Featured Guest Blogger: William Merunka

Whether you are just starting out in your career, or you have some experience in your field, there will come a time when your career will seem to hit a brick wall.  This can be caused by a number of situations including: not being able to land a job upon college graduation, layoff at work, or even lack of interest at work due to change in responsibilities and/or work load that make you feel that you are not using your experience or knowledge.  Instead of sitting back and letting time and faith lay the path for your future, you need to step up and initiate change.  Here are a few things that you can do to help your career when it seems to come to a halt:

Participate in professional networking sites

Get involved with networking sites such as LinkedIn to communicate with other individuals in your industry.  This does not mean to create a page, add a bunch of connections and then forget about your account.  Join groups and participate in the discussion boards.  The possibilities are endless on how much you can learn from other individuals as well as how much other people in the group can learn from you.  It can also open the door to countless opportunities that you may not know are even out there.

Get involved with local Professional membership organizations

Most states and/or regions have chapters of ASCE.  Some of the events that these groups hold are career development seminars, happy hour get together, hiking trips, day trips to a big construction site, and other seminars.  These events will vary by chapter and are based on the interests and wants of the active people in the group.  The idea is to get to know the other people in the field and also make connections that you  may call upon in the future.  While you may end up going after the same job or client, don’t see these people as enemies.  While everybody is struggling for business, engineers also need to stick together to preserve the integrity of the engineering field and continue to work together to come up with solutions to engineering problems.  If you are fresh out of college, you do not need to be scared about being the “newbie” in the group.  Many states offer Younger Member Groups which are made for those younger engineers who do not have the expansive engineering work experience.

Make the most of your down time and read up on the industry

Instead of just sitting around and playing solitaire or chatting with friends, read up on issues that are affecting your industry.  This can prepare you for the changes that are being made in your industry as well as help you avoid poor decisions that others have made which resulted in failure.  Stories can be found online, or even in professional Civil Engineering publications.

Practice in programs that are used often in your field.

In today’s day and age, computer technology is a big deal and can be a big strength or weakness on your resume.  For civil engineers, the most important program to study up on is AutoCAD.  Try to keep up to date on the newer add-ons and how they can help you be more efficient in your daily routine.  Microsoft Office also has some amazing capabilities and can be utilized for more than just writing a simple report, or doing a simple chart in Microsoft Excel.  Project management/scheduling programs are also a big plus if you want to focus on the project management side of engineering projects.

Evaluate your strength and weaknesses and work to make your weaknesses a strength

What are some of the weaknesses that you have?  Work on turning these weaknesses into a positive asset that can help you advance your career.  If your public speaking skills are lacking, look for a Toastmasters club to help you improve your public speaking skills.  If technical writing has been a challenge for you, look for classes at a local college which focuses on technical writing to help you improve your skills.

Keep in mind jobs that may offer lower level field work

While you may want to focus on the design side of engineering, it is always positive to have some hands on knowledge of the construction side of the project.  What may look perfect on paper, could be nearly impossible to construct in the field, or take a lot of time to accomplish the design when the client is on a strict time schedule.  Field experience also gives you a greater understanding of what you are actually designing and how it works as opposed to just knowing how it is supposed to work from theory.

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Featured Guest Blogger: Angela Cristina Negro
The Professional Careerist, Managing Your Career Through Personal Development – Helping young engineering professionals navigate the choppy waters of building a career
Let’s connect on LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/angelacnegro

It’s the New Year.  2009 is now behind us and we are thrust forward into the throes of the unknown that is 2010.  I could do the usual and write about New Year’s resolutions that I will be making and…ahem…keeping…but I thought I would rather talk about a great theme that we should focus on for the next New Year.  The idea came to me after an in-depth conversation with a great friend!

I was thanking my friend Meghan for passing my CV around her office to a few key managers (because I recently quit my job and relocated back to my hometown of Montreal).  And in response to my thanking her, Meghan said the nicest thing; she said that she thought it was the least she could do seeing as someone had helped her get her job and she was just paying it forward.  Paying it forward.  Yup, that simple gesture of paying forward the kindness you have experienced from others.

For those of you reading this thinking that Meghan is simply a really nice person, well you’re right!  But she is also a careerist: driven, persistent and ambitious.  And paying it forward is such an important thing for careerists to do, as well.  Here’s why:

It shows appreciation. It’s important to realize that the kindness of friends and strangers alike isn’t something to be taken for granted, but rather is something to be highly valued.  Many people find themselves fighting fires and battling wars (figuratively…) on their own, both at work and in life.  People get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of every day life that they forget simple gestures like thanking others for facilitating even the smallest things.  Demonstrating appreciation is important for careerists because it shows humanity, empathy and understanding.  People like people that understand and appreciate another’s worth and value.

It shows confidence.  I find the largest problem amongst careerists these days is selfishness.  So many people expect others to help them and have a sense of entitlement about everything.  Unfortunately, no one is entitled to anything.  If someone has taken the time to help you it is because they find value in helping you; they respect you and want you to succeed.  True careerists are confident enough in their abilities that they don’t feel like they have to hog resources or shortchange others in order to get ahead.  True careerists are confident in their successes so much so that they want to help others succeed as well.

It shows integrity.  By paying it forward, you are acknowledging that others have helped you along the way and that you are returning the favor…maybe not directly to the same person that helped you, but by paying it forward, you are at least showing respect for those that have helped you along the way!

So this is my challenge to you.  Let 2010 be every careerist’s year for paying it forward.  Let’s do our part in helping others with drive, motivation and ambition in achieving their desired successes, as well.