The Answer to Work-Life Balance: Don’t Try
The issue of work-life balance is something relatively new to humanity. Brought to light by British anthropologists in the late 1970’s, we now have libraries full of self-help books and courses in how best to solve this affliction of modern life. I struggled with finding the best way to thread the needle myself as the […]
Your Ability to Facilitate New Business Development will Greatly Impact Your Engineering Career Development
When I talk to CEOs of engineering companies, I always ask them what they are looking for when they hire engineers, especially in this economy where they hire fewer than they used to. They all answer this question the same way: they reply that they are looking for engineers who do more than just engineering. […]
The Emotionally Brilliant Engineer
This is a guest post by Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA, PMP, CSEP Over at my Engineering and Leadership blog, I tend to talk quite a bit about how business skills can be applied to the daily work of an engineer so thatengineers can be more productive, more purpose-driven, and more satisfied in their roles. Today, […]
Public Speaking Skills for Engineers 101: The More You Speak, the Better You Get
I can’t emphasize enough how important your public speaking skills are as an engineer. Depending on your discipline and specific job description, you very well could have to deliver multiple presentations per week throughout your engineering career. The quality of your presentations will undoubtedly have a huge impact on your engineering career development, specifically on […]
Setting Big Picture Engineering Career Goals is the Most Important Thing You Can Do in Your Career and Life
Engineers like data because it provides facts that they can use to do analyses. Well, I have some data in this post that I believe can be extremely useful to you in your engineering career and life overall. I have provided career coaching and speaking services to hundreds of engineers in recent years, and my […]
The Perfect Engineering Job is out there for Every Engineer Even if it is not a Traditional Engineering Job
Many engineers join our Institute for Engineering Career Development to find the perfect engineering job or as I like to say it, create their ideal engineering career. My question to our members is always, “How do you define the best engineering job?” In my opinion, the best engineering job for each person is the job […]
5 Recommendations for How to Become a Successful Engineering Manager for Young Engineers with No Managerial Experience
Through providing career-coaching services to engineers, I know that the most common problem that developing engineers are trying to solve is how to become a successful engineering manager. After spending the early part of their engineering career becoming confident in their technical skills, many engineers are ready to take the steps required to become an […]
Tips for a Successful Geographic Relocation in Your Engineering Career Part 2 of 2 – Financial Tips for Relocating
This is a guest post by Jason Kent, P.E. This is the second post of a two part series entitled Tips for a Successful Geographic Relocation in Your Engineering Career – Financial Tips for Relocating. To read the first post in the series. Being offered a position in a new location brings with it a […]
10 Recommendations for Creating Your Ideal Engineering Career from a Young Engineer in Alaska Who is Doing It
Designing your ideal engineering career…. This post is based on an interview I did with Jessica Smith, a younger engineer working as a transportation planner at the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) in Fairbanks, Alaska. In the interview we focused on the idea of creating the ideal engineering career. I have been trying to convince engineers […]
Ambition is Good
Lay to rest the debate on whether ambition is good or bad. It’s good. If it take’s a motive force such as ambition to develop new technologies, advance science, or explore new forms of art or music then I say “bring it”. It’s very possible you were raised in an environment that shunned ambition or […]