What Every Engineer Should Know About Career Management
Features
Summary
Thanks to their education, experience, and general philosophical orientation, many engineers fail to notice critical issues in the workplace that can directly impact their career advancement and day-to-day job satisfaction. This text focuses on career management, and the accompanying importance of human and social interactions in the office. Although framed in the engineering environment, it provides observations on people skills relevant to all occupations. Using an informal, yet professional style, the author takes a mentorship approach by offering suggestions and anecdotes devoid of lecturing.
Broken Into Two Distinct Parts
Part I specifically addresses the life and career advancement of the engineer, beginning with school student and advancing to the seasoned professional. Along the way, it explores various stops, diversions, and alternatives, including a view of the corporation as a living organism with its own unique personality that responds to stimuli of the world. Part II discusses engineering projects, product development, schedules, budgets, and related topics. This portion of the book is not about project management, but rather the interaction of engineers and managers working on projects in a corporate environment.
Table of Contents
THE ENGINEERING CAREER
Education
The Early Years
Emergence of Talent
Math and the Sciences
The Weeding Out Process
Educational Environment
Social Interactions
Free Time
Getting into a Good College
Academic Achievements
Graduate School
Framing the Corporate Landscape
The First Weeks
Corporate Organization and Operations
Occupational Safety
Privacy
Corporate Culture
Power, Dominance Displays, and the Corporate Hierarchy
Loyalty versus Ability
Chain of Trust
Keyhole Management
Democracy
Rule, or Die Trying
Enlightenment and Reason
Irreverence, Malcontents, and Progress
On the Job
The Role of Experience
Understanding the Necessary Level
Advocacy
Empowerment and Authorization
Caesar and the Engineer
Managers and Motivational Techniques
Managing Up
Patterns and Portents
Ideas and Designs
Prototypes, Demonstrations, and Products
Other Options
Image
Success
Alternate Career Paths
Project Management
Management
Technical Consulting
Starting Your Own Company
So Many More
Job Searching and Interviewing
Active and Passive Job Searching
When Is It Time to Change Jobs?
What Kind of Job Do You Want?
Marketing Yourself
Applying for a Job
The Interview
Negotiating the Offer
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Product Development Overview
Social Interaction
Product Development Blueprint
Basics First
Idea
Money
Strategy
Requirements
Plan the Effort
The Project Plan
Special Notes on Project Plans
A Project Plan Is Not a Design Document
The Project Schedule
Special Note on Delivery Dates
Special Note on Project Schedules
Special Note on Manufacturing Testing
Special Note on Nurturing the Manufacturing Process
Project Plan Sign-Off
Begin the Project
Assemble the Project Team
The Blame Game
Personality, Personality, Personality
Leadership, Trust, and Talent
Communications
Properly Equip the Team
Design First
Manage the Development
Requirements Are Your Friend
Configuration Management
Motivating the Team
Vendors and Subcontractors
Design Reviews
Pyrite Engineering
Be in Charge
Teflon Management
Schedule Delays, Status Reporting, and Visibility
The Myth of Managing to a Schedule
The Myth of Managing a Vendor
Schedule Remediation
Schedule Revisions
Software Update
Formal Bug Tracking and Metrics
Formal Testing
Manufacturing
Epilogue
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