Why should we set goals — to obtain success, achievement, or happiness? And how are we supposed to manage failure when our goals fall short? In this post, you will discover newfound insights to help you answer these questions!
[Read more…] about Goal Setting: The Meaning of Failure and Success
As I reflect and think about the various blog topics that I could write about for the Civil Engineering Collective, I wanted to start off by summarizing one of the biggest concepts that I see young engineers struggle with in their first few years after graduating college and starting their career. The issue is that your engineering career is quite the long game, and it has only truly started. Engineering school is step one and obtaining your professional engineering license should be the step where everything accelerates (and not slows down).
Establishing a challenging and rewarding engineering career is very important to me, and I hope to break down some foundational concepts so that you can set off on your own challenging and rewarding engineering career. I think the following four major components are most critical to take into consideration for your career development:
You can find tons of content on each of these topics from all kinds of sources, both internally focused on the engineering field and externally. I think there is value in immersing yourself in these topics early and often to continually remind yourself of the value of each.
[Read more…] about Understanding and Optimizing the Long Game That Is Your Engineering Career
Several years ago, we took a family vacation to Maine. Being a savvy professional, I set official goals for the trip. I wrote them down, of course. Goals aren’t real unless you write them down.
I shared my written goals with a peer group. I even wrote them down in the visitors’ registration book at a Maine information center.
“Goals for Maine trip: to get a green tourmaline ring and to see a moose.”
Before I tell you what happened, let’s look at how to set goals using the SMART method, a tried-and-true model for goal setting. And very fitting for this time of year.
[Read more…] about How To Write SMART Goals, Courtesy of a Moose
The topic for our December 2020 Civil Engineering Collective session will be goal setting as many professionals start thinking about their goals for 2021. In the session, we will walk through three steps that you can take for effective goal setting. However what I’d like to cover in this post is an important step that you must take after setting goals, PRIORITIZING YOUR GOALS.
So let’s assume you followed the three-step goal setting process and you now have ten goals that you will be working on for 2021. How do you decide which goals to work on when?
Firstly, I recommend that you try to organize your goals by the amount of time it will take to achieve them. For example, studying for a certification exam could take 6 months, while reading a book or learning a new computer program could take four to six weeks. While the task duration shouldn’t be the only factor considered when prioritizing your goals, it may help deciding when to pursue each goal.
Once you’ve organized your goals by duration, next you should consider the impact that achieving each goal will have on you, your career, and those around you. I recommend classifying these by “low impact” or “high impact.” For example, if you were to achieve your professional engineering license (P.E.) that would most likely have a high positive impact on your career and also great benefit to your company. However, reading a book on communication skills, while it may help you, probably would be lower impact than a PE license.
[Read more…] about Prioritizing Your Goals – the One Step Most Professionals Fail to Take
What a cool topic for my first EMI Blog—Goal Setting—as publishing and mentoring have been on my list of career objectives for many years. Writing my first draft, I realized it was January 4th, my father’s birthday and the time of year where resolutions and goal setting run rampant. My parents, school teachers who raised me in Boulder, Colorado, often limited their advice to philosophical statements like, “We are who we are becoming.” As a kid, this lack of concrete guidance frustrated me, as I sought clear direction for a successful life. Thirty years into my civil engineering career, as a parent, mentor, mentee and friend, I hold dearly to my parents’ guidance, accepting that we are who we are becoming is step one in balancing our desires against life’s events.
Happy New Year! It’s goal-setting season. How much value do you want to add at work this year? Do you know the EXACT percentage raise you want to earn? And do you know how to earn it? For many of our clients, earning a 30% pay raise is a stretch goal they aspire to achieve.
But the question is, how do you get there?
[Read more…] about Do You Have the Resourcefulness to Earn a 30% Pay Raise This Year?
Managing a career is not always an easy task. Maybe you are fresh out of school or just starting your engineering career. Or maybe you have several years under your belt and feel like you are doing the same things over and over again. Regardless of your current status, embracing your career management can be frustrating. How do you know where to start? [Read more…] about Career Management – What Engineering Professionals Should Know
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In episode 02 of The Structural Engineering Channel podcast, we will be taking you with us back to the ASCE SEI Structures Congress in Orlando where we interviewed some guests on the current state of the structural engineering industry. This is actually one of two episodes from ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute(SEI Structures Congress). The other episode will be published on June, 19 on The Civil Engineering Podcast, in an effort to give the Congress more visibility.
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In episode 204 of The Engineering Career Coach, I will be answering some questions that we received from our listeners about career development and goal setting, specifically on leveraging accomplishments and about how to show your company that you are ready for an engineering management position.
[Read more…] about TECC 204: How to Show Your Company You Are Ready for Engineering Management
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In this episode, I discuss a book I recently read entitled: “The 5 Book: Where Will You be Five Years from Today?” and more importantly pose a question to you which is, “Where will you be five years from today?” Well…where will you be?
[Read more…] about TECC 203: Where Will You Be Five Years from Now in Your Engineering Career?
