Career Development | Mentoring | Social Networking

Greetings to you all, my name is Willard Draper and I will coming to you several times during the year to give you what I believe to be helpful tips, thoughts and information about the work place, jobs, career development and finding, maintaining and prospering in the career arena.

Finding employment can be a complicated and time consuming enterprise.  It certainly can be costly and frustrating, particularly in this tough environment.  The first question must be; are you ready?   Hopefully, you will not take this question lightly.  Further, many of us will quickly say “Yes” without thinking about the entire question. Your friends, parents, love ones, teachers, bosses, etc., do not make this determination-you do!  Let me be clear; unless you are ready for work, you can not be successful at obtaining and maintaining work; must less a career.  Simply saying “I’m ready”, does not fill the bill.  You must be able demonstrate your skills and abilities with confidence and class.

Those who have been exposed to knowledge, wisdom and ancient text are familiar with this important phrase from the distant past.  Before organized religions, the British, Roman, Greek Empires, the seat of knowledge and wisdom came from the African continent and the great Egyptian civilization. Written in one of the exalted temples and later stored by the great Oracles’ the words “KNOW THY SELF” became the foundation of all knowledge and wisdom. 

Once you have this knowledge you will be well armed to go out and contend for work.  It is not an easy task.  You will need to prepare yourself for some rejection, disappointment, repetitive questions, assessments, judging, waiting, wondering and questioning.  Only if you have a good sense of self, will you be excited and inspired to go further. The following is a short list of the beginning process of knowing self: 

• Disregard the foolish and foolish things
• Move beyond fear
• If you keep doing what you are doing-you will keep getting what you getting
• When you have the opportunity to inform others-do it
• Avoid all people who are “know-it-alls”
• Be Positive and have enthusiasm
• Be Spiritual (religious or  have core beliefs)
• Have focus
• Be true to yourself and your spirit
• Don’t sweat the small stuff (most of what we deal with is small stuff.)
• All these things are already in you -just turn them on! 

These beginning comments should remind you of the power you have.  I believe it is important to start with some philosophical things before we get to more of the basics of job hunting and success.  In the future we will look at communication, vision, resume tips, interviewing skills, problem solving and other powerful job acquisition skills.  Hope you will get to know yourself better and get the position you really need.

Contributor: Willard Draper

This is my inaugural posting in which I will discuss “What is Engineering”.

In up coming postings I will discuss- in no particular order:

Engineering Technology, CAD (Computer Aided Design)-2D,3D, GD&T (Geometrical Dimensioning and Tolerancing), Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Rapid Prototyping, Engineering Careers/Education, Green Technology, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), Blueprint Reading, and anything else you the reader is interested in under the “Engineering” umbrella.

I will further address many of these topics from a high school students’, as well as college students’ perspective, and finally to those looking to change careers.

Engineering- What is it?:

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the national board establishing accreditation standards for all enginnering  programs  defines engineering as follows (Landis):  “Engineering is the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences, gained by study, experience, and practice, is applied with judgement to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind.”

I like James Kip Finch’s (1960) definition of Engineering- “The engineer has been , and [still] is, a maker of history”. When you get right down to really thinking about what the engineer does and has done from the earliest of times does this not simplify the definition. Think about all the items, whether it  is clothing, cars, houses, ships, satellites… we have today, on a global scale and through history, has been from an idea someone had that an engineer eventually designed, into a product or process using mathematics, science, and technology principles. Yes, engineers turn ideas into reality and make a world of difference.

The results of a recent Lemelson-MIT Invention Index Survey shows:
·    77% of teens are interested in pursuing a STEM career
·    53% of teens said they would like to build things and conduct experiments
·    85% said they wished they knew more about STEM in order to create or invent something
·    FEWER than 5% felt that engineers contribute most to society’s well-being

This to me means teens have not seen, met or talked with an engineer but they have some of the same interests as what a degreed engineer probably started with early on in their life. The degreed engineer probably is good in math and science, may have a relative/neighbor/friend who is/was an engineer that worked at a high tech job,  was interested in assembling/disassembling things and also likes to build things- that’s the hands on aspect, or like myself read a lot of SCIFI books/magazines as a child or as kids now a days watch a lot of TV/movies, was counseled by a teacher or school counselor, heard that this field is one of the top paying  career opportunities in our economy today.

What can I do with a major in engineering you might ask?
·    Application Engineering
·    Computer engineering
·    Electrical engineering
·    Electronics engineering
·    Industrial engineering
·    Mechanical engineering
·    Research engineering
·    Product engineering
·    Safety engineering
·    Quality engineering
·    Plant engineering
·    Development engineering
·    Testing engineering
·    Design Engineering
·    Analysis engineering
·    Systems engineering
·    Manufacturing and Construction engineering
·    Operations and Maintenance engineering
·    Technical support engineering
·    Customer support-Sales/Marketing/Consulting
·    Management of any of the above

I will close this session with the following thoughts/facts for next posting:
·    The U.S. is lagging behind the rest of the world in production of needed technical talent
·    This lag could lead to loss of U.S. competitiveness in technical fields that drive our economy.

Contributor: Jim Orr