dimensional data, but my experience was limited to 2D imagery), Airworks uses artificial intelligence to identify and autonomously draft common features of civil engineering projects.

Obtaining aerial imagery of your project site can be done in multiple ways, including:

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The Benefits of Conflict Resolution for Engineers

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This is a guest post by Tiffani Teachey

Conflict Resolution

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” ~ Marie Curie

Conflict resolution is an essential skill for any engineer. When disputes arise, it is crucial to have the ability to calmly and effectively communicate with all parties involved. By using conflict resolution techniques, engineers can resolve disagreements quickly and efficiently while maintaining positive relationships with coworkers. In this blog post, we will discuss the benefits of conflict resolution for engineers. We will also provide tips on how to effectively resolve conflicts. Let’s get started!

Engineers can effectively resolve conflicts through the following tips:

  1. Stay calm
  2. Listen attentively
  3. Be respectful

Conflict Resolution

Stay Calm

When engineers are faced with a conflict, they should stay calm and try to understand the other party’s point of view. They can do this by using empathy or stepping back from their emotions so that cooler heads prevail! Show that you’re not angry or upset by keeping your voice calm and repeating back to them what their point is. This will help diffuse the situation quickly, without anyone getting too worked up about it! The best way to handle a conflict is by staying calm and following these three steps:

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Not Enough Hours in the Day? These Tips Can Help You Out

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This is a guest blog by Pamela A. Scott

enough hoursTime. It seems no one has enough of it, even though we all have the same 24/7.

Here I sit on a Friday morning with — get ready for it — free time!

This email came in late yesterday afternoon. “Pam, I hate to do this, but I’ve got to reschedule our call.” I’m glad that client couldn’t hear me cheering. Yes! Scheduled time has been freed! Now what?

If I had my druthers, I’d be out in the sunroom, immersed in a novel I’m reading. Instead, I’m writing this blog because it’s due next week, and I want to get it done now.

If you wrestle to get control of how you spend your time, check out these resources.

50 Questions That Focus on Your Relationship With Time

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What Is Your Purpose? Three Timeless Pillars to Guide Your Future

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This is a guest blog by Gina Covarrubias

Your PurposeWhether you are a student, professional, forcibly unemployed, or just taking a break, I have great news: each can be approached the same way! Apply these three pillars anytime to maximize your life purpose and guide your future.

Pillar 1: Service

Service is about directing your efforts toward a cause bigger than yourself. It includes carving out time and energy for the sake of serving an external purpose.

It can mean serving your team or organization in the workplace. Maybe it involves supporting your neighbors, your environment, or your country. Applying a service approach to your surroundings is one way to share your unique gifts with the world.

For example, try to answer:

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3 Engineering Career Success Tips from CEOs & VPs Who Started Where You Are

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This is a guest post by Zachary White

success

“How did you do it?” I love asking top leaders this question for one simple reason.

Success leaves clues.

I’ve asked top engineering leaders, from the Fortune 500 to Silicon Valley startups, how they got their results on my podcast. I want to share a few of their recent answers with you.

NOTE: This is not an exhaustive list, and they are not ranked in order of importance. That’s because the most important tip for you is always unique to your situation! So work with your own coach and mentor on which of these you need to focus on first, and go find a dozen more solutions to your unique challenges.

1. Find Your Mentor — AND Your Mentees

Everybody talks about the importance of having a mentor. I personally believe in having a tribe of mentors.

But very few leaders talk about the importance of finding your mentees as well.

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There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

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This is a guest post by Dr. Rae Taylor

lunchI believe there is a general consensus that buying pizza for the office leads to an unquantifiable increase in office morale. I would extend this further and say that in general, food is a great motivator and healthy food, being an energy sustainer, is by extension a visible morale booster. I once bought some snack bars and jerky for a crew to take with them to a tricky access site. When the crew was loading up the van, I could hear excited mutterings like, “Are these really for us?” and “Hey, have you seen that we have snacks?” As if it wasn’t pretty much the easiest thing that I could have done for them.

Some larger (mostly tech) companies take the morale boost one step further and provide free (or at least heavily subsidized) food courts for their employees. They tend to offer a variety of meal options, often including many healthy options too. This is, of course, a trap to make the staff stay longer in the office in the hope that they will work more hours. But because people do work long hours, it’s incredibly useful. It is also costly and unrealistic for most companies to do.

I was thinking about this while watching the new season of “Queer Eye” (do not judge unless you are also up every few hours feeding a newborn and need something to keep you awake that you don’t have to focus on). With the increase in the number of hours we work and commute came a huge increase in people saying they don’t have the time to cook or grocery shop. As such, they rely on fast food and take-out, which tends to be less healthy. In the show, a member of the makeover team shows the recipient how to cook something that’s easy to make, healthy, and tasty. This made me think about how much I would have loved this kind of guidance when I was working crazy hours, and thinking about it more, how much I would love it even now that my schedule is more relaxed, albeit fuller.

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Shut Down Analysis Paralysis and Start to “Satisfice”

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This is a guest blog by Pamela A. Scott

analysis paralysisDo you struggle to make decisions? Most of us do—at least when dealing with something significant.

Do you find yourself trapped by analysis paralysis? Many of us do. We think and we think and we think, and then we think some more. And maybe we eventually act.

I believe decision-making and analysis paralysis are intertwined. You can throw decision fatigue into that mix as well. Decision fatigue occurs because we simply have too many decisions to make on any given day. Check out this site for lots more on decision fatigue.

In his book “The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less,” Barry Schwartz delves into why we struggle to make decisions.

285 Types of Cookies, Oh My!

In his neighborhood supermarket, he found 285 varieties of cookies. Can you pick just one? The average supermarket carries nearly 40,000 items for you to pick from. It gives me a headache to even think about those choices.

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