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13 April 2005

Personal Development

Engineering can be a challenging and rewarding profession. Your personal goals should be ambitious enough to be challenging, but realistic enough to avoid frustration.  Continued education is a must, if you are to avoid technical obsolescence.  It can be formal, in graduate school or in training programs, or informal, through reading and self-study. Seek to develop yourself so that you are ready for the next job, but realize that you are most likely to get a change at the next job if you do an excellent job of the one you have now.

A study of those whose names are remembered for significant achievement reveals one trait almost universal – the practice of doing more than was required, specified, or paid for.  A career of distinction results from something more than eight-to-five performance; rather, it is the result of a whole-hearted commitment to perform at one’s best no matter how unappreciated such effort may appear to be. Out of such effort comes the type of work that attracts attention for its excellence, and the internal satisfaction that gives one the confidence to take on a more difficult challenge when it is presented.