One thing that is certain to happen in your engineering career is conflict. This isn’t because the engineering profession is more prone to conflict than accounting or that engineers tend to be a contentious lot. It’s because, as in any profession, you’ll find people. Wherever there are people you will find conflict. Because of this, it’s important to develop a basic understanding of the three things you need to know to engineer resolution.
What Engineers Should Look for When Choosing Career Mentors
This is a guest post by Carol Evenson
If you are one of almost 2 million engineers in the United States looking for a mentor, then you have made a smart career decision. Studies show receiving mentoring from the right career mentor can make a measurable difference. So, what should you look for in career mentors? Here’s some suggestions.
You Are an Expert, and It’s Time to Own It
You Are an Expert, and It’s Time to Own It is a blog post by guest author Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA
In the world of knowledge work, expertise is everything. Gone are the days of the master builder who knew every trade and could do it all. Employers look for people with more and more experience in smaller and smaller niches. Experts are linchpins in their organizations in every industry.
Needless to say, being able to lay claim to any kind of specialty is very valuable in one’s career. It’s something every engineer should be pursuing in one form or another.
Luckily, developing expertise isn’t anywhere near as difficult as most people think. In fact, when you stop and think about it, it can be very easy to develop real expertise quickly and to reap the benefits in your career, even if you’re just getting started. The only trick is to re-frame the way you think of expertise.
Don’t ask permission
The first mistake people make with respect to expertise is that they think they need others to validate them as an expert. That’s nonsense. If you know more about a given subject than 80% of people, you’re an expert. You don’t need to be in the top 1%. You don’t need a PhD. All you need is to know your stuff better than most people.
Managing Individual and Firm Licensure for Engineering Firms
This is a guest post by Jerri-Lynn Wier of Harbor Compliance
Each state has a unique regulatory landscape that individual engineers and engineering firms must navigate before offering services. At each milestone in the firm’s development, new requirements apply, further complicating the task of staying on course and maintaining good standing. Firms can reduce their paperwork, speed the application process, and reduce their risk of unlicensed practice by taking a proactive, comprehensive approach to firm licensure. Such an approach must pay equal attention to all three sides of the professional licensing triangle: entity management, firm licensing, and the licenses of individual engineers.
Entity Management: Qualifying to Do Business in a New State
How to Get Your Resume Noticed: Tips for College Students
How to Get Your Resume Noticed: Tips for College Students is a guest post by Kevin Nelson
No doubt, writing a resume when you’re just out of college is a challenging task, especially if you think that most employers prefer candidates with experience. The fact is especially true for engineering job openings — everyone would rather hire an experienced pro for such a responsible and challenging position. At the same time, a lot of great companies are looking for young talent as it (let’s be frank) allows them to downsize on the payment. All of this, however, does not mean that you should underestimate the importance of a well-crafted resume — after all, every job opening sees an average of 250 resumes, and only 2% of those candidates land an actual interview. Let’s find out how you can wind up in those lucky two percent and get your resume noticed.
Start a career objective
Personal Accountability is the Foundation of all Success
“John, you cannot speak and train on ‘ personal accountability.’ It’s not a topic.” I was told that in April 1995. After a decade of selling and implementing leadership and sales training systems in the corporate world, though, I knew this:
Personal accountability is the foundation of all success.
Period.
So I began marketing myself as a speaker on “Personal Accountability and the QBQ!” What is QBQ!? Well, it’s a book that’s sold 1.5 million copies, but more critically, it’s a methodology for eliminating some very human traps:
How Learning Can Help Engineers to Eliminate Insecurities
How Learning Can Help Engineers to Eliminate Insecurities
is a guest post by Tiffany Rowe
The prototypical engineer is analytical, logical, accurate, communicative, creative, and, most importantly, confident. However, that’s not to say that a person must be confident to become an engineer. In fact, many of the traits seemingly intrinsic in engineering students are actually acquired during the course of their educations – confidence included. Several studies have found that education is imperative for bolstering self-esteem and to eliminate insecurities.
Here are a few ways education has been shown to eliminate insecurities and build confidence in students – especially engineering students:
10 Top Tips To Help You Achieve Your Goals in 2018
10 Tips to help you achieve your goals in 2018 is a guest post by Jake Voohrees
Are you wondering how you can actually achieve your goals in 2018? How can you put yourself on the best path to get the future job of your dreams? To level up your career? To get the promotion you seek?
This article provides ten tips you can implement to help you have a great year and reach your goals in 2018.
1. Actually Set Goals
7 Ways You Should Not Be Writing Your Engineering Resume
7 Ways You Shouldn’t Be Writing Your Engineering Resume is a guest post by Gloria Kopp.
It’s easy to think of any resume as just a simple list of facts about yourself. How hard can it be to write an engineering resume? You’d be surprised at the mistakes some engineering job hunters make. Here are 7 mistakes that are commonly made in an engineering resume, and how you can avoid them.
1. Going into Information Overload
How to Get Ahead in your Engineering Career in 2018
How to Get Ahead in your Engineering Career Today is a blog post by Nader Mowlaee.
Bruce Lee said, “I don’t fear the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks. I fear the man who practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
I won’t say that a few quotes will change your life, but perhaps hearing them can positively impact your mindset and allow you to know how to get ahead in your career. Some quotes will hit you like a bullet, and some will help you perceive life differently and inspire you to change.
Martial arts have been a significant part of my life and have allowed me to learn and understand the benefits of specialization over generalization. I’ve determined that diversification does not always result in a positive outcome. From an early age, while ranking high in Karate, I realized that I had a strong right punch and a powerful left kick; and noticed I naturally didn’t spend much time becoming better in performing many other techniques; instead, I focused primarily on improving my right punch and left kick.
