Engineering Management Institute

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How to Set SMART Goals in 2022 and Make Them Achievable

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It’s the end of the year. You know what that means for you, right? It’s time to set your goals for 2022.

Setting Goals Requires You to Reflect on What You Did and Did Not Accomplish in 2021

  • What new tools did you learn to use?
  • What new experience did you gain about working with clients?
  • What accomplishments are you most proud of?

Take time to reflect on your wins.

Then Turn Each of Those Questions Around to Ask Yourself What You Want to Accomplish in 2022

  • What new tools do you want to master?
  • What new interactions can you have with clients?
  • What accomplishments do you want to brag about at this time next year?

I’ve learned certain goal-setting strategies will help me — and you — be more successful. And as one CEO told me recently, “The difference between having goals and not having goals is results.”

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TECC 259: The Lost Art of Effective One-On-One Meetings

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The Lost Art of Effective One-On-One Meetings

In this episode, we talk to Hazim Macky, Vice President of engineering at Coinme, the largest licensed cryptocurrency cash network in the U.S about why one-on-one meetings are so important for both engineers and engineering leaders and how they can benefit your relationship with your team.

Engineering Quotes:

One-On-One Meetings

One-On-One Meetings

Here Are Some of the Key Points Discussed About One-On-One Meetings:

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Be a Better You

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This is a guest blog by Pamela A. Scott

Better YouThe people who read this blog are educated, experienced problem-solving professionals, and, I’m assuming, really smart. That is what my 15+ years of working with engineers has taught me.  

However, for many of those engineers, their confidence wanes when it comes to non-technical knowledge, skills, and abilities.  

Does the idea of public speaking give you the shakes? Do you dread having to go to network events, even virtual ones? How much do you enjoy managing people, especially the difficult ones? Are you excited about business development and finding new work?

If you aren’t as confident about those skills as you are about technical knowledge and skills, read on. Here are two steps you can take to conquer your fears and become a better you.

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Take Action Despite Uncertainty

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This is a guest blog by Jeff Perry

Take Action

“Treat mistakes as learning, not failure” ~ Dan Sullivan 
“Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast” ~ Tom Peters  
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~ Thomas Edison 
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ~ Winston Churchill 

These quotes, and others like them, seem to be preached more and more, all of the time. Viewing failure in this way is actually quite important; it allows us to move through uncertainty, even though that uncertainty can be a source of great fear. But believing in the principle doesn’t mean it’s automatically easy to actually do it. So how do we deal with fear, move through uncertainty, and take action anyway? Here are four ideas:

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TECC 143: How to Set Goals and Track Progress in your Engineering Career

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Let’s take a walk together.  In this episode, I am going to give you seven steps that you could use to get super focused on your career growth including where you want to go in your career. I will also explain to you how to track your progress in your engineering career. (The recording of this episode was taken during my daily lunchtime walk.)

Engineering Quotes:

Track Progress

Track Progress
Here are 7 points on how to set goals and track your progress:

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Three Methods to Stop Stagnation and Accomplish your Engineering Career Goals

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This is a guest blog post by Skye J. Coleman, PE


A few years back I had a decent life, I was working at a good company with great pay and a lot of responsibility.  But I’d been doing the same job, more or less, for several years and it was starting to get a bit boring.

giphy

Photo Credit – Giphy.com

Alright, so maybe not that bad, but I wasn’t getting a lot done.

The truth was I kind of felt slighted, I was doing 90% of the electrical engineering for the firm and didn’t have a title to match my job duties.  Instead of figuring out how to make the job better and position myself for the raise I thought I deserved, I tried hijacking a negotiation. It failed miserably, but it got me focused.

When I came to my next firm, I was determined to ensure that I wouldn’t ever be in that position again, but I had no idea how to get the help I needed. [Read more…] about Three Methods to Stop Stagnation and Accomplish your Engineering Career Goals