Stu Walesh
An Interview With: Stu Walesh, Ph.D., P.E., Dist. M. ASCE
Visit Stu’s website at helpingyouengineeryourfuture.com
For this week’s blog post, it’s both an honor and a pleasure for me to interview Stu Walesh, Ph.D., P.E., Dist. M. ASCE. Stu, practicing as an independent consultant, provides management, engineering, and education/training services to private, public, academic, and volunteer sector organizations. After earning a BS in Civil Engineering at Valparaiso University, he obtained a MSE at The Johns Hopkins University and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Stu is a licensed professional engineer in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and a Diplomate of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers.
Stu has over 40 years of engineering, education, and management experience in the government, academic, and private sectors and has worked as a water resources engineer, project manager, department head, discipline manager, author, marketer, sole proprietor, professor, and dean of an engineering college.
I asked Stu the following questions in regards to career advancement for engineers:
Question: Stu, in your opinion, what are some of the biggest challenges for engineers in their career development?
Response: Engineers of all ages must recognize that, in our increasingly-complex and rapidly-changing world, we need more than technical knowledge and skill if we want to achieve success and significance. Our formal education stressed technical knowledge and skill, which serve as the strong foundation for our careers. However, we must build on that foundation by developing competence in non-technical areas such as communication (e.g., listening, writing, speaking), project and other forms of management, leading, ethics, and the legal aspects of professional practice.
Question: Following up on the previous question, how do you recommend engineers overcome these challenges?
Response: My short answer — be a perpetual student. Take charge of expanding your non-technical areas. Don’t assume your employer will take care of you or even lead the way. Proactively and continuously learn and be very willing to invest your time and money in the process. Each of us is surrounded by learning opportunities such as reading articles and books; requesting varied assignments; attending in-house seminars, webinars, and workshops; and participating in external conferences and education and training events. A very effective way to study and learn is to select a topic of interest to you and then commit to speak about it “way off” in the future such as at the office “brown bag” two months from now or at a state conference next year. The public commitment will focus your attention and you will go up the learning curve.
Question: There are many unemployed entry-level engineers right now due to the economy. What advice can you offer to them?
Response: By coincidence, I devoted two blog posts to this topic and, in them, offer nine ideas. Click here and scroll down to the two posts titled “Thoughts for the Recent and Unemployed Graduate: Part 1” and, then, “Part 2.” Although focused on recent graduates, all nine tips offer some value for not-so-recent graduates.
Question: In your opinion, can an engineer be highly technical and a good manager? If yes, how does one accomplish this?
Response: In my view, an engineer who wants to be a good project, department, office, or similar manager in an engineering-oriented organization should be, or have a history of having been, “highly technical.” I offer this view for two reasons. First, the person will be in a better position to understand the aspirations, frustrations, needs, and accomplishments of highly-technical professionals. He or she is walking, or has walked, in their shoes. The second reason: Earn the respect of other highly technical professionals. Even though the technical area of a member of a project team differs from that of the project manager, the team member knows that the project manager has proven himself or herself in a technical area. A bold letter T describes the best kind of manager in an engineering organization. The vertical member is the manager’s recognized area of technical expertise, that is, his or her depth. The horizontal member is his or her breadth by which I mean the ability to understand, appreciate, and integrate the potential contributions, including the technical expertise of others.
The second part of your question is “If yes, how does one accomplish this?” My answer is essentially the answer I offered for the first and second questions, that is, be a perpetual, self-driven student in both technical and non-technical areas.
Question: Is there any other advice or recommendations you would like to offer to engineers in their career journey?
Response: Avoid the experience trap. While valuable, too much of one type of experience can hamper an engineer’s career development. Leadership writer John Maxwell says, “Many people end up in the wrong place only because they stayed in the right place too long.” Og Mandino, author and lecturer, writing in his book The Greatest Salesman in the World, offers this warning about staying in the right place too long: “I will commence my journey unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary knowledge or the handicap of meaningless experience …In truth, experience teaches thoroughly yet her course of instruction devours men’s years so the value of her lessons diminishes with the time necessary to acquire her special wisdom.” The comfort of routine is one reason we might get trapped in one kind of experience. Being too busy to step back and evaluate our progress is another reason.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my views. I welcome and value comments from others about the important professional issues aided by your questions. Stu Walesh
A big Thank You to Stu Walesh for sharing his time and information with us. Please visit Stu’s website at www.HelpingYouEngineerYourFuture.com for tons of great information that will help you in your career advancement efforts!
Feel free to contact Stu Walesh at stuwalesh@comcast.net
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Powerful Purpose Associates is founded on the expertise of Anthony Fasano, P.E., author of the acclaimed engineering career development book "Engineer Your Own Success: 7 Key Elements to Creating an Extraordinary Engineering Career" (Premier Publishing 2011). It is a comprehensive, easy to read book, aimed at helping engineers develop their soft skills and leadership abilities to create extraordinary engineering careers. Order your copy now:
Anthony Fasano, P.E., aka Your Professional Partner, founded Powerful Purpose Associates after he realized that it was the development of his soft skills that helped him to become an associate partner at a reputable engineering firm at the young age of 27. With history as a civil engineer, Anthony is now a nationally recognized executive coach and inspirational speaker, specializing in the areas of engineering career development, as well as leadership. He uses his highly effective coaching and speaking techniques through affordable programs to help engineers develop their soft skills, work through blocks, prioritize effectively, set clear goals and achieve their maximum potential.
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