As an engineer, you likely have a career path you’ve envisioned.
Your efforts are being directed to get to your ultimate career goal – whether that means running your own start-up or heading a team at a major corporation.
Here are some tips to help you successfully navigate that journey.
1. Be Kind
Engineers typically have a linear path through life and often have a black-and-white view of the world and how it operates. In their experience, an equipment test can either pass or fail. An engineer can find it difficult to understand that other people have different goals and desires to their own, especially when those goals aren’t clear. They may find it difficult to put themselves in the other person’s shoes during moments of difficult decision-making. A distinguishing characteristic of someone you want on your team is an individual who exhibits grace under pressure.
Engineers can be technically intelligent, but it is not always second nature for them to have a filter in place when communicating how they feel. When an engineer understands how their reputation can suffer if they are abrupt and belligerent in the workplace, it can help them focus on finding a balance between getting things done while also having a conflict-free relationship with the team they work with, too.
2. Be a Generalist Instead of a Specialist
The key to achieving the highest level of career success, according to many tech professionals, is being the master of your field. It is true, that being proficient at a skill set is essential, it is also important to be versatile, too.
A professional who is open-minded and accepting of new ideas can help with career evolution. Problems don’t always have a narrow field of solutions, so it is important to look at the bigger picture. Another way of putting this is – it is one thing to write efficient code but is that code solving a problem that needs to be solved? This understanding requires the ability to see beyond the technical aspects of the task at hand and bring in other modes of analysis to bear on a problem or situation.
“Your job performance is the best case you can make for yourself when the time comes to position yourself for advancement.”
3. Be a Sponge
This follows from the previous idea – namely, that it is important to always be learning. Engineers are naturally curious, so it is key to train themselves to look beyond their window of knowledge and embrace things that can help expand their understanding of technology and applications.
With technology evolving at an every-increasing rate, keeping up a thirst of knowledge across broad domains is an excellent way of positioning yourself for future success.
4. Don’t be Afraid to Fail
Engineers who have been in the workforce a short time often need to shed the conditioning of their schooling – namely that marks are key and that there is a right and wrong answer for everything. The real world is made up of a much broader spectrum of shades rather than polarized outcomes.
A similar perspective on failure is shared by experienced executives, skilled professionals, and successful entrepreneurs: it’s a precondition for success. Lots of young engineers worry about what an early failure could mean for the rest of their careers. The concept of “failure” is really just another way of learning what works well in certain situations, and what doesn’t.
Every failure is a rung on the ladder to success. Look at them as learning opportunities and your pace of learning will accelerate faster than trying to always be perfect in your outcomes.
5. Embrace New Responsibilities
Although it can be scary to be given a role without much experience, it can also be a great way to learn new skills quickly and gain the respect of your colleagues. If a challenging role with a high level of responsibility becomes available, seize the opportunity. You will need to be prepared to put in a lot of work and possibly stumble with certain responsibilities, but that is the best way to grow your career.
6. Make Note of All Your Accomplishments
Keeping a written record of your achievements in a new role is common sense and not boasting. Your job performance is the best case you can make for yourself when the time comes to position yourself for advancement either internally or externally. A written summary of that performance will make it much easier to make that case.
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