🤝 Networking secret weapon, transforming LaGuardia airport, and life lessons from monks

🤝 Networking secret weapon, transforming LaGuardia airport, and life lessons from monks

Level up your career with today’s engineer-approved tips. From transforming workplace relationships to overhauling major infrastructure, we've got insights to advance your technical skills and leadership abilities. 

Plus, in today’s book recommendation, we learn how Buddhist monks overcome anxiety, lessons that apply outside the monastery too. 

🚨 Just a note on how to stay safe if you’re traveling for upcoming holidays. A lot of accidents happen this time of year. So here are a few tips, adapted from our friends at the National Safety Council:

  • Put your phone away

  • Keep an emergency kit in vehicle

  • Get your car checked before hitting the road

  • Sleep well and stay sober

You’re an engineer, so you’re well aware that slamming into something at highway speeds isn’t a good idea. Stay safe out there!

👀 In today’s newsletter:

  • Transforming LaGuardia airport

  • Improve your networking with informational interviews

  • What we can learn from monks

  • 🔥💵 Hot Job – Network Engineer

MUST READ

If you’ve ever traveled into or through New York City, you might know LaGuardia airport. And you might not have liked it. Many people didn’t. In fact, was dubbed as one of the worst airports of all.

But now it’s been transformed, and is now considered one of the best! That’s a pretty big difference. The project started in 2015 and was projected to cost $8 Billion, with ⅔ of that coming from private funding.

If you’re interested in the process and the timeline of how this came about, this is a great summary.

🛣️ There is now more space, better concessions, improved technology, and easier access to the departure gates. 

Sure, COVID had travel taking a hit, but air travel remains crucial for the world economy. The United States has typically lagged behind other countries in new investment in this infrastructure, so it’s nice to see something like this take shape.

I can only imagine the planning, operations, and design challenges to get the new things up while keeping operations flowing during a project like this. But they did it!

Which airport would you like to see transformed?

Read

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Career tips

📞 Take your networking to the next level with this secret weapon…

"A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there."John Assaraf

Networking is critical to career growth, but iIf you want to level-up your networking approach, you need the right tools and approach at your disposal.

The #1 tool I've found to create meaningful relationships is clear: The informational interview!

In just a few minutes, you can take a first contact from email, social media, or other networking source and turn it into a more personal relationship. It really can be transformational.

Not only have I seen jobs, business partners, mentors, and friends start from these first conversations, but there is simply so much to be learned!

Wait, what is an informational interview? For those who might be unfamiliar, let's step back for a moment.

Informational interviews are in-person, video, or phone conversations with people, where you have an opportunity to interview them for the purpose of gaining information.

There is no set agenda. It’s truly an opportunity to give, be curious, learn, and build a relationship. Usually I recommend scheduling 15-30 minutes, but if things go well it is not uncommon for conversations to go longer than an hour (just don't expect that).

Of course, you don’t want to just show up and hope the conversation goes well. You need to curate a great experience.

First of all, prepare. Why are you wanting to talk to this person in the first place? What do you want to know about them, their work history, their company, etc?

So make a list of questions you want to ask this person, and be ready to adjust according to how the conversation goes.

Secondly, be ready to talk about yourself, at least briefly. You should at least be able to clearly answer questions such as, "tell me about yourself" and "why would you want to work for my company?"

This is an opportunity to practice communicating your personal brand! See if people respond well to how you share things about yourself.

The biggest thing to remember with informational interviews is to focus on the other person, and being interested in them - if you do this, they might just find you interesting too!

Going out to ask for and conduct informational interviews is outside of the comfort zone for many of us - but how are we supposed to grow our network and relationships unless we talk to people? This is where it starts.

    This week’s hottest jobs

    In this section you’ll find the latest jobs as featured on: jobs.interestingengineering.com 

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    trending articles

    “Cancers of the Mind: Comparing, Complaining, Criticizing.” 

    Jay Shetty 

    book recommendation

    Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day

    Shetty grew up in a family where you could become one of three things — a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. His family was convinced he had chosen option three: instead of attending his college graduation ceremony, he headed to India to become a monk, meditate every day for four to eight hours, and devote his life to serving others. 

    After three years, one of his teachers told him that he would have more impact on the world if he left the monk’s path to share his experience and wisdom with others. Heavily in debt, and with no recognizable skills on his résumé, he moved back home to north London with his parents.

    Shetty reconnected with old school friends—many working for some of the world’s largest corporations—who were experiencing tremendous stress, pressure, and unhappiness, and they invited Shetty to coach them on well-being, purpose, and mindfulness. 

    𑁍 When you think like a monk, you’ll understand:

    • How to overcome negativity

    • How to stop overthinking

    • Why comparison kills love

    • How to use your fear

    • Why you can’t find happiness by looking for it

    • How to learn from everyone you meet

    • Why you are not your thoughts

    • How to find your purpose

    • Why kindness is crucial to success

    • And much more...

    Need help with advertising? Reach 150,000 engineering and tech professionals. Contact us 

    Written by 

    Jeff Perry

    Engineering Career Coach

    what else? 

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