The Best Way to Learn as an Engineer Is to Give Yourself No Other Option
When I left my engineering design career behind five years ago, I was forced to learn a lot of new things in a short period of time. I had to learn how to write and speak effectively, how to build and optimize websites, how to run a business, how to manage virtual employees, and more. […]
Five Strategies for Creating SPACE and Separating Yourself from the Field as an Engineer
It has only been in the last few years that I have become more interested in soccer or, as I guess it is better known around the world, Fùtbol. The sport, which features the very simple objective of putting a ball into a net, is actually much more complex than it seems on the surface, […]
Three Steps to Ensure that Your Engineering Salary is Higher than Most in Your Field
I have had a few questions from engineers lately concerning salaries in the engineering industry. The questions have been along the lines of, “Most engineering companies offer low salaries—what can I do to get a better salary in this industry?” First of all, I would say that not ALL engineering companies offer low salaries. Secondly, […]
How to Start an Engineering Company on Your Own and Grow It by Word of Mouth: An Interview with an Engineering Entrepreneur
The following is an interview with Glen Cooper, performed by one of our guest writers, Menno Gazendam. Glen Cooper is currently an engineer turned entrepreneur. He recently released a happiness-and-positivity app via the App Store called HappiJar. The app is designed to help us store our happy moments all in a single place, share them […]
Lessons Learned from Two Days with Engineering Leaders, and Laws on Life’s Outcomes
A 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, engineering leaders, several social outings, and interesting tours. Of course, I can’t forget to mention the more than 50 motivated engineers […]
Questions and Answers from Engineering Students on Resumes and Interviews
For the past month, I have had the pleasure of speaking about resume writing and interview preparation for engineering students at the College of New Jersey ASME Student Chapter and the University of Memphis STEM club (MemphiSTEM). There was such a great turnout at both events and such great questions that I thought it would […]
How to Avoid Getting Caught Up in Career-Development Details as an Engineer
Here’s a HUGE challenge engineers face in their career development: they get caught up in the details of day-to-day tasks and forget to look at the big picture and how all of their actions affect it. This is totally understandable. Our job as engineers, from a technical standpoint, is to make sure that all of […]
A Good Engineering Leader Can Dance to Any Song
One of my goals this year is to spend an equal amount of time pursuing personal goals as I do professional goals, as in the past it has seemed that 75% or more of my efforts have been focused on my professional life. To that end, my wife and I have decided to take up […]
Engineering Productivity: How and When to Break a Task Up into Smaller Steps
If you read my blog regularly, you know that I often write about efficiency and productivity in the workplace, as I believe lack of these things is the leading cause of engineers working too many hours. I believe that one of the most important aspects of being productive is the ability to focus for a […]
How to Be Fearless in Your Engineering Career
Last week, my seven-year-old daughter was off from school, so my wife and I decided to take her skiing one day. She had never been skiing before, and I was interested to see how she would react to it. Just thinking about it, if you took me somewhere that I had never been before, put […]