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 […]
Tips for a Successful Geographic Relocation in Your Engineering Career Part 1 of 2
I have had the pleasure of providing career-coaching services to several engineers recently who are considering and seeking advice for successful geographic relocation in their engineering careers. Therefore, I decided to write a series of two posts to assist those engineers out there that might be making (or considering making) a geographic relocation in their […]
Dressing for Success – Will It Really Impact Your Engineering Career Development?
An engineer recently asked me – How important is the way you dress in respect to your reputation and credibility? I thought it was a great question and one that many people don’t ask themselves often enough. I believe that the way you dress does have an impact on your reputation, and ultimately your engineering […]
Early Financial Freedom: An Engineer’s Road to Early Retirement
Featured Guest Blogger: Author of the Early Financial Freedom blog When Anthony asked me to be a guest blogger, I jumped at the offer since I have so much in common with his distinguished audience. Anthony asked me to write this post sharing my story in hopes it would inspire engineers to follow their dreams […]
How is Technology Affecting Engineering Career Development and What Should We Do About It?
In one of my last posts I talked a lot about how everyone is in a rush these days between the technology and tight budgets; everyone wants everything to be done yesterday. The point of my post was that this fast-paced approach has placed an inordinate amount of stress on all engineers because they are […]
An Effective To-Do List Can Both Increase Productivity and Reduce Hours Worked in Your Engineering Career
Through our Institute for Engineering Career Development, I have worked with many engineers on a one-on-one basis providing Engineering Management Instituteing and guidance, and the two things that almost all of our members ask for help with are time management and work-family balance. Hence in this post I am going to share with you one […]
12 Rules of Zen Monks that may Help You Reduce Stress and Improve Quality in Your Engineering Career
Like many professions today, engineering can be a stressful profession due to the project deadlines, shrinking budgets, and client demands. In this post I want to provide some principles that Zen monks follow, and how you might apply them in your engineering career, to help you reduce some of the day-to-day stresses, and be more […]
Are Certain Consulting Engineer Destined for an Unfulfilled Engineering Career?
The other day I was speaking with one of my clients who is a consulting engineer and also the owner of a small consulting engineering company. In his line of work, he is often called on when his clients are in trouble with a municipality or building department. For example, a client may call him […]
5 Tips to Help Recent Engineering Graduates Land Their First Job
I have received requests for advice from many recent engineering graduates for recommendations on how to get their first job, so I thought I would write this post to share some recommendations for everyone.: 1. Tailor your resume specifically to the job you are applying for. I recently spoke at a conference where a hiring […]