The Versatility of Engineers, Building Your Engineering Career Foundation, and The Advantage of Bein

The Versatility of Engineers, Building Your Engineering Career Foundation, and The Advantage of Being Happy

šŸ“œ If you get an engineering degree, you have options. And not just because engineering jobs are in demand. You have options beyond your specific specialization and degree.

Letā€™s take one type of engineering as an example: Mechanical Engineering (my personal favorite, because thatā€™s what my degree was in).

This Forbes article  cites seven different jobs that mechanical engineers can do including:

  • Mechanical Engineer (duh)

  • Engineering Manager

  • Mechatronics Technologist

  • Mechanical Engineering Technician

  • Aerospace Engineer

  • Sales Engineer

  • Computer Hardware Engineer

Thatā€™s not even all of them! Iā€™ve seen mechanical engineers turn into patent engineers and attorneys, solutions engineers, HVAC engineers, software developers, manufacturing engineers, biomedical engineers, and even CEOs of insurance companies.

šŸ’ŖšŸ½ Your degree doesnā€™t limit you, it enables you.

Where will your career take you?

šŸ“ˆ In todayā€™s newsletter:

Career tips

šŸ“ˆ Solidify Your Engineering Career Success Foundation With These 3 Things

Mindset, career clarity, and personal brandingā€”with these three principles you can empower your engineering career success.

Why?

Because you're setting up a strong foundation to build upon. 

Without them, it's like throwing pasta at the wall and hoping something sticks, or trying to play darts blindfolded. 

Or, well, like trying to build a house on sand. You donā€™t have to be a structural engineer to know you shouldnā€™t build on a sandy foundation.

Let's briefly break down these three items and how they can influence the foundation of your career.

šŸ§˜šŸ½ā€ā™€ļø Mindset

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." ā€”Henry Ford

Your mindset drives not just what you do but how you do it. Similarly to the quote above, if you don't believe you can build a great career, you probably won't. If you don't believe you are a great fit for a potential position, you'll be hard-pressed to convince the hiring manager that you're a great fit.

Your mindset and thoughts have a huge impact on your success.

So we need to address how you think about yourself, the challenges you face, the people you will interact with, and more.

Then your actions can be aligned with your powerful mindset!

šŸŒ± Career Clarity

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." ā€”The Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

What do you want to be when you grow up? 

How do you make a decision between multiple career paths? 

You're not enjoying your career right now - but do you know what you would enjoy?

These are just a few questions I get people asking themselves all the time. They are questions of career clarity.

The key reason you want to get clarity is so you can be intentional, deliberate, and proactive in your career.

If you're not progressing towards something, you're just letting your career happen to you. You're being reactive, and will rarely end up in a place you want to be.

Career clarity helps you chart your path and take action towards that imagined reality!

šŸ‘©šŸ¼ā€šŸŒ¾ Personal Branding

"Personal branding is not about you. It's about putting your stamp on the value you deliver to others." ā€”William Arruda

This is a big one for modern careers. Your own understanding of your personal brand influences every mode of communication you haveā€”written, spoken, and even how you listen.

A great personal brand is about communicating the value you can deliver to others in effective ways.

If you don't know how to do that, you'll have a hard time getting great jobs or clients. 

But if you can do it well, people will find themselves saying about you, "this person seems perfect for the problems we're trying to solve. Let's hire them!"

Figure out the value you bring and how to communicate it to others.

Donā€™t neglect any of these areas as you work to build your engineering career! Make them strong, and youā€™ll be building on a foundation for success.

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    "Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man."

    Thomas Tredgold 

    book recommendation

    The Happiness Advantage:

    šŸš€ Do we get happy once we succeed? We often think life will be better when we get a promotion, lose weight, or buy that car. Thatā€™s the conventional wisdom, but in this book, Shawn Achor flips that on its head.

    Research shows that happy employees are more productive, more creative, and better problem solvers than their unhappy peers. And positive people are significantly healthier and less stressed and enjoy deeper social interaction than the less positive people around them.

    Drawing on original researchā€”including one of the largest studies of happiness ever conductedā€”and work in boardrooms and classrooms across forty-two countries, Shawn Achor shows us how to rewire our brains for positivity and optimism to reap the happiness advantage in our lives, our careers, and even our health. His strategies include:

    • The Tetris Effect: How to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility so we can see and seize opportunities all around us

    • Social Investment: How to earn the dividends of a strong social support network

    • The Ripple Effect: How to spread positive change within our teams, companies, and families

    šŸ¦ The invitation is for you to find happiness now, and let success flow through that attitude.

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

    Written by 

    Jeff Perry

    Engineering Career Coach

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