opportunities

Starting an Engineering Firm: A Total Guide

November 11, 2019 By Anthony Fasano

This is a guest blog by Jim Hughes

There are many reasons why a lot of engineers choose to start up their own firm. Basically, you get to be the boss, you get to decide which projects to take, and you get to pursue your engineering passions. And if you nail the right strategy, there are no limits to your income potential. However, starting an engineering firm is not easy. In fact, 90% of startups fail.

Becoming your own boss entails a lot of responsibilities. You have to take care of everything—from raising funds to hiring people and promoting your firm. And if you don’t deliver as intended, you’ll lose clients.

There’s a lot at stake the moment you quit your 9-to-5 job and decide to start up your own firm. To increase your chances of success, follow these guidelines:

Redefining Business Development for Engineering Professionals

September 16, 2019 By Anthony Fasano

This is a guest blog by Lindsay Diven, CPSM

It’s interesting that in the engineering industry, our sales teams are often referred to as Business Developers or Client Managers. The sound of the word “sales” makes you think of a used car salesperson or a telemarketer. I get it. You studied to be an engineer and practice your craft with pride, as you should. You are very skilled in your expertise.

However, there is a point, when you must win that next project for your team or firm. This typically involves finding potential new clients and meeting with decision makers. Having worked with engineers for more than a decade, I know that this is easier said than done.

Resisting Business Development Meetings

You may resist meeting with clients because you feel you must sell your experience and ideas. This often feels like a “dog and pony show.” The clients often feel this way too. They don’t want to sit in an hour-long meeting listening to how great you and your firm are. They are busy too and more often not taking as many “sales” meetings or are making them shorter. I have experienced some clients only giving us 15 minutes!

So, how do you make business development easier for you and more accepting for your clients? How do you make those type of meetings valuable to both you and your client so that each party feels their time wasn’t wasted?

You do this by redefining business development.

First, let’s start with the original definition.

TCEP 125: The Design Build Project Delivery Process and Why It Will Continue to Become More Popular

August 28, 2019 By Anthony Fasano

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In episode 125 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, which is our second episode in our Women in Civil Engineering series, I will be talking to Mary Lang, P.E., P.P., LEED GA, who is a principal at Yu & Associates. Mary will discuss design build and what civil engineers should know about this delivery process, which while it has been around for a while, continues to become more and more popular.

Engineering Quotes:

Here Are Some of the Questions I Ask Mary:

What advice can you give some of the younger female engineers out there?
Tell us about the time you took a break in your career to raise your children?
What is Design Build?
What are the benefits and risks of using this delivery process from the engineer’s perspective?
Do you see Design Build becoming more popular moving forward?

Here Are Some Key Points Discussed in This Episode About Design Build:

Successful Employee Management for Your Engineering Startup

August 26, 2019 By Anthony Fasano

This is a guest blog by Jim Hughes

Employee Management The number of engineers launching their own startup companies is increasing. More and more engineers are pursuing new entrepreneurial ventures with the dream of becoming their own boss, launching their own product or services, and making a dent in their industries. This has highlighted something that is critical to startup success: employee management, which is a huge challenge.

Employee management covers best practices to retain the top talent who will help you achieve your goals. As a founder, you know that a big part of your success (or failure) is your people. So, as you work your way towards establishing an engineering startup, it is important to equip yourself with knowledge in employee management.

Finding the Right People

TECC 186: A Short Story About a Long Drive…

October 2, 2018 By Anthony Fasano

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In this episode, I will tell you a short story about a long drive that changed the way I think and had a major impact on our business here at the Engineering Management Institute. I hope that it helps you to cultivate an opportunistic mindset in your career and life overall.

Engineering Quote:

Here are some of the key points discussed in this short story about my long unforeseen drive:

The Foundation of a Great Management Career in Engineering

September 25, 2018 By Anthony Fasano

This is a guest blog post by Mary Jane Riccardi, SPHR, MBA

Management Career

Whether project management or organizational management, the foundation of a great management career starts with exceptional technical/professional performance. Many engineering professionals start their careers with strong technical skills, honed through years of schooling, challenging work assignments, and delivering on project management expectations. Moving into a project or organizational management role takes a new set of skills, which can be developed long before acquiring the manager title.

Through developing professional consulting competencies engineers can accelerate their skill development while providing additional contribution to their firms. Also, it allows early career engineers to demonstrate their people skills to those internal decision makers, who may be making those promotional decisions.

So what specifically are professional consulting competencies? After talking with and listening to many junior and senior professional consultants in the A/E industry, I developed a 10-competency model that can be used to guide any engineer in their role as a professional consultant. Executing on technical skills and abilities can develop the first four, the next five require focus on people. Pursuing self-development is important regardless of your career goals.

5 Laws for Engineer Career Success

August 22, 2018 By Anthony Fasano

5 Laws for Engineer Career Success is a blog post by Tom Jager

“Engineering is the closest thing to magic that exists in the world.”

This quote comes from Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk and beautifully describes what each engineer wants to do and should do to achieve career success: create, innovate, and improve everything around them.

Becoming a successful “wizard,” or engineer, has never been easy because the profession requires complex skills and even more complex responsibilities. To enter such a career, one has to develop the courage and personality traits needed to endure all the challenges one will face in this profession.

Despite a popular opinion, knowledge alone is insufficient to succeed as an engineering professional. You have to have that desire to design the things that millions are only dreaming about. That’s what drives people working on such amazing projects such as an autonomous car and an upcoming flight to Mars.

What else distinguishes these brilliant engineers?

The ability to follow the unwritten laws of the profession that keep them focused and moving forward.

In this article I’d like to focus on these laws in hopes that they can help you to become a successful or more successful engineer.

Law #1: Do Good Work

TECC 181: One Engineer’s Plan for Recovering from Burnout

August 7, 2018 By Anthony Fasano

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In this episode, I provide coaching and guidance to an engineer who is totally burnt out in his career. By the end of this episode, he is inspired and has a plan to change his career for the better. He then also adds a twist to this episode and starts asking me some career-related questions on the decisions I made in my career.

Engineering Quotes:

Here are the key points discussed on recovering from burnout:

TCEP 092: Business Development Skill Building for Civil Engineers

August 1, 2018 By Anthony Fasano

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In episode 92 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I am taking you with me to visit T&M Associates headquarters in Middletown NJ, where we are going to sit down with Ihsan Al-Fayyomi to talk about business development skill building for civil engineers.

Here are some of the questions I ask Ihsan:

Can you talk about how you became involved in expanding your company geographically?
What was your mindset like when you started growing the company?
Is smart decision making something you personally focus on?
What is your overall philosophy on building relationships?
How do you build trust?
Tell us about having difficult conversations.
What is your management style?

Engineering Quotes:

Here are some key points discussed on business development skill building:

4 Opportunities to Grow Your Leadership Skills

July 31, 2018 By Anthony Fasano

4 Opportunities to Grow Your Leadership Skills is a blog post by guest author
Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA, ASEP

Leadership skills are crucial for engineers looking to take on more responsibility, and move into management. If you’ve ever read this blog, or anything I’ve written on leadership in the past, you’ll already know that.

What you might not know is how to develop your leadership skills. This is a constant struggle for engineers looking to break into leadership roles – how can you grow to become a leader if nobody gives you the chance to develop those skills in the first place? How you can get leadership experience if all leadership roles require previous leadership experience?

Today, I’m going to share five ways that you can grow your leadership skills, regardless of whether you already have a formal leadership role at work or not. Pursuing just one of these ideas over the next year can do amazing things for you personally and your ability to lead others.

opportunities

This is a guest blog by Jim Hughes

This is a guest blog by Lindsay Diven, CPSM

Resisting Business Development Meetings

Engineering Quotes:

Here Are Some of the Questions I Ask Mary:

Here Are Some Key Points Discussed in This Episode About Design Build:

This is a guest blog by Jim Hughes

Finding the Right People

Engineering Quote:

Here are some of the key points discussed in this short story about my long unforeseen drive:

This is a guest blog post by Mary Jane Riccardi, SPHR, MBA

5 Laws for Engineer Career Success is a blog post by Tom Jager

Law #1: Do Good Work

Engineering Quotes:

Here are the key points discussed on recovering from burnout:

Here are some of the questions I ask Ihsan:

Engineering Quotes:

Here are some key points discussed on business development skill building:

4 Opportunities to Grow Your Leadership Skills is a blog post by guest author Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA, ASEP

4 Opportunities to Grow Your Leadership Skills is a blog post by guest author
Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA, ASEP