Engineering Management Institute

UPCOMING WEBINAR

TCEP 090: LGBTQ Inclusion in Engineering…When We Embrace Diversity, We All Win

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Embrace Diversity

In episode 90 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk with Joseph Barker, PE, PTOE, a licensed Professional Engineer and Traffic Operations Engineer from Stantec. We discuss the topic of diversity and why firms should embrace diversity for engineers which provides inspiration and typically leads to them being happier and more productive in their careers.

Here are some of the questions I asked Joseph Barker, PE, PTOE:

  • What was it like entering the Civil Engineering workforce as a gay man?
  • How did hiding your being gay affect your daily mindset?
  • Would you say that this experience you went through, hiding who you really are, made you stronger today?
  • Tell us about the move you made to Stantec, and how that impacted your mindset and career overall?
  • Have you ever thought of relocating to a geographical location that is more accepting of gay people?

Engineering Quotes:

Embrace Diversity

Here are some key points discussed in this episode:

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Why Communication for Engineers Is so Important

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Why Communication for Engineers Is so Important is a
guest blog by Thomas A. Anderson, P.E:

Communication for Engineers

Do you remember the telephone game?

In school, you and your classmates tried to pick a phrase and “pass it on” by whispering it to the person next to you. Then the phrase was passed from person to person until the last person announced the phrase. How much did the phrase change during the game? As people relay message from one person to the other, the message will often be distorted.

While the game is a lot of fun. It also teaches us important lessons.

  • If you do not receive information from a reliable source, you may not get the correct information. It turns into gossip.
  • If you do not produce information properly, it will not be received as planned

Communication skills are vital to success in your personal life and your engineering career. Poorly delivered messages can turn into misunderstanding, frustration, or even a disaster.

By practicing communication, you will understand more of what people say. Your family, friends, and co-workers will have the confidence to come to you when they find themselves in need.

What are the keys to clear communication?

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TCEP 085: From Taxi Driver to Globally Recognized Transportation Engineer Featuring Gridlock Sam Schwartz

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Sam SchwartzIn episode 085 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk with Sam Schwartz, PE, President, and CEO of Sam Schwartz Consulting, LLC, a firm that specializes in transportation planning and engineering. During the episode, Schwartz discussed his career journey that started with him as a taxi driver, but has evolved into Schwartz today, being known as a globally recognized transportation engineer.

Here are some of the questions I ask Sam Schwartz:

  • How would you describe yourself?
  • Tell us about your experience as a Taxi driver and how it helped your overall professional development?
  • What is Gridlock Sam?
  • What are your goals in building your company?

Engineering Quotes:

Sam Schwartz
Sam Schwartz

Here are some key points discussed and quotes from this episode:

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7 Tips to Engineer Your Job Promotion

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7 Tips to Engineer Your Job Promotion is a blog post by guest author Sreeram Sreenivasan

Job PromotionDid you know that 23% of employees feel they’re overlooked for a promotion? There was a time when hard work and professional conduct were good enough to get engineers promoted. Today, they’ve become the norm. Keeping your head down and slogging hard won’t cut it any more. Engineers need to apply specific tactics to increase their chances of getting a job promotion.

1. Analyze your current situation

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You Are an Expert, and It’s Time to Own It

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You Are an Expert, and It’s Time to Own It is a blog post by guest author Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA

Expert

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.

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Managing Individual and Firm Licensure for Engineering Firms

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This is a guest post by Jerri-Lynn Wier of Harbor Compliance

Firm LicensureEach 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.Firm Licensure

Entity Management: Qualifying to Do Business in a New State

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How to Get Your Resume Noticed: Tips for College Students

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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

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Actions Speak Louder than Words in Your Presentation

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Actions Speak Louder than Words in Your Presentation is a guest post by Shoots Veis, P.E.

Presentation
Most engineers, and most people, will tell you that giving a presentation is not something they look forward to.  However, given our love of efficiency, engineers should have a different outlook.  One reason we give a speech to an audience is because it should be the most efficient way to share information.  The presenter has information they need to disseminate to a lot of people, so why not get them all in a room and tell everyone at the same time?  Doing so might even generate questions that you can answer for the group that wouldn’t come up if there wasn’t a group of people in that room.

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Expect Murphy’s Law to Apply to all Engineering Presentations You Give

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Expect Murphy’s Law to Apply to all Engineering Presentations You Give is a guest post by Shoots Veis, P.E.

Engineering PresentationsI’ve had the honor of speaking to thousands of engineers across the world over the years, which has helped me to understand why public speaking is so important to any professional.  It gives you the ability to reach and impact a lot of people.

That being said, there’s been a few times, where I showed up to speak and everything went wrong, and I had to adjust.  This happens more often than not and that’s why I am really excited to share the following story with you from our guest author for this week Shoots Veis, P.E, author of Public Speaking for Engineers, about engineering presentations. Enjoy it…

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TECC 169: Strategies Engineers can Take to Immediately Improve their Technical Writing Skills

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Technical Writing SkillsIn this episode, I talk with David Kowal, founder, and president of Kowal Communications about improving one’s technical writing skills. David gives five very specific strategies that you can start using immediately to make you a more effective writer and overall communicator as a technical professional.

Engineering Quotes:

Technical Writing Skills

Technical Writing Skills

Here are the key points discussed on improving your technical writing skills:

  • We have more ways to communicate than ever before, yet technology has made communication impersonal and often ambiguous.
  • We need to focus more on how we communicate, and writing is a big part of that.
  • Most communication today is written. By improving your writing skills, you can improve how you communicate through emails, text messages, social media posts, blog posts, reports, memos, articles, white papers, letters, and presentations.
  • Improving your technical writing skills can help you manage projects more efficiently, generate more dynamic engineering reports, sell more effectively, be more productive, stand out and advance your career.

Here are five strategies you can use to improve your technical writing skills:

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