Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills 1

[nnjunger]

I have a general question. Now that I have been in industry for about 10 years, I have found that I am slipping into more and more of a project management role, and am losing some of my "hard" engineering skills. To make matters worse, I have found that I am having a hard time keeping up with the changes in the industry and world around me. Professional organization meetings are quite a way away from here, and I try to read all the trade publications I can, but can anyone provide information or share their experiences with how you can stay abrest of the changes in the world as well as advance your own skills. I see this as benefitting my current employer as well as me personally.

I apologize in advance if the post rambles a bit, but hopefully it can generate some discussion.

 

[epoisses]

I think professional organisation meetings are probably the best vehicle. Would you be able to justify to spend a minor part of your time on interaction, knowledge exchange or call it best practices if you need a buzzword, with similar people within a relevant engineering organisation?
It would probably more useful than being 25th on the [can't mention magazine name] distribution list and read it only during boring phone conferences.

 

[GregLocock]

The few professional branch meetings I have attended have consisted of a bunch of denture sucking retirees who sit around saying things like "they do everything on computers these days".

So, I don't get much out of them.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[proletariat]

Totally redirect your career every two years as I do, and you will find yourself learning all kinds of interesting new skills for the first time.

(this is 1/2 sarcasm)

 

[fndn]

I believe you have the main ingredients: you realized that constant training is needed and that you want to combine technical and business components of engineering.

The technical aspects, I believe you'll get the most by buying used technical books, downloading available free pdf files, attending seminars and conversing in forums like this one.

At some point in your career with the current employer, you'd have maxed out the learning curve and would need to transfer to a new firm so you can acquire newer skills. On the business end of engineering, talk to senior firm owners at the professional associations, read business section of engineering monthly magazines and surf the net to read project management sites.

 

[prost]

A few engineers I've met seem to think active participation in professional societies is an important part of good career strategy, but I have yet to work for any boss who cared whether I was active or not in any prof. society. Shouldn't your boss care if it is so important? And very few engineers I have met even bother with getting a P.E., much less get the continuing education they should be getting to keep up on advances in their fields or any other. Most engineers I know are just too busy working O/T at work or are too lazy to participate in prof. societies or work on new skills or knowledge outside of work. If your boss or your boss's boss doesn't value it, why should you?

My apologies to you if I sound too cynical or sarcastic.

 

[bradpa77]

Are you sure you're not just being too hard on yourself? No one can know everything. That's why companies hire hundreds to thousands of people. I'm sure you have your moments in the sun when you are knowledgable about a specific topic on the job. Don't let other people get you down when they have their day in the sun. I'm sure you know something that they don't know in another area of your job. So don't be hard on yourself. All we can do is the best we can do. It sounds like you're putting in a lot of effort to keep yourself educated outside of work. Keep up the good work. A lot of engineers don't read magazines or books at all. So, good for you for keeping yourself up to date. Don't forget to take time to enjoy life though too. We work to live we don't live to work.

 

[Ashereng]

There is no substitute for practice.

If you were a professional tennis player, and you no longer played/practiced, would you expect your skills to diminish?

Same thing with engineering. The more management and non-hard core engineering you do, the more you will loose your skills in the hard-core technical area. Reading, keeping up in societies are all good. Still, nothing replaces actually doing the work.

You are in transition, career wise, from technical to managerial. It is tough to maintain 2 careers. And yes, management is a career that is every bit as tough as the technical engineering was. I really think that many people underestimate just how hard it is to be a good manager.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[GregLocock]

"I really think that many people underestimate just how hard it is to be a good manager"

Definitely.

Meanwhile, if you are sure you want to spend time on sharpening your technical skills why not work with your newest sharpest EIT on a tricky technical problem that no-one else has the time to nut out? He'll benefit from the attention, you'll benefit from the intellectual workout.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.