Featured Guest Blogger: Gavin Redelman of RedStarResume

Congratulations on securing your job. You have been selected above and beyond the other job applicants because of all the wonderful factors that made you the best fit for the job. Now that you have the job there are many tips to keeping your position and maintaining a professional image.

Understand Your Role and Expectations

You may feel as though you are doing a fantastic job, but if your expectations differ from those of your manager or boss, there is going to be conflict. Be sure to always have a good understanding of what is expected of you. If you feel that the expectations are unrealistic, then you should approach your boss and explain the situation. One of the most important aspects of maintaining a professional image is being a good team player and contributing fairly to the team objectives. No one likes a colleague who does not do his or her fair share of the work.

Expand Your Role and Keep on Learning

Be a team player and look to get involved in more areas of the business. Be willing to share your expertise, but also be willing to learn new skills. If your company offers training courses, put your hand up to get involved. If your company doesn’t offer training courses, you can still take the initiative and invest in your own growth and knowledge by paying for these courses yourself.  After all, it is your career!

Develop Positive Relationships

We all spend so much time at work, that it is important to develop positive relationships with all of our co-workers, managers and bosses. Good relationships are based on trust. Keep commitments. If you promise something, make sure you deliver on time. However, if you find yourself in a situation where something has changed and you cannot keep that commitment, be honest and communicate. Honest communication is the key to building a long-lasting relationship.

Be Visible

Leaving early every day and not attending social gatherings is definitely not the right way to maintain a professional image. Being visible is all part of being a good team player. This does not mean you have to be best friends with every person you work with, but there is no need to isolate yourself either.

Ask for Feedback and Learn From Your Boss

Do not be afraid to ask for feedback. In order to grow and improve ourselves, we need feedback on how we are performing in our jobs. Positive feedback is always fantastic, however don’t let negative feedback get you down and certainly do not hold grudges. Learn from your mistakes and strive to do better going forward.

We spend so many hours at work that we need to enjoy what we are doing. Maintaining a professional image will help you not only build a reputation of someone who is a great team player and can be counted on to add value to the business, but will also make your work life a far greater experience. When the time comes for a promotion or a pay rise, you are far more likely to be considered because of your professional image and positive attitude.

Gavin Redelman is a resume writer for RedStartResume. During the last decade, RedStarResume has successfully written hundreds of professional resumes for engineers and other professionals across the globe. From the student or entry-level position to the CEO, their unique, custom-made resumes are written specifically to match the goals and desires of their clients and to help them land jobs.

If you require a Professional Resume Service, contact one of the senior Resume Writers today! http://www.redstarresume.com/

Featured Guest Blogger: Nick Jameson

If you’re the average college senior nearing the point where you enter the real world, you have every reason to be worried: the economy is stagnant, the recession appears to have no end in sight, employees aren’t hiring, and Americans in their 20’s are, percentage-wise, the least employed demographic segments. No doubt about it; there’s a lot of concerning data out there, and looking for a job post-graduation may be a more painful process than medical billing or sitting at the DMV.

But if you’re an engineering student about to complete an engineering degree, you may feel a bit better about your chances. You have a highly marketable major, after all, and your parents, friends, and college advisers are probably telling you that engineers have nothing to fear. It’s a growing field, they say. It’s recession-proof.

So, for those of you out there in that situation, what should you believe? Should you expect years of unemployment or a long line of suitors? Are post-grad, entry-level engineers truly weathering the recession as well as some may think?

The answer, as you may expect, lies somewhere in the middle. A few things that are for sure: engineers possess a marketable skill set, demonstrated career potential, and an intended line of work that has certainly been growing in recent decades. On the other hand, though, the recession has still taken its toll on engineering firms. So what does this mean for the post-grad applicant? It probably means job offers and excellent employment opportunities are out there – but you’re going to need to be resourceful in tracking them down.

If online searches and career centers were once sufficient resources for finding an engineering job, they should no longer be the sole avenues you explore while job searching. Instead, here are some other ideas to consider:

• Go to collegiate career fairs – not just the one at your school. By showing up at a career fair a company is expressing its desire to hire, and few fairs restrict attendance to students that attend the hosting university. Consequently, in seeking out career fairs in the cities and regions you’d be willing to work – engineering fairs in particular – you can vastly improve your odds of securing an interview.

• Network. This means more than simply asking your parents to speak with their engineer friends. Rather, your best networking usually will come from recent alumni of your program who are employed in an industry you seek. While they may not have the hiring influence of a more senior worker, they should certainly be able to offer advice. After all, they recently went through the process themselves.

• Be Flexible. In a booming economy, a graduate may be able to pick a desired city and a specific line of work to pursue. But jobs are much scarcer these days, meaning that your chances of getting exactly what you want are slimmer. By going into the process with a more flexible attitude, you’re more likely to come out satisfied.

For those prospective engineers about to graduate, these are just a few tips for getting started on your job search. You’re entering a strong profession with a wide range of employment opportunities. But, in this economy, you might have to search them out.

Recent graduates, please share any other strategies that have helped you to successfully land your first engineering job and start your engineering career!

Feel free to download the FREE podcasts from the Engineer Your Own Success radio show, some of which offer great vice on networking and communication skills.

That being said, in this post I will offer some advice from my own experience as well as some information I recently received from an executive at a large (the largest) engineering company.

I spent most of my career working at small to mid-sized engineering companies.  When I graduated, I worked for a company that had about 5 employees total.  This was a great experience because it allowed me to get involved with every aspect of a project including fieldwork, office work, and team/client coordination.  I learned so much about the engineering industry in this position.  One of the major drawbacks was that the benefits were not as good as those at a mid-size or larger firm.  For example, there was no reimbursement available for graduate school or other courses that I wanted to take.

I also worked for a mid-sized engineering firm where I also felt I had the opportunity to get involved with most aspects of each project, although it did take a little longer for me to be able to communicate directly with the clients.  I also found in a mid-sized engineering company the process for being promoted took a little longer because there was more of an official process to go through than at the smaller firm.  The benefits were also much better than the smaller firm.  In fact, the company I worked for covered about 80% of the cost of my master’s degree in civil engineering.  They also covered the fees for my P.E. exam as well as the associated books and review course.  Overall, working for a mid-sized firm was very beneficial to my career advancement and I would highly recommend exploring this option.

I have never had the opportunity to work for a large engineering firm, however at a recent engineering conference I attended a panel on career success and asked this very question to an executive from AECOM.  AECOM is the largest engineering company in the world with approximately 50,000 employees!  This executive went through this process of deciding on working for AECOM or taking a position with a smaller company.  Many people claim that when you work at a bigger company, there is a greater chance that you get pigeonholed into working on one specific task for large periods of time.  While this may be true and this executive said that he feared this, his experience at AECOM has been anything but this.  In fact, he said his experience with a larger company has given him the ability to work on larger and more interesting projects than he may have been able to work on at a smaller firm.  I had never thought about it from this perspective.  Large companies usually get to work on very high-profile, larger, and complex projects which could give you invaluable experience and enjoyment in your career.  They also most likely will have a great benefit package and potential for graduate school reimbursement.  This executive also warned us that his experience may not be standard for all large companies and it’s important to really explore the company, the people that work there and the projects they work on before making your decision.  One other benefit of large companies is the potential opportunity for travel and/or relocation to one of their other offices either within your country or abroad.

I hope you found this post to be helpful in your engineer career advancement and I would ask those of you who have had to make this decision to please share your thought process, decision and results.

Also, feel free to listen to any of my past radio shows for advice from experts on engineering career topics similar to these.

To Your Success,

Anthony Fasano, P.E., LEED AP, ACC

Featured Guest Blogger: Charles J. Gervasi

Staying independent is key to engineering success.  Engineers are independent by nature.  An engineer who spends too much time focused on someone else’s goals can become resentful.  Pursuing only your own goals is not as simple as it sounds.  Many years ago I had a supervisor say, “If you’re dedicated to being a top engineer, you should apply for a job with title XYZ in the group ABC within our company.”  The contra positive of that is that if I did not jump through their hoops, I was not a dedicated engineer.  I had signed up to solve this manager’s engineering problems and I wanted to accept the things he said, but I realized this particular premise was wrong.  A manager, even a more experienced one, cannot set my goals for me.  If I had gone along with my employer’s program, I would have felt resentful every time something did not go my way.  I might have felt like I turned over my professional development to them and they mismanaged it.  If I had done that

I would share some of the blame because it’s impossible to turn over responsibility for my life to someone else.

Plan to Job-Jump 

Thirty years ago job-jumping was looked down upon.  In today’s word, changing jobs every couple years, especially for a beginning engineer, is perfectly normal.  The most important reason to plan for job-jumping is that when you get into a situation where something at your job is not working for you, it is easy to respond dispassionately.  It is much easier to maintain a positive attitude toward your colleagues if you do not feel trapped.  They may be doing something you think is completely asinine, but you can stay positive and open to working on future projects in areas where you do agree.

Another side-benefit to job-jumping is that most companies give annual raises of 3% to 6% but pay 15% to 20% over someone’s current pay to entice them to switch.  It does not matter whether you’re currently toward the bottom or top of typical engineering salary, you can move up in pay much faster by job-jumping.  Once a new employer wants you, there’s nothing wrong with negotiating.  If you’re up for a raise next month and new employer is offering you a 12% raise to switch, point out that this is only a 7% raise over your pay as of next month.  If you currently get more vacation time, a new employer will sometimes match what you currently get and find it easier to negotiate on vacation time than on salary.

Keep in mind the raises are just a side benefit.  The main benefit of job-jumping is to learn more technology, meet more people, and be exposed to new ways of doing things.  That will bring far more money than manipulating corporate payscale systems.

Be Willing to Rock the Boat and Anger People

If you are passionate about the projects you work on, you will eventually do things that anger people.  You certainly should not set out to anger anyone, but occasionally upsetting someone should not come as a surprise.  Try to detach yourself from the emotions of the situation and work out a solution.  I have known some engineers in this position to make it known to their colleagues that they’re planning to quit the job or project if they don’t get their way.  They are absolutely right to work out a clear set of criteria that must be met if they are to carrying on working on the project.  They are absolutely wrong to make this a public ultimatum.  Instead, you should go over the issue with people who have the authority to make a change.  If you cannot get the result you want, give 100% effort and enthusiasm for doing it your employer’s way while looking for a new job.  That way you can change jobs with no hard feelings.  You’ll probably work with those engineers again on some unrelated project five years from now.

If you are passionate without becoming angry, oftentimes you can win people over to your way of thinking without leaving the project.  Keeping in mind that you are not married to this current job or project, though, helps keep things in perspective and keep you from becoming angry.

Avoid Personal Debt

Owing money adds risk to your life.  Right now you can borrow money for under 5% fixed interest.  The stock market historically returns 10%.  Real estate can return even more if you buy and manage rental properties carefully.  At the time of this writing, there is concern that loose fiscal and monetary policies in the U.S. may drive inflation up higher than 5% sometime in the next ten years, which would make a 5% loan free money after inflation.  This is one of the best times to borrow money.  Even in these times, you should not do it.  Having to make payments creates risk.

Think of avoiding debt not as part of your investment strategy but rather your insurance strategy.  With insurance, you forgo a little money in premium each month or year so that if an unlikely peril strikes, it will not wipe you out financially.  Avoiding debt is similar: You forgo the extra money you could earn through leverage so that when disaster strikes (e.g. a bad recession causes you to lose your job at the same time the stock market goes down), it doesn’t wipe you out.

Having this “insurance” in place can free you to take risks in other areas.  Maybe there’s a startup you would like to work for that can afford to pay you primarily in stock option grants.  Maybe there’s a product or technology you want to develop.  The risky nature of these opportunities is offset by having personal finances structures for low risk.

Operate Like a Business

If you need some training or tools to get your job done better, look at it as if you were a business even if you are a W-2 employee.  You cannot write off your expense for a W-2 job on your taxes.  The employer is supposed to provide them.  That’s just a legal construct.  Buy the tools and training you need, unless the employer is willing to buy them.  Having your own tools is preferable anyway because it’s easier to work on tools you know well.  It also helps that you’re not committed to particular project or job.  As a colleague of mine used to say, “Have tools – Will travel”

Conclusion

Some employers are not comfortable with independent engineers.  They are used to feeling like they are the support holding their employees up.  If you instead stand on your own feet, you will be able to serve them better and get to a better outcome for the employer, your colleagues, and yourself.

Charles J Gervasi is an electrical engineer located in Madison, WI who focuses on schematic and PCB level design, with over 10 years experience in circuit and board design. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida and a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida.  You can read more about Charles on his website at http://cgervasi.com and follow him on twitter @cgervais.

Featured Guest Blogger:

Merlin Kirschenman, P.E., CPC, M.ASCE, M. AIC

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has been a leader in “raising the bar” for the education of civil engineers.  In 2001, ASCE established the Task Committee on Academic Prerequisites for Professional Practice.  During a decade of work on raising the requirements for a professional engineer, this committee accomplished a lot, and in 2008 it published the Body Of Knowledge Second edition (BOK-2). This establishes the education requirement of a master’s degree in engineering, or equivalent, to qualify to be a licensed professional engineer.  The BOK-2 addresses  the necessary  non-technical topics, but it lacked emphasis or depth of knowledge in the non-technical, professional areas of the education phase; which is necessary to prepare the graduate engineer to function as a master builder and meet the requirements for ASCE’s Vision 2025.   The 5^th year of the BOK-2 is dedicated to technical knowledge topics; making it similar to a current advanced technical engineering degree.

Many engineers believe the “raise the bar” effort for engineering education should include significantly more professional preparation especially in leadership, management, business, communication and public policy. During the preparation of the ASCE BOK reports, some of the committee members with industry backgrounds tried to get more professionalism into the 5^th year of the CE curriculum. They proposed that the 5^th year should be a professional engineering degree instead of more technical knowledge. However, they were not successful in obtaining this level of professionalism in the BOK reports.

The following are a few comments and suggestions on how the concerns of those who want more professional aspects in the education process can be addressed while still addressing the concerns of those who want the primary emphasis to be on the technical aspects.  This debate has been going on for quite some time and it doesn’t appear like a resolution of the differences is forthcoming.

The consensus of the majority of the people involved in preparation of the BOK-2 apparently believes the emphasis should be on more technical preparation.  Those in industry want more professional preparation in the 5^th year which includes leadership, communication, business, public policy, management and team building; which is a professional engineering master’s degree. The non-technical professional component of engineering is more important than the technical component for the success of an engineer as a leader and master builder.

Therefore I propose the following:

1. There is little to be gained by extending this debate as to which approach should be followed. This raising the bar for engineering education will be a work in progress for a period of time.  The main thing is to start, and modification to the process can be made as necessary to continue accomplishing the objectives. We should proceed with both the technical and professional approaches simultaneously. There is room in the system for both the technical and professional approach.

2. There are certain advantages associated with both approaches. For the technical approach it would be easier for the universities to present this approach as most of the faculties’ credentials are technical, and it would be similar to what presently occurs.  For the professional approach it would prepare the graduates to be leaders and master builders as described in the ASCE Vision.  This professional engineering approach would address the present unmet professional education needs of the industry.  A recent report prepared for the ASCE October 2010 Board meeting included a survey result which stated that 74% of ASCE members support additional professional engineering education especially in leadership and communication.

3. Universities than could choose to offer either the technical or professional 5^th year of the BOK-2, or could offer both programs. Both would meet the education requirements for the new model licensing law.

4. The professional engineering master’s option likely would be very popular with students.  Many students know intuitively that they will need these professional skills to be successful.

5. The criteria for ABET accreditation would need to be developed so both the technical and professional masters degree would meet the ABET accreditation requirements for the 5^th year of education.

6. The professional engineering masters’ degree would be a better option for engineers than a MBA.  Many industry engineers are advising young engineers to get a MBA rather than an M Engineering for those who want to advance.  The reason is that the concepts of leadership, communication, management, business and team building apply to all levels of engineering, not just to those who have a management designation.

7. This professional engineering master’s degree option could be added to the BOK-2 as an amendment, at essentially no cost, without the necessity of having a BOK-3 committee with the associated committee costs.

CONCLUSION:

Many engineers in industry want more non-technical professional and leadership knowledge and skills integrated into the engineering education raise the bar effort.  The raise the bar effort should include a Professional Masters of Engineering option.  The non-technical component of engineering is more important than the technical component for the success of an engineer as a Leader and Master Builder as discussed in the ASCE VISION.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

If anyone agrees with the recommendation that we add a Professional  Masters of Engineering option to the 5^th year of the BOK-2 recommended 5 year education program, please contact me at m.kirschenman@ndsu.edu or Tom Lenox at ASCE.

Mr. Lenox is in charge of the ASCE’s raise the bar effort.

Mr. Lenox’s address is:

Thomas A. Lenox, Ph.D., M.ASCE
Executive Vice President
Professional & Educational Strategic Initiatives
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
Email: tlenox@asce.org

Merlin Kirschenman is professor emeritus and former chair of the Construction Management and Construction Engineering Department at North Dakota State University. Before entering academia, he spent 20 years in industry as a construction engineer and manager, primarily in heavy construction such as oil refineries, chemical plants, large concrete arch dams, large earth dams, and other flood control projects. He joined NDSU to develop their construction engineering and construction management programs.  The CME Department received its first ABET accreditation for the construction engineering program and its first ACCE accreditation for its construction management program, during his tenure. He currently is a consultant in construction engineering and management.

Featured Guest Blogger: Jeff Goodling

Historically political leaders have held power though the use of fear, either the fear of the despot (Stalin, Duvalier, Amin, etc.), or by offering protection from those that are feared (providing sanctuary within the castle walls).  Many of today’s business leaders continue to believe that fear is an appropriate tool to motivate their employees.  These leaders will state that the company can’t stay ahead of its competitors unless productivity increases, that the employee can be replaced by someone who will work harder or cheaper, or creating competition between two employees for a promotion.

I don’t think anyone wants to admit that they are living in fear, but we make decisions based upon fear daily, and many of those fear based decisions (i.e. jumping out of the way of a speeding car) are sensible.  I think it’s healthy to acknowledge our fears, and also to acknowledge that stress is only a more acceptable term for fear.  Frankly, without any stress in my life I’m not sure I’d get out of bed every morning.

I also recognize that stress can temporarily motivate employees.  However the medical profession is convinced that it is not a sustainable state, and in my experience creating a stressful work environment causes your best employees (those with the most options) to be the first to leave.

This leads us to the crux of the issue — how do you lead without creating stress?

Allow me to me digress for a moment.  In the Project Management industry the two most common metrics used to judge success are cost and schedule.  First, I’ll submit that cost and schedule are one in the same (i.e. if I give you a $1m budget, but only give you a day to do the work, you will necessarily come in under budget).  But, these two metrics only begin to define a successful project.  In fact in addition to cost and schedule, your project will not be considered a success if it isn’t also of an acceptable quality, doesn’t receive widespread stakeholder approval, and is completed safely.  In other words, there are no simple answers.

It’s natural to desire an easily definable problem and solution.  This is particularly true of engineers who are trained to believe that there is a right and wrong answer to every problem.  The truth however is that nothing is black or white, but a million shades of grey.

The same is true for managing people, some are:

• Achievers,
• Motivated by stress,
• Only interested in enjoying themselves,
• Seeking a non-threatening environment,
• Desiring autonomy,
• Looking for interesting and fulfilling work,

How does one lead when every employee is seeking something different from their job? 

Please pardon me for using a sports analogy, but I happen to think that the business world could benefit from replacing the terms; supervisor, boss, leader, etc. with the term Coach.  The coach’s job is in its simplest to win.  To do so the coach needs to field the best team he can.  Yet every year we see teams with less athleticism, experience, etc. who perform better than the teams loaded with talent.  What is it that the coaches of these less skilled players are doing?

What the great coach does is he motivates his players to play as a ‘team’ – to set aside their egos for the sake of the team.

The great coach determines how he can get the most from his players.  He spends the time to get to know each of their unique skills, determine what positions they are naturally best at, and what training they need.  Equally important the coach gets rid of the players that are a danger to the team’s chemistry, regardless of their skill level.   

The best coach’s spend as much time with their less skilled, but highly motivated players as he does with his stars.  That coach recognizes that in the right situation one of those players could grow into his Kurt Warner. (Kurt Warner spent 4 years in the Arena Football league before finally making an NFL team and then going on to earn two MVP awards.)

In summary, the successful coach (manager) recognizes that there is no one easy recipe for success, and specifically that creating a stressful environment (while it might accomplish short term goals) is not sustainable.  Instead this coach cares about each of his players, recognizes their individuality, treats them with respect, acknowledges that their success and his are inextricably linked, and does everything he can to create a synergy within the team.

Do you create stress for your staff or team?  If not, how do you avoid creating stress?

Jeff Goodling is a project director with Parsons Brinkerhoff.  He has a 25-year record of success overseeing all phases of multimillion-dollar design and construction projects, which have been delivered on-time, on-budget, safely, of the highest quality, and with widespread appreciation from the communities benefitting from them. He is currently responsible for the management of the Engineering and Project Management Contract (EPMC) for the Mumbai Metro One Project. The $750m Mumbai Metro One (MMO) Project is a 12.5 km., fully elevated, PPP, heavy rail system including 12 stations and a maintenance depot, and will be the first modern mass transit system to be built in Mumbai, India.

Featured Guest Blogger: William Merunka

Like the stock market, careers are full of ups and downs. During the up phase, we tend to celebrate and our happiness can be seen by those around us. Although the praise and recognition may not be our purpose for doing something, we enjoy the positive attention we may receive, even if we keep it to ourselves and don’t express it externally.

When our career is in the down phase, the whole world knows about it and we search for excuses as to why it didn’t go as we wanted it to. While the real reason can usually be found by evaluating things we did and didn’t do in our personal actions, the easier path, that we often take, is pushing the blame on other people and making excuses.

When speaking about career development, there should not be any excuses. Either we took the necessary steps to get from A to Z, or we didn’t. Bob can not put an end to your career. He may try to spread rumors about you, or steal clients from you, but he does not have the power to end your career.

While it may be hard to admit to ourselves that we are the cause of our failure, we need to be realistic and take a good look at our actions. It is important to realize, that you are not alone and this is something that happens to many people. Even some of the most successful people in the world had to deal with setbacks before becoming very successful. It’s the lessons that we learn from the failures that help us grow and become greater people.

There are a wide variety of reasons why we do not achieve the career success that we desire. If you can determine what is truly holding back in your career, you can work to overcome it. In this article, I will talk about a few of the more common obstacles that slow down or halt career development.

One of the reasons that our career goes stagnant is the safety blanket that we keep. Whether in your personal life, or professional life, we tend to get to a point where we are able to provide for our families, and spend time with our friends, and then we slow down on career development. We feel as if things could be better, but at the same time things are good enough where we have an acceptable work-play balance. I like to call this our safety blanket. While we may want more out of our career, if we are in this position where we feel safe and secure, our goals and wants are moved to the back burner and we work on them leisurely as opposed to tackling them head-on. Working on goals leisurely, is not going to get you where you want to be, when you want to be there. You need to go full speed and dedicate yourself to achieving the goals. If you wait too long, the computer software or topic knowledge that once made you a strong asset is now something that is standard for everybody in the industry to know and you loose that advantage. It may be heard to leave the safety blanket, but it is something that has to be done.

Another reason is fear of the obligations and sacrifices that may be required. Your career will not be handed to you on a silver platter; it will take hard work and sacrifices to get the end results that you want. This may mean volunteering for overtime to increase your project knowledge and experience or even paying for formal training and classes outside of normal working hours. There is a good chance that these sacrifices will put a strain on your personal life due to additional money you may need to spend as well as missing out on quality family time. You need to remember, that in order to get where you want to be in the future, it will take sacrifices and hard work along the way. To help ease the strain at home, talk to your loved ones about what you want to achieve and how the sacrifices will help make things better. If they are not aware of your desires, or understand how you missing your child’s first home run, or first time winning a baseball game could help them in the long run, it will just add unnecessary stress to the equation. Instead of trying to put out the fires along the way, talk to them up front about the sacrifices that will need to be made and come to agreement on these. For example, if you usually work long hours in the office, make an agreement where one night a week you would come home at your regular time, and that night is dedicated to doing things together, maybe go to the park, or play board games. The worse thing you can do is push your loved ones aside while you work on your career.

Everybody has dreams about where they want to take their career, and what they want to achieve. Sometimes those dreams seem like they will only come true in a fantasy world. However, that is wrong. No matter how crazy a dream may seem, if you work hard, and put the necessary time and energy into it, you will succeed. The only person that can stop you from achieving your dream is yourself. We can not let ourselves make excuses for why we don’t do something and why we don’t reach our desired outcomes. Excuses will not get us anywhere; it will only make yourself look bad because you are pushing off the blame instead of being accountable for your own actions.

So what is it that you really want? Whatever it may be, make it one of your highest daily priorities and go for it. You will be amazed at how much you can achieve when you dedicate yourself to achieving your goals.

William Merunka is a young motivated engineer.  Follow him on his journey to become a great leader and connect with him on LinkedIn.

Featured Guest Blogger:

Knowledge and skill often extend and expand engineering careers, but sometimes the squeaky wheel needs some amplifying in positive ways. Fortunately, engineers looking for ways to develop their careers and fortify positions can do so easily and simply.

Networking

One of the mainstays in any career field, networking with other engineering professionals and firms increases your professional profile among those with whom it counts.

Regardless of your engineering specialty, get to know those in the field and let them get to know you in return. Read their books, magazine articles and reports. Subscribe to their newsletters or e-zines and send comments to them. Ask pertinent questions that spotlight their specialty. Give them professional attention and respect without fawning over them.

Presentations

Attend professional conferences and seminars. Spend constructive time outside the conference room discussing the presented information, projects and other industry issues. Attending presentations of various forms extends your professional networking into national or international arenas, not just locally. However, if there’s an important conference in or near your city, don’t overlook that silver-platter opportunity.

Associations

Join every engineering organization you can find and can afford. Don’t limit yourself to just local organizations and associations but certainly don’t forget about them either.

Start with those that pertain specifically to your specialty. Become active in the association, not just a paying member. Volunteer for positions or tasks within the organization.

Often, your extracurricular activities gain more exposure to your abilities, your attitude and your competency than you might imagine. That exposure creates opinion, and opinion drives positive affect.

Publications

Submit a well-written article to a professional publication. Include contact information that meets the publication’s guidelines. Your name in the by-line grants instant professional recognition.

Electronic publications grant additional exposure. E-zine and newsletter owners often welcome contributing authors. Since most electronic publications don’t require long texts that magazines might, e-zine and newsletter publications can be easier to write and submit for consideration.

If the list owners aren’t accepting outside contributions, start your own. Blogs aren’t difficult to start, and if focused on one specialty and presenting highly qualified, relevant content, they can be easily found by someone looking for information you offer.

Self-Promotion

Creating a blog, maintaining it and keeping it tightly focused—then using the blog in a resource box for publication boosts your blog’s credibility and exposure. It also presents you as an expert in your field—a status that creates greater exposure and development possibilities on a CV and in the industry as a whole.

Volunteerism

Volunteer your time and expertise to local charities and causes. If your specialty is civil or electrical engineering, channel that expertise into Habitat for Humanity, for example. Chemical engineers might teach a safety course through the Red Cross on household cleaners. Mechanical engineers can work with youth and adult programs in a number of ways, teaching basic machine design or repair, for example.

Use your skills and knowledge to help your fellow citizens, and you could create a legacy that gains attention of not only those you help directly but of those who oversee the programs and who fund them, potentially cross-networking at high-influence levels.

Summary

Engineers are detail-oriented, science-minded individuals. Adapting those highly proficient and necessary skills and traits into a broader range and focus can work to enhance any engineering specialty, increase professional exposure and potentially boost career aspirations.

About the Author

JC Ryan is a freelance writer for MyCollegesandCareers.com.  My Colleges and Careers helps people determine if an online education is right for them and helps them understand which online courses and online schools they can choose from to reach their goals.

As great as it sounds to have a successful career, I believe that many people chase a successful career not knowing exactly what success means to them.

What does a successful career mean to you?

Does a successful career mean:

• Making a certain amount of money;
• Working a certain number of hours;
• Achieving a certain status in your industry;
• Obtaining a specific job that you have always wanted;
• Helping others to reach their goals;
• Reaching a point where there is no line between work and play;
• Finding a job that doesn’t require too much time, but does provide enough money for you to survive thus allowing you to spend a lot of time with your family or travel or both.

I wish nothing more than for each and every person out there to have a very successful career and a very enjoyable life.  I would just urge you to define what a successful career means to you so that you don’t spend years chasing “success,” only to find out that it wasn’t really what you thought it would be.

Please share your definition of success with us!

Anthony Fasano is the founder of Powerful Purpose Associates and the author of the soon to be released book Engineer Your Own Success: 7 Key Elements to Creating an Extraordinary Engineering Career.  Sign up now to receive an e-mail the day the book is available for purchase. There will be free bonuses available to those who purchase the book the day it comes out in May/June 2011. You can also receive Anthony’s Daily Boosts and/or Monday Morning Motivational e-mails by selecting those options as well.

Featured Guest Blogger: Cheryl Palmer, M.Ed., CECC, CPRW

Many people who have put an incredible amount of time and energy into their careers find themselves frustrated when they are confronted with career setbacks. It could be that your career is stalled. You find yourself unable to move any further up the corporate ladder. Or your career may temporarily be in neutral. You may have been laid off or downsized, and you are now involuntarily unemployed.

What´s the best way to handle these career setbacks? Here are some tips to get you back in gear:

Stalled Careers

People who do not get promoted in the time that they thought they would usually either react with anger or with self blame. Those who react with anger often refuse to give their best to the organization after being met with this type of disappointment. They look at those who have been promoted, and if they sense that the process has been unfair and that their hard work has gone unrewarded while others who, in their opinion, have not worked as hard have moved on to higher positions, they usually either start looking for other positions or stay and refuse to do any more than they have to.

Those who blame themselves may work even harder and try to assess what other people did right that they did wrong. They are not as likely to look outside of their current situation for another job.

You should look both internally and externally for reasons to explain why you did not get the promotions that you were seeking. Particularly in a bad economy, it is often the case that employees were not promoted because there was nowhere for them to go. Many people are delaying retirement, and that leaves fewer positions up the ladder to aspire to. But at the same time you should be objective about your own job performance to make sure that you are not sabotaging your own career and derailing your own promotions.

Objectively weigh your options at your current place of employment. It could be that simply moving to another department may provide you with more career mobility. Maybe a mentor could help you navigate the landscape and help you continue to move up. If you realize after your objective assessment that there simply aren´t any more opportunities for you at your current company, decide whether or not you want to find an opportunity elsewhere or if you prefer to make the best of it. If you decide to make the best of it, you might think of ways that you can increase your job satisfaction where you are, such as mentoring someone junior to you in the firm, participating on organization-wide committees, or volunteering in a company-sponsored community service program.

Being Laid Off, Downsized, or Reassigned

People who find themselves laid off, downsized, or reassigned run the gamut of emotions–fear, anger, shame, revenge, disappointment, relief, and even joy. The people who bounce back from such situations are successful because they have a network of supportive people that they can vent to and rely on for practical assistance in their job searches.

If you have lost your job, you should make the best use of any resources available to help you find new employment. If your employer offers outplacement, as a newly laid off worker, you should definitely take advantage of it. If this is not available, you should take advantage of state resources through the Office of Employment Services. In the case of employer-sponsored or state-sponsored resources, you can obtain assistance with your resumes as well as access to online resources to find jobs.

It is also critical that you keep a positive attitude even when the job search drags on. Many people give up and stop looking for a job. And some who do continue looking having a defeatist attitude which comes across during the interview process. Those who eventually land good jobs are realistic about the job market, but they also are able to convey an upbeat attitude to employers.

The bottom line is that you do not have to let a career setback stop your career. Use it as a steppingstone instead of a stumbling block.

Ms. Palmer is the founder of Call to Career, a career coaching firm that assists people in finding their niche or calling in life as well as finding new employment in a difficult economy. Before embarking on this business venture, she served as the director of the Career Resource Center at the U.S. Department of Transportation as a contractor. The Center provided monthly career seminars as well as customized seminars for special groups, career development computer programs, a video learning laboratory, a career development library, and individual career assistance.