{"id":246,"date":"2018-02-21T22:58:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T22:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/?p=246"},"modified":"2018-02-21T22:58:24","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T22:58:24","slug":"10-tips-for-success-for-engineering-students-and-others-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/2018\/02\/21\/10-tips-for-success-for-engineering-students-and-others-too\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Tips for Success for Engineering Students and Others Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

10 Tips for Success for Engineering Students<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you’re a current engineering student, here are ways to put yourself on the fast track to success.<\/p>\n

10 Tips for Success for Engineering Students<\/p>\n

According to a recent survey by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, one third of college freshmen plan to major in science and engineering, while about 8 percent of all first-year students intend to concentrate in engineering proper. Some of these engineering students are destined to land major leadership roles in the United States and worldwide, while others are .\u00a0.\u00a0. well, every field has its “lesser lights.”
\nWe were interested in finding out what current engineering students could do to put themselves on the fast track to career success. We invited visiting blogger Edward Crawley, professor of engineering and director of the Bernard M. Gordon Engineering Leadership Program at MIT, to share with us the advice he gives his own undergraduate engineering students. Here are his best tips, most of which would work for any career-aspiring college student:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Identify the people who inspire you,\u00a0and find out what makes them tick<\/strong>.\u00a0If you love Apple products, Steve Jobs may be your idol, or perhaps you love the Segway and its creator, Dean Kamen. You can easily find out a lot of information about Jobs and Kamen\u2014or just about any other prominent person in technology\u2014so use it to look into what’s helped these people and their companies become so successful. Then emulate their good traits in your personal, scholastic, and professional life.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Develop a portfolio of projects<\/strong>.\u00a0Participate in every hands-on, experiential learning opportunity that a balanced schedule allows. This way, you’ll have something unique to show a prospective employer (or venture capitalist) when you graduate, while other students will only be able to list their courses. In addition, you’ll be far more likely to retain the knowledge you’ve gained in classes because you’ll be applying it and, in the process, boosting your communication and interpersonal skills.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Learn the value of networking.<\/strong>\u00a0When it comes to being a leader, whom you know is almost as important as what you know. Attend lectures on your campus and introduce yourself to the speakers. Check with your school’s alumni association to get a list of alumni from your program who want to connect with undergraduates.<\/p>\n

4-Star Tip.\u00a0<\/strong>In addition to E-mail, you can use LinkedIn or other social media tools to connect online. But remember: There’s no substitute for a traditional, face-to-face meeting, so if you can find a way to meet in person, that’s always the best.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Work in teams as much as you can<\/strong>.\u00a0Whether it’s creating a solar-powered car, participating in a sport, or writing for the school paper, get involved with an organization that requires a team effort to produce great results. Throughout your career, you can be sure you’ll work in teams, and the skills you develop in school will help prepare you to lead teams when you graduate.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Seek informal leadership roles.<\/strong>\u00a0You’re always a leader, whether you’re officially in charge of a team or not. Sounds counterintuitive, but you can lead from any position in an organization by influencing how people work together and how they make decisions. Usually people think that the leader is the president or the manager, but if you learn how to recognize and deal with various leadership styles from any position in a team, you’ll be seen as a leader when you take on your first job or internship.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0Find your flaws\u2014and fix them.<\/strong>\u00a0As with any skill, leadership needs constant improvement. When you are part of a team, try to create a way to get feedback from team members, group leaders, and professors. When you have concrete feedback on how people view you, you can work to improve your skills, including communication and leadership. Plus, you’ll learn how to accept\u2014and give\u2014constructive criticism. That’s absolutely necessary for your future career.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0Take a business class<\/strong>.\u00a0As an engineer, it’s not enough for you to be technically proficient; you need to have business savvy. If you’re going to be a leader, you need to understand what a P&L is (also known as an income statement), read organization charts, know how to negotiate contracts, and be familiar with the myriad other functions that every top engineer needs to know. Otherwise, you won’t understand what to do when an accountant, lawyer, or middle manager gets in the way. A business course or two can take you a long way, and these classes are often easier to pass than your calculus course!<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0Take design and other humanities classes.<\/strong>\u00a0There’s a wide world out there beyond problem sets, laboratories, and theory. Take a visual design course so you’ll learn to represent ideas graphically. Take a cognitive science course to learn how people interpret the world and understand it. Take a literature course to develop your knowledge and appreciation of the classic books, which will help you write and communicate more effectively.<\/p>\n

5-Star Tip.<\/em>\u00a0Tomorrow’s leaders will have to communicate effectively across international borders and be familiar with other cultures, so develop some proficiency in another language, travel abroad, or meet students from other cultures. Start “globalizing” right at college.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0Make your summers productive.<\/strong>\u00a0Employers place tremendous value on practical experience. Seek out internship opportunities actively and early in your academic career. Try to demonstrate through your internships a series of evolving leadership experiences, and use the internships to build your portfolio of actual projects\/products. New graduates who can show a commitment to using their summer to continue to learn are always viewed more seriously by a prospective employer.<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0Recruit and develop your personal\u00a0board of\u00a0directors<\/strong>.\u00a0As an undergraduate, you might feel alone when confronted with hard decisions about the courses to take, jobs to apply for, or even balancing school work and your personal life. You won’t feel alone if you develop a personal board of directors just for you. Just as a company has a board that guides the organization, you can stock your board with professionals from organizations and companies, as well as former teachers and knowledgeable family friends.<\/p>\n

Extra Pointer<\/em>.\u00a0Be sure to “nurture” your board of directors: Keep in touch with them, provide them regular updates, ask them for guidance, and be sure to thank them for any help they provide. And don’t be afraid of conflicting advice. If members offer different suggestions, you’ll have the occasion to balance off one idea against another and make your own decision\u2014just like at a real company.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright 2009 Professors’ Guide LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 Tips for Success for Engineering Students If you’re a current engineering student, here are ways to put yourself on the fast track to success. 10 Tips for Success for Engineering Students According to a recent survey by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, one third of college freshmen plan to major in science […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-howto"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/nurazaliah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}