Engineering Management Institute

UPCOMING WEBINAR

Better Marketing for Engineering Firms Through Better Public Speaking

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Better Marketing for Engineering Firms Through Better Public Speaking is a guest post by Shoots Veis, P.E.

Marketing

Colter has been enjoying working at his job as an engineer at a regional engineering firm.  He is good at his job, liked by his co-workers and management, and has moved up a couple of rungs at the company.  At his last performance evaluation, he visited with his manager about starting to take on client relations and they agreed Colter should look for an opportunity to begin creating a relationship with a client.  He was motivated by the prestige of being a client manager, saw it as the chance to make another move up in the company, and begin planning how to cultivate the new client relationship.

A couple of months after his evaluation, Colter was invited to sit in on a strategic planning session for the company.  One of the discussions was about how the firm could grow through the acquisition of new clients and specifically, how they could find new municipal clients.  They listed about a dozen cities they would be interested in pursuing and it turns out that Colter knew the assistant public works director, Tim Harrison, in one of the cities.  They had met through the local section of ASCE, served together on a couple of outreach projects, and usually sat with each other at the monthly luncheon.

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Delivering Stellar Client Service to Engineering Clients

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Stellar Client Service

Every A/E firm talks about delivering stellar client service and many deliver to that mark.  Why?  Well, before I can provide my opinion let’s set the definition for what constitutes stellar client service.

From my foxhole, stellar client service = responsiveness, collaboration, and establishment of crystal clear expectations.  Without these three elements, you will certainly not develop stellar anything, let alone client service.

Thirty years ago, I learned what delivering stellar client service was as a bus boy, then as a waiter, in a posh restaurant.  We in the A/E industry can learn a lot from the hospitality industry when it comes to client service and “delivering an experience”. From my time servicing clients on two-tops, then four-, six- and eight-tops, I learned how to gauge what our guests (i.e. clients) wanted and when.  How to read body language, how to interact with the guests to establish rapport beyond a transactional relationship, and how to ensure they left with an experience, not just a meal.

In short, I learned how to turn eating into an experience.  I also learned that when it’s done correctly, your fees (i.e. tips!) go up.

Delivering stellar client service in the A/E industry requires engineers to transform the technical act of engineering services from the technical stuff many clients don’t understand (or want to), into an experience.  This is much like the transformation of eating dinner from a biological requirement into a memorable experience.

The 6 Ingredients for Stellar Client Service

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How to be More Effective with your LinkedIn Connections

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How to be More Effective with your LinkedIn Connections is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee.

LinkedIn ConnectionsWhether you’re actively seeking a new job, recently graduated and just want any job, or are proactively seeking the right career growth opportunity, growing your LinkedIn connections and knowing how to use LinkedIn is necessary. We know having connections matter and that LinkedIn is the best tool for getting in front of decision makers and having more interviews, but yet, there’s no place lonelier than a LinkedIn profile once it’s cooled off and people stop writing back to you.

In this post, I want to show you how you can get the spark back into your LinkedIn connections and warm up some decent conversations. All you need to get started is to decide what you want, open your eyes, be present and positive, and listen to what I have to say in this article. Then, take action on what I’m going to share with you, and touch base with me if you need more help.

There happens to be particular differences between how big your LinkedIn network is and the caliber of your network connections. Even though the numbers do not lie, they can often be misleading, especially when the time comes to search for a job opportunity. Size does matter, but it’s not everything!

Concentrating on enhancing the quality of your LinkedIn connections by as little as 5 percent can enhance your outcomes up to 95 percent. On top of that, you will invest 5 times less time on LinkedIn and social networking; the response rates will likely be greater, simply because you are messaging current contacts, and also the interactions will likely be significantly less nerve-racking; usually we can even ask a shared connection for an introduction.

Then why do 90 percent of people looking for work concentrate mainly on adding new connections to their LinkedIn network, with no distinct objective or comprehensive strategy?

[Read more…]

How to Network as an Engineer while Providing Value

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This is a guest post by Patrick Sweet, P.Eng.

Network as an EngineerYou’ve likely heard in the past that growing your network as an engineer is key to career success, and that getting ahead is as much about who you know and what you know.

Network as an Engineer

That’s all well and good. It makes sense. The more relationships you have, and the stronger those relationships, the more opportunity you’ll have. The trouble is figuring out how to actually grow your network as an engineer. How do you meet new people? What do you do once you have?

Networking 101

There are two basic components to networking. First, meet new people in your field. Second, find ways to provide value to those people. Networking really is that simple.

Let me give you an example.

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Simply Taking Action will Set You Apart in Your Engineering Career: 6 Ways to Start Taking Action Today

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06-08-15 Taking ActionIf you are currently building an engineering career you know that most of your time is spent on projects, and phone calls, and dare I say in meetings. This leaves little time for you to focus on your career path and development. In case you weren’t aware of this, you are not the only engineer with this problem; in fact 9 out of 10 engineers that I coach, specifically identify this as their biggest problem.

So how do you overcome this challenge? I like to refer to this challenge as ‘the hamster wheel.’ You get so locked into your project-by-project, meeting-by-meeting routine that you can’t stop running on the wheel, because if you do, you fail, or at least you’ve been led to think that you do.

You need to stop running on the hamster wheel today. You need to take action that will help you grow and be able to be more proactive about your engineering career path and development. You need to take action. Most engineers don’t, therefore by doing so, you will really set yourself apart; oh and by the way you’ll have a much better career and life for it.

Here are 6 ways you can take action to start to focus more on your engineering career path and development: [Read more…]

The 4 R’s that are Critical to a Successful Engineering Career

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businesswoman

This information was sent to me by Anthony Venafro who serves as the Director of Engineering at Smith Engineering in Chantilly, Virginia. I was so impressed with the information; I asked Anthony if I could post it here on the Engineering Management Institute blog.

These are four core attributes that Anthony feels are critical to a successful engineering career:

#1 Responsiveness – This is the number one compliment I receive from clients and county staff, and it goes a long way.  Being responsive is very easy to do, and people appreciate it.   Simply returning a phone call or email to explain that you received their message and will look into their question and get back to them at a later date goes a long way.  Time is money and if you exude to your clients, that you are aware of this fact, they’ll have more confidence in you.  Do simple requests fast, even if it means dropping everything to do so.   A client doesn’t want to wait a day or two for you to change a label or provide him or her with some quick information because you were too engulfed with a more substantial task.  If it’s something quick and can be turned around in minutes, then do it immediately. They’ll love you forever if you give them the feeling that serving them is what is most important to you. [Read more…]

Four Reasons You Must Seek Peer Support in Your Engineering Career and Where to Find It

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engineering career group I read a lot of blogs and books, and one of my favorite authors is Seth Godin. I particularly love his book Linchpin (affiliate link), where he discusses how to become indispensable in your career and why it is important. One of Godin’s recent posts, on July 21st, really hit home for me and is the inspiration for this post. Here it is:

Finding Your Peer Group

Your peer group are people with similar dreams, goals and worldviews. They are people who will push you in exchange for being pushed, who will raise the bar and tell you the truth.

They’re not in your business, but they’re in your shoes. [Read more…]

Lessons Learned from Two Days with Engineering Leaders, and Laws on Life’s Outcomes

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IECD Meetup post PhotoA few days ago, we put on our annual Institute for Engineering Career Development (IECD) meetup in Austin, Texas.

The event consisted of three days of intensive learning sessions from over 15 accomplished speakers, several social outings, and interesting tours. Of course, I can’t forget to mention the more than 50 motivated engineers who attended the event from all over the US—all of whom walked away with career- and life-changing information and friendships.

This post will provide some lessons from this event in hopes that you can utilize the information to better your performance and results, both personally and professionally.

Lessons from Engineering Leaders

During the event, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions of some of the most successful engineering presidents and CEOs, and here are some key takeaways.

In order to become a partner in an engineering firm or an engineering leader, consider doing the following: [Read more…]

How to Create an Extraordinary Engineering Career – Anthony Fasano’s Complete Engineering Career Guide

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engineering career

JULY 2014 UPDATE: Since I wrote this post in October of 2013, the feedback from engineers has been amazing. This is a very long post that is meant to help you throughout your engineering career, so please bookmark this page. I have also created the following table of contents to make it easy for you to read about the topics you most need help on at this time. The original post begins immediately after the following table of contents:

The Engineer Career Guide
The One Thing You Must Do Before Developing Your Non-Technical Skills
Video 1: Setting Clearly Defined Goals
Video 2: Obtaining the Right Credentials in Your Engineering Career
Video 3: Finding a Mentor
Video 4: Become an Effective Communicator
Video 5: Networking/Building Relationships
Video 6: Being Organized and Productive
Video 7: Develop Your Leadership Abilities

Developing my non-technical skills while practicing engineering was one of the best things I have ever done in my engineering career and life. Since I started Powerful Purpose Associates in May of 2009:

  • My ability to set clear goals has helped me to understand that my mission was and is to inspire engineers.
  • Obtaining the right credentials in my engineering career as well as my coaching career has helped me to be able to rapidly advance my career and grow my business.
  • Finding a mentor was a key component for me being able to become a partner at the age of 27 in a reputable engineering firm.
  • Improving my communication skills has allowed me to write daily and weekly e-mails to engineers that inspire them to grow personally and professionally. They have also helped me write my book Engineer Your Own Success.
  • Improving my public speaking skills has afforded me the opportunity to present in front of over 5,000 engineers, many of whom have told me that my talk changed their lives.
  • Developing my networking skills has allowed me to build relationships that have brought me so many of the opportunities mentioned above and also so many rewarding friendships.
  • Increasing my productivity has allowed me to develop Engineering Management Institute (ECC) brand and The Engineering Mastermind community, now serving thousands of engineers every day — including two podcasts that have been downloaded over 1.5 million times.
  • Developing my leadership abilities has given me the confidence to start to coach engineers one on one and subsequently start my podcast, where I coach them on the air.

Most importantly, developing my non-technical skills has enabled me to build stronger relationships with my audience – much stronger than I could ever have done if I failed to focus on my own personal development, like many engineers do. The phrases that engineers use when they describe their experience with my coaching or one of my seminars include: [Read more…]

The Only Stability You Have in Your Engineering Career Is You

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If you are reading this post, you’re most likely an engineer working for an engineering company. You get up each morning and go to work in what appears to be a ‘stable’ job. In reality, though, no matter how safe or stable your job appears to be, your employer can decide at any time to stop paying you and take away that perceived stability. However, your skill set, your professional network, and your reputation can allow you to react to a situation like this and quickly replace that paycheck.  Developing your engineering skills as well as your non-technical skills will give you the tools to truly maintain a stable engineering career. The following are some things you can do in your engineering career to ensure that it is genuinely stable.

Realize the Importance of Your Own Development

Stability in Engineering CareerDon’t get tricked by the illusion that your 9-to-5 job and paycheck create a stable career. Don’t build your entire financial future around that paycheck. Go through your career with a plan B that addresses the question, “What will I do if I lose my job tomorrow?” Having a good answer to this question and a good plan to go along with it is where true stability will come from.

Build a Very Strong Professional Network

A company can always take your paycheck away from you and end your employment with them, but they can’t take away your relationships. If you build strong relationships in the industry, it is very likely that should you lose your ‘stable job,’ you will be able to quickly find another one. I can’t stress this point enough, as many engineers rank networking low on their list of things to do because they feel that they can lean on the relationships of their company. WRONG. If you take this approach and lose your job or decide to relocate, you will not be able to lean on the company’s contacts. Also, having a strong network gives you a direct avenue to potential new business for your employer, which is like gold, especially in today’s economy. [Read more…]