Engineering Management Institute

recent engineering graduates

Dressing for Success – Will It Really Impact Your Engineering Career Development?

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Dressing for Success

An engineer recently asked me – How important is the way you dress in respect to your reputation and credibility?  I thought it was a great question and one that many people don’t ask themselves often enough.  I believe that the way you dress does have an impact on your reputation, and ultimately your engineering career development, however your specific workplace situation may control how much of an impact dress code has.

Before I get into specific workplace situations and recommendations, let me just discuss dress code in general for those of you reading this that might be recent engineering graduates.  Most engineering companies (not all) maintain a business casual dress code, which might consist of a nice pair of khaki’s and a long sleeve dress shirt for a man and a nice skirt and blouse for a woman.  I have seen more and more engineering companies moving away from the business professional dress code, which consists of suits and ties, except of course if client meetings are taking place.  I personally like the idea of business casual in the workplace as I feel I am much more productive when I am comfortable and wearing a suit for 8 to 10 hours is anything but comfortable; however that’s just my opinion.

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How is Technology Affecting Engineering Career Development and What Should We Do About It?

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Technology Affecting Engineering Career

In one of my last posts I talked a lot about how everyone is in a rush these days between the technology and tight budgets; everyone wants everything to be done yesterday.  The point of my post was that this fast-paced approach has placed an inordinate amount of stress on all engineers because they are all trying to beat that invisible clock. However, one of the comments on that post, brought about another very important point – how is this fast pace and all of the new technology affecting engineering career development?

Younger engineers are being forced to work as quickly as possible because of shrinking budgets.  The emphasis in many companies is no longer how the younger engineers are learning these new design techniques; instead everyone wants to know how quickly they can perform them.  This kind of an atmosphere can have a devastating effect on the future quality of engineering documents throughout the industry.  [Read more…] about How is Technology Affecting Engineering Career Development and What Should We Do About It?

5 Tips to Help Recent Engineering Graduates Land Their First Job

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5 Tips to Help Recent Engineering Graduates Land Their First JobI have received requests for advice from many recent engineering graduates for recommendations on how to get their first job, so I thought I would write this post to share some recommendations for everyone.:

1. Tailor your resume specifically to the job you are applying for.

I recently spoke at a conference where a hiring manager shared some very interesting with the conference attendees. He said that when he reviews applicant resumes, if he sees one that is customized to his company specifically he is much more inclined to interview them. I always tell recent engineering graduates, if you are applying to 10 different employers, you should have 10 different resumes.

2. Focus on the presentation of your resume not just the content.

In today’s job market most recruiters and human resource professionals’ look at a resume for 10 seconds or less due to the number of resumes they get bombarded with.  In those 10 seconds, the one thing they are certainly going to notice is the presentation of the resume.  How neat it is, and how professional it looks.  Bold important activities so that they jump out at first glance. [Read more…] about 5 Tips to Help Recent Engineering Graduates Land Their First Job