What I learned in my 5 years as an engineer
Here goes:
Passion rules
Find your passion. the more passionate you are about something, the more you will work at it, the more you will learn about it, and the more you will enjoy the inevitable slog at being the best at it. This will show in your work, in your presentations and in your professional success.
The thing is, if you're like me, your passion may change after a while. :-) If that were to happen, find a fresh passion and work at it. Who knows - you might become the ultimate renaissance man/woman
Your performance at work is more important than your degree
You may have the greatest degrees known to man, but if you cannot do the work on time, and at really good quality, you are not good! I learnt this the hard way.. I have a degree from an excellent engineering school. I was working for this telecom software company, and had no clue of Perl. I was trying to learn Perl, do the work and produce zero defect software, and I failed to meet the deadline. The upshot: A couple of weeks later, I was moved from my position as a developer to a position as tester.. Oh well.. A few months later, I left the company as well.
Read Read and Read
It is incredibly crucial, that you read up as much as you can about your field of expertise - say process control, and the markets where your work is used. If you need to work 50 hours a week at your job, spend another 15 - 20 hours reading up and keeping up with the latest.
Also read about areas which don't have anything to do with your work. Get a subscription to a financial newspaper such as the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal. Also get a subscription to the Economist. It's a great publication, and gives a commonsense take on world events and business. All these are great learning sources.
Start a blog
Blogs are good. Having a blog with your best content helps other people looking for information. That helps build your reputation as a guru in your field. And as any good engineer knows, gurus get a hell of a lot of respect and a ton of money.
Work at companies in growth markets
Markets which are growing are markets where you need to be! So scope out which companies are in those markets, and join those. Growth markets are not the markets with the most hype. They're markets/locations/industry combinations which
Startups are better than established companies
A startup allows you to learn so much more than at an established company. An established company will have a product development process. This means that they have fixed roles, you're pigeonholed into a specific area in a specific role and are expected to specialise in that area, gain knowledge and perform. Now in a startup, you're encouraged to participate in as many areas as you can. That means that you can learn on a lot of broad fronts, and you form a bird's eye view of how everything fits together. The upshot: You learn more.
Using the least effort produces the best quality
I am not advocating that you should be lazy. Rather, think of it in this way. If you do something with complete concentration, you do it sooner. Less distractions, less diversionary work, and you're doing just the thing you have to. You're 'in the zone'. Now you'll use the same effort per unit time no matter what you do. Why do I say this? I feel tired at the end of a day, whether I've worked that day or not. Usually, I'm more tired when I have a free day, and I lazed around. Strange, but true. So...
1) When you work with full concentration
2) You work faster
3) So you use the least effort.
Write a business plan for every good idea you have
Engineers are smart. They get ideas. But they do nothing about it. When you have an idea, write it down in a pocket book. Every month, look at your ideas and see if you can make them better and simpler. Once you have chosen the best idea, you can write a business plan around it. There are more than enough resources online where you can get template plans. Get a friend in Accounting to draw up a draft financial plan. The next time you write a business plan, just use this draft financial plan 'template' for the new plan. The more plans you write, the better you get at it. Some day you may write a business plan so well that you actually start a business based on that.
Tags: engineer, lessons, business, plan, reading, quality, effort, blog, degree
Passion rules
Find your passion. the more passionate you are about something, the more you will work at it, the more you will learn about it, and the more you will enjoy the inevitable slog at being the best at it. This will show in your work, in your presentations and in your professional success.
The thing is, if you're like me, your passion may change after a while. :-) If that were to happen, find a fresh passion and work at it. Who knows - you might become the ultimate renaissance man/woman
Your performance at work is more important than your degree
You may have the greatest degrees known to man, but if you cannot do the work on time, and at really good quality, you are not good! I learnt this the hard way.. I have a degree from an excellent engineering school. I was working for this telecom software company, and had no clue of Perl. I was trying to learn Perl, do the work and produce zero defect software, and I failed to meet the deadline. The upshot: A couple of weeks later, I was moved from my position as a developer to a position as tester.. Oh well.. A few months later, I left the company as well.
Read Read and Read
It is incredibly crucial, that you read up as much as you can about your field of expertise - say process control, and the markets where your work is used. If you need to work 50 hours a week at your job, spend another 15 - 20 hours reading up and keeping up with the latest.
Also read about areas which don't have anything to do with your work. Get a subscription to a financial newspaper such as the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal. Also get a subscription to the Economist. It's a great publication, and gives a commonsense take on world events and business. All these are great learning sources.
Start a blog
Blogs are good. Having a blog with your best content helps other people looking for information. That helps build your reputation as a guru in your field. And as any good engineer knows, gurus get a hell of a lot of respect and a ton of money.
Work at companies in growth markets
Markets which are growing are markets where you need to be! So scope out which companies are in those markets, and join those. Growth markets are not the markets with the most hype. They're markets/locations/industry combinations which
Startups are better than established companies
A startup allows you to learn so much more than at an established company. An established company will have a product development process. This means that they have fixed roles, you're pigeonholed into a specific area in a specific role and are expected to specialise in that area, gain knowledge and perform. Now in a startup, you're encouraged to participate in as many areas as you can. That means that you can learn on a lot of broad fronts, and you form a bird's eye view of how everything fits together. The upshot: You learn more.
Using the least effort produces the best quality
I am not advocating that you should be lazy. Rather, think of it in this way. If you do something with complete concentration, you do it sooner. Less distractions, less diversionary work, and you're doing just the thing you have to. You're 'in the zone'. Now you'll use the same effort per unit time no matter what you do. Why do I say this? I feel tired at the end of a day, whether I've worked that day or not. Usually, I'm more tired when I have a free day, and I lazed around. Strange, but true. So...
1) When you work with full concentration
2) You work faster
3) So you use the least effort.
Write a business plan for every good idea you have
Engineers are smart. They get ideas. But they do nothing about it. When you have an idea, write it down in a pocket book. Every month, look at your ideas and see if you can make them better and simpler. Once you have chosen the best idea, you can write a business plan around it. There are more than enough resources online where you can get template plans. Get a friend in Accounting to draw up a draft financial plan. The next time you write a business plan, just use this draft financial plan 'template' for the new plan. The more plans you write, the better you get at it. Some day you may write a business plan so well that you actually start a business based on that.
Tags: engineer, lessons, business, plan, reading, quality, effort, blog, degree
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