Engineering Management Institute

engineering career success

3 Engineering Career Success Tips from CEOs & VPs Who Started Where You Are

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This is a guest post by Zachary White

success

“How did you do it?” I love asking top leaders this question for one simple reason… Success leaves clues.

I’ve asked top engineering leaders, from the Fortune 500 to Silicon Valley startups, how they got their results on my podcast. I want to share a few of their recent answers with you.

NOTE: This is not an exhaustive list, and they are not ranked in order of importance. That’s because the most important tip for you is always unique to your situation! So work with your own coach and mentor on which of these you need to focus on first, and go find a dozen more solutions to your unique challenges.

1. Find Your Mentor — AND Your Mentees

Everybody talks about the importance of having a mentor. I personally believe in having a tribe of mentors.

But very few leaders talk about the importance of finding your mentees as well.

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The Power of Perseverance in Developing a Strong Engineering Career

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This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

perseveranceThe good news is that your beliefs can strengthen your engineering career success, and as you build stronger core beliefs, you will raise your motivation to learn and grow into a more capable engineer. But the bad news is that changing your life and reaching your career goals will not be an easy task. You will likely fail over and over again before you succeed, and the chances are that achieving new levels of success on the job will take longer than you had initially forecasted. 

However, through building new habits, developing your skills, and demonstrating tenacity and grit, you can create a strong engineering career beyond what you initially thought was possible. On the other side, a poor set of personal habits, a low level of aptitude, and a lack of perseverance can explain why most engineers fail to achieve their career goals.

We are going through a very tough job market right now, and since the pandemic began, there have been many engineers who lost their jobs or had to pivot into a new career path so they can survive, keep making an income, and in some cases, to thrive. But you can’t allow job market setbacks, short-term failures, and temporary job losses to take away your energy and take you away from getting what you deserve.

Perseverance

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Applying the 80/20 Principle in your Engineering Career – Engineering Career TV Ep. 7

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The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch – A Book Review

Welcome to Episode #7 of Engineering Career TV. In this episode, I talk about a book titled The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch.

I spend most of the Engineering Career TV episodes answering questions that have been submitted from engineers around the world on how to rapidly advance their careers and live the lives they want to live.

You can submit questions for the show by clicking here.

Let’s jump into today’s book, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less, which is the first in a series of book reviews where I discuss the following: [Read more…] about Applying the 80/20 Principle in your Engineering Career – Engineering Career TV Ep. 7

TECC 147: The Best Thing I Ever Did to Advance my Career

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In this episode, I am going to share with you the best thing I ever did to advance my career in hopes that it will drive massive growth in your engineering career.  Usually when you look back on your career, you can see a few moves that made a huge impact on your success — I want to help you identify those and duplicate them.

Engineering Quotes:

Advance my Career

Advance my CareerHere are the key points:

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Learn about Project Management to Enhance Your Engineering Career

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Project ManagementWhether you want to become a project manager or not, you’ll be running a project at some point in your life and in one of your capacities.  It might be in the role you hold at your firm, or in the role you occupy in a technical or professional organization, or even a role you fill in a community group.  The point is, many of activities we undertake are projects.  That is, they are what Project Management International (PMI) defines as a, temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources.  A project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal.


So the question is, do you want to approach your management of these projects in life half-assed, or with a framework that will make your management of the project more efficient?

Before I dive into one possible answer to this question (the option I’ll suggest is one worth following!), I’m not advocating earning a credential, certificate or degree in project management.  I don’t believe a practicing engineering professional must earn one of these to be proficient in applying project management concepts to efficiently bring about intended benefits to the customers and clients they serve.  What I do believe, is that one cannot leave development of a methodology of project management to on-the-job training or simple observation.

Learning about project management by osmosis might make you proficient, however, I doubt it.  Relying on casual observation to learn, internalize, and then apply knowledge in a fashion that enhances ones proficiency in any topic is a path that’s fraught with long lead-time.  Simply put, you’re going to get a better return on investment of time if you actively study project management methodology and know the basic concepts.

So how is knowing project management concepts going to make you a better engineer?

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When Accountability Is Not The Best Strategy To Achieve Your Goals

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This is a guest blog post by Daniel Hayes, PE, PMP

goals

Accountability is all the rage.  Goal setting literature is full of articles, features and columns, touting the benefits of finding an accountabilibuddy, one whose job it is to keep you on track, moving forward on your goals, performing what you planned and promised.  While I agree that having someone hold me accountable makes perfect sense, the idea has never worked well for me.  I have always struggled being on the hook to someone else; so much that resistance to accountability often pushes me off course.  I find myself pushing back on accountability because of this.


I’ve always wondered if there was something wrong with me.  Why do I push back on those trying to support me?  Why does my work suffer when I am held externally accountable?  Does this inclination and behavior of mine have to sabotage my career and personal development?

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A Five Step Year in Review: Are You Building a Successful Engineer Career?

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Successful Engineer CareerAnother year has gone by in your engineering career and you are about to embark on yet another one.  As each year goes by in your career: how exactly are you measuring whether or not you are building a successful engineering career?

In this post, I would like to share with you some ways that you can measure your success as an engineer, and also get some feedback from you on how you have been doing it.

#1 Define/Review Your Success Definition

It is absolutely impossible to measure how successful you were this past year as an engineer if you don’t have a clear picture or definition of what “success” looks like.  When I say “definition,” I mean make it as specific as possible.  

Seriously, we’re engineers, we have specifications for everything, why not have one for a successful engineering career?

12-7-15 Tweetquote

For purposes of this post, let’s use a sample and say: “A successful engineering career to me is one in which I am a leader in both my engineering firm and my community.”

 I know this may still be somewhat vague, but as long as you can measure it, it will work.  

So let’s talk about measuring success…. [Read more…] about A Five Step Year in Review: Are You Building a Successful Engineer Career?

TECC 47: Five Keys to Success from a 29 Year Old Engineering Project Manager

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TECC 47: The Engineering Career Coach Podcast – Five Keys to Success from a 29-Year Old Engineering Project Manager

My guest for this episode of TheThe Engineering Career Coach Podcast is Bailey Harrington, a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Texas with a record of success as a young engineer, project manager, and leader of engineering projects in the Austin area, as well as five years of military engineering experience both in central Texas and deployed in RC(S) Afghanistan. He is currently a Project Manager for Big Red Dog Consulting | Engineering in Austin.

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi

Some of the keys to Harrington’s success, which we discuss in detail in this episode, include: [Read more…] about TECC 47: Five Keys to Success from a 29 Year Old Engineering Project Manager