Top 5 Things NOT To Do in a Job Interview for Engineers
1. Be unprepared…know the role you are interviewing for , basics about the company, their products (a general understanding is sufficient) and as much info about the interviewers as you can get (most of this information can be found on social media). I heard the story of a candidate interviewing with General Mills and was […]
Learn about Project Management to Enhance Your Engineering Career
Whether you want to become a project manager or not, you’ll be running a project at some point in your life and in one of your capacities. It might be in the role you hold at your firm, or in the role you occupy in a technical or professional organization, or even a role you […]
Don’t Let Your Ego Engineer Your Career
Confidence, courage and passion are all items Anthony and I have written on before in our many articles over the years. Channeled in the right way, these personal characteristics will help anyone achieve a vision of future success. But left to their own devices, they can cause you a lot of challenge in both […]
What are Your Leverage Points in Your Engineering Career?
There are several definitions in the dictionary for the word leverage, but the one I like the most is: use (something) to maximum advantage. Because your most limited resource is time, I would recommend that in your engineering career and life, you leverage your time. In other words, you use your time to gain maximum […]
Failure Lessons from Evel Knievel and How they May Apply to Your Engineering Career
Evel Knievel is a ‘60s and ‘70’s era stunt performer and daredevil. He was often seen on ABC’s Wide World of Sports on Sunday afternoons, jumping his motorcycle over cars trucks and buses. A venerable showman, Knievel is most famous for the televised attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in a steam […]
Top 5 Things To Do in An Interview to Ensure Success
1. Above all else, the best advice my mentor gave me when I was getting ready to interview was “Do the job in the interview”. Simply put, you should know what the job description calls…all you have to do is use examples from your experience to SHOW how you have done the job before, performed […]
If Goal Setting Isn’t Working, Try Going With A Theme
It’s pretty standard fare here on TECC to espouse the benefits of setting goals. The reason we come back to goal setting over and over is because it works. Goals: Define a future intended situation. Focus resource application. Highlight what is important. Can help bring what we want most in life into reality. Goals can […]
Engineering Leaders, Check Your Bias
It was a beautiful fall day, warm but not hot, brilliantly sunny. I walk into the lobby feeling lean and confident, ready to slay the interview. The company President comes out to greet me, and we begin the five hour dance. The day goes well. I present my engineering credentials and experience. The interview team […]
Your Life Is A Program, So Manage It Like One
After a decade-plus of leading and managing programs, there’s one thing I don’t recall ever saying – or hearing someone else say: “gee, I need to find balance in my projects.” I didn’t philosophically, or physically, sit down to figure out how to balance my time, my focus, and my energy between the various projects […]
Inverse Explanations – Part 2: The Danger of Linearity
When most people think about technical communication, their first thought is about how engineers communicate with other engineers. What almost nobody considers, though, is how we communicate with… not-engineers. And yet, it’s a HUGE part of what we do: Our version of fun usually requires a multi-zero’ed budget beforehand; however, there’s no guarantee that […]