Engineering Management Institute

Nader Mowlaee

3 Tips for Selling Yourself So You Can Sell Anything Well

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This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

Some people are great at speaking about themselves. They’re the ones that have a story to tell about every situation. They’re comfortable going from one topic to another effortlessly, and they seem to know somebody wherever they go. They’re smooth talkers, and somehow, they seem to have an endless amount of charisma and an extensive network of friends. Engineers often are not among this group.

I know you don’t want to hear this, but you might need to become a little more like those who are comfortable and confident talking about who they are and what value they have to offer. It is where you’ve got to put your selfish ego aside and lean forward to learn about selling yourself. Don’t worry. I am not suggesting you become someone you’re not, though in many cases, such as during a job interview, you need to learn how to effectively present yourself so that you can convince an employer to invest in you and your capabilities. Here are some soft skills to know when selling yourself:

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3 Ways Engineering Leaders Can Manage Emotions in the Workplace

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This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

EmotionsMany factors can contribute to how we can handle stress in the workplace. These include our personality and position in the organization, heavy workload, exclusion, and bullying among co-workers. Therefore, one of the most impactful elements of an engineering leader’s success is their ability to manage the engineering team’s moods and emotions. 

emotions

Successful management of your team’s emotions is of great importance in handling stress, improving performance, continuous learning, creativity, and general well-being, as well as mental and physical health. Ineffective management of emotions can result in employees hiding their feelings or suppressing their ideas, leading to burnout or workplace stress, and in the worst cases, high blood pressure and cardiovascular conditions. 

Engineers regularly make logical decisions when designing a system or implementing a technical solution; however, much of our behavior is driven by emotion when it comes to interactions in the workplace or among colleagues. An engineering manager’s responsibility then is to establish the emotional tone for the team to avoid conflicts and instead encourage camaraderie among team members.  

This is why mood management is one of the most critical components of leadership in all career types. However, controlling a team’s emotions can be like stopping the common cold or an endemic disease. People’s moods are like viruses; they spread from one person to another through a process known as “emotional contagion.” 

Once you get infected, you begin to mimic your co-worker’s facial expressions, body language, and even tone of voice. What started as one person having a bad day can lower the whole team’s morale, influencing judgment and decision-making. 

Here Are Three Ways You Can Be an Effective Engineering Leader So You Can Successfully Manage Your Team and Avoid Burnout on the Job:  

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Three Situations Where Customers Are Not Always Right

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This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

CustomersYou must have heard this phrase before: “The customer is always right.” And chances are you have assumed that it applies to everyone and every business. However, based on my experience, there are three situations where this is not the case. In this article, I would like to share those situations with you so you won’t be negatively affected by misplaced beliefs or false expectations.

The idea or purpose behind this saying is to improve the quality of service we offer to everyone, whether they are purchasing products or services from us (external customers) or working on the same team as us (internal customers). However, over the last few years, I’ve seen many cases where internal and external customers have quoted this phrase to bend the truth a bit or break a rule. Here are three situations where the idea of,  “the customer is always right,” is wrong.

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3 Ideas to Help Grow Your Community and Improve Your Life

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This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

Grow Your CommunityIt goes without saying that we are living through unprecedented times. But we’re all tied up together in this thing called life. Think of each other as bees of the same hive. When one bee is hurt, the entire hive suffers. It goes the other way too; when one bee thrives, the whole hive prospers. So I’m here to discuss how growing as a single person will help grow your community and improve their quality of life.

It’s not difficult to wake up nowadays and feel like life is awful on all fronts: our jobs are stagnant, our government is letting us down, and our physical and mental health has been neglected. All of this makes us feel like we are not fulfilling our true potential, and we are unhappy as a result. Sure, we are not going at it alone, and this happens to everyone. But, how can we change it?

We can change it by bettering ourselves. Yes, we can help our communities grow and prosper by improving our own lives. It will take lots of work, but fortune favors the courageous. If we believe in ourselves, we will reach our personal life goals and become the best version of ourselves, therefore positively and holistically affecting our communities and the people in them.

1. Compete With Yourself and Root for Everybody Else

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Accepting Responsibility Is the Precursor to Closing the Deal

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This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

ResponsibilityWhether you close business deals daily or consider a completed deal to be a new job offer that will catapult your career forward, you must first accept full responsibility for what will happen after signing the agreement. Taking responsibility is required for progressing in your work, business, life, or relationships. It is just the right thing to do, and it is a precursor to overcoming or altogether avoiding negative consequences.

Engineering Leaders Take Responsibility for Their Actions

Great engineers take responsibility for their actions and their thoughts because, ultimately, those thoughts turn into action and insights that enable business stakeholders to make decisions. I have seen time and again how engineering leaders take responsibility for their actions. Sometimes they win and get recognized for their efforts, and more often, they fail and get scolded; some even face criminal and obstruction charges. What makes someone a well-rounded engineer heavily relies on how many lessons they have learned from their failures and their career wins.

Responsibility

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Developing a Personal Brand as the Jack of All Trades

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This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

Developing a Personal BrandAt some point in your career or during your job search, you must have been asked the famous interview question, “Tell me about yourself.” If you often respond to such questions with “I’m great at solving problems” or “I’m a good leader who others can depend on in all situations,” this article will help you better understand and developing your personal brand so that you can send the right message to those who are considering you for a job or make a strong impression on those who are meeting you for the first time.

Being the “Jack or Jill of all trades” does not automatically make you “master of none,” although in most cases, it’s unlikely that you’re an expert in one particular area. But that’s what makes you unique, and you can be among the most valuable members of your team or company. And this begins with you taking full ownership of your unique position, and clearly brand yourself as one who is approachable and resourceful.

Developing a Personal Brand

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3 Steps to Building an Accountability System for Your Engineering Career

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This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

Accountability SystemCareer success and growth comes to us when we accept responsibility for our actions, our wins, and our failures. This is because what we put into our career, from education to continuous learning, training, and certifications, dictates what we get out of task accomplishments, project achievements, and daily performance. We begin to notice that no one else but ourselves controls the power of success by taking full ownership of our consistent everyday actions, positive thoughts, and constructive energy.

Taking full ownership for building an accountability system for your engineering career is a powerful thing because there is no way to go back and fix the mistakes you made or change your career choice. However, at one point, you will discover that to change your engineering career trajectory, you will have to make changes to your daily routine and build an accountability system to guarantee those changes will remain in place for as long as it takes for them to become habits.

Accountability System

Here Are Three Tips for Building an Accountability System for Your Engineering Career:

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2 Steps to Setting Goals for Changing Your Engineering Career in 2021

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This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

Changing Your Engineering CareerSTEP 1: Identify the Outcomes You Want to Create or Contribute To

Align your mission with a company’s mission that motivates you. It is tough to come up with innovative ideas by yourself, especially if you are starting to set new goals or changing your engineering career and you do not know where to start.

If this sounds like you, then you’re not alone. Many engineers have been making career transitions this year and certainly last year in 2020, and I have been there guiding them along the way. I know how it feels to come up short and feel like there is no future for you, and in this article, I want to give you a simple 2-step process to setting powerful goals that can contribute to you successfully changing your engineering career in 2021.

Let’s start by accepting that the world is our playground and we can get to play with our own rules, especially as an engineer. We are a special breed of people who can acquire new skills on demand and can pivot whenever it’s necessary so that we can create better outcomes in our careers and lives. However, you do not have to create your own job from scratch. Just join an existing team, follow their footsteps, and enable them to achieve their grand vision. Then you can branch out later to create your own unique results.

Changing Your Engineering Career

Here is an example: When I decided to leave an engineering career behind and get into technical recruiting, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. All I had was a role model and an attractive staffing company I had just joined. So all the goals I set were fully aligned with that company’s vision and core values.

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This Is How Engineers Can Build a Good Work-Life Balance

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This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

Good Work-Life BalanceTo have a good work-life balance, you can’t live your life to work. It should be the other way around: Work so you can have a good life. That may sound too good to be true for you right now, but don’t allow—not even for one second—any doubt to settle in your heart or your mind that you can’t have that. We have all been there at least once, working on projects 50 to 60 hours per week and still feeling like we’re spinning our wheels. 

I understand that deadlines don’t often change, and that in tough times we must go all-in to finish projects on time. But this means that you’re getting deep into working overtime while at the same time training yourself and everyone around you that you are capable of working more than you should—and since you want to be a good sport, you can work overtime while keeping a good attitude. 

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How Mechanical Engineers Can Give Back to Their Community

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This is a guest blog by Nader Mowlaee

Mechanical EngineersAs a mechanical engineer (ME), you can look forward to the inherent rewards of a lucrative career. An in-demand job and even job mobility as mechanical engineers typically make above-average earnings here the United States. However, engineers today are looking for more than the monetary rewards that come with this dynamic role. That’s why many mechanical engineers often look to give back to their communities. 

Giving back to your community comes with several benefits. Not only do you get to hone your leadership skills as a mechanical engineer, but it also provides you with networking opportunities and gives you the chance to gain new experiences. Whether you’re a senior mechanical engineer or an experienced mechanical engineering manager looking to share your insight, there are several opportunities you can take to give back to your community. Here’s a few of them: 

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