Analyzing Your Objectives by Applying SWOT
A great strategic planning tool used in business for analyzing an environment for a new project is the SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Business planners know that in order for a project to be successful, they need to scope the playing field to determine what resources to allocate, what challenges will be faced, […]
Due Diligence in Your Life
Due diligence is as important to engineers as water is to a fish. By definition, due diligence is any number of concepts or processes involving an investigation of a design, engineering calculation, contract, or some other item where a certain standard of care is needed. We like to know the bridge we’re driving on won’t […]
Starting an Engineering Company Today Can Be Like Driving Into Death Valley
Starting an Engineering Company This is a guest post by Brandon Lee Walter where he discusses the process of starting an engineering company. I decided to try to make the move to a company that sounded like they would be prepared to ride out the upcoming recession in May of 2008. After being let go […]
Credentials Bring You Credibility
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of my soon-to-be-launched book Engineer Your Own Success: 7 Key Elements to Creating an Extraordinary Engineering Career: Your credentials represent measurable accomplishments in your career, which include your degrees, licenses, certifications, and any awards you may have won. Credentials are essential for several reasons, but the most […]
Staying On-Point In Life: Sharpening Your Saw
In military terminology, “being on-point” means to assume the first and most exposed position in a combat formation. You’re out front, leading your team into hostile territory and therefore, fully switched-on and in tune with your environment looking for threats and opportunities. To Staying On-Point In Life and to be a successful point-man, you must […]
Compass, Gear, and Pencil: Learn to Write…and Communicate
If you are trying to decide among a number of skills which one you wish to improve, improve your writing. For certain having good skills in speaking, managing a program, or negotiating a budget are important. But being able to write and communicate good will win-out every time. That’s because good writing is about more […]
Are You Managing or… Investing Your Time?
This isn’t an article about time management. If you want that, go to Amazon.com and buy one of the 20,985 books on the subject. This is an article about investing your time. Management implies control, focus, and organization. This is a prereq and a practice you develop from experience and….time. Don’t manage time and you’ll […]
Engineering Econ 201 – Understanding Business
Engineers by-and-large have a bad rap when it comes to understanding business. That is, the art of using engineering skills to create value for others, and themselves. If you’re like I am, your first introduction to “business management” was the engineering economics course you took during your undergraduate program. In retrospect, that course did nothing […]
Managers: Do You Care About Your Employees?
From my experience in the engineering industry, and really the corporate environment in general, I realized that there are two types of managers, I refer to them as managers and LEADERS. There are leaders who care about their co-workers and staff and there are managers who really don’t. Let me explain further. The leaders, who […]
How To Deal With The Stresses and Anxieties of Being An Engineer
Stress and anxiety are very common among engineers. This article includes a list of techniques that engineers can use to help manage their daily stresses and anxieties. At times, we have to deal with stresses and anxieties when many things happens all at once. When this happens, take a deep breath and try to find something to […]