Career advice: Creative ideas and innovation make a difference. Choose the right mentor and friends to understand your strengths and interests for a tighter focus on career, talent and skills.
Engineering is an important and exciting profession that comes with huge responsibilities. Engineers have the potential to innovate and simplify day-to-day lives in so many ways.
In high school, I participated in a lot of science exhibitions and dreamed of inventing cool things. By graduation (electronics and instrumentation), I was focused on the field of robotics without any focus or thought on awards or rewards.
Pursue engineering innovation
I believe that winning or losing is a part of life. If you win, you are a step ahead. Winning morally forces you to be responsible, meet others’ expectations, and creates incentives to achieve more. Losing provides opportunities for learning and exploring new ways to win.
After graduation, I began at a company where I set my dreams towards innovation eventually leading to such honors as “2018 Design Thinking personality of the year” and as an “Innovation Catalyst” among 40,000 employees worldwide. Creative ideas and innovations make a significant difference in employees’ work and helping an organization grow.
Positive attitude
I keep saying to myself not to wait for someone to notice my strengths, interests and goals. It is better to create an opportunity and then drive curiosity and passion towards it with full commitment and ownership.
Whenever I fall short, the efforts and strengths needed to reach my goal boosted my confidence and encouraged me to keep trying and explore until I reach success. In time, I understood that acting alone will not help growth as I lacked the experience and unique knowledge other people had.
Help from a mentor
Choose the right mentor and friends who can guide you and will share their honest views and opinions. Try to understand their perceptions of your strength and interests to help sharpen a focus on your career, talent and skills. Creating self-structured training goals can help in reaching long-term career development plans.
Design engineers need to know the importance of accurate and precise engineering input for construction personnel, who risk their lives to bring the theories on paper into reality. Engineering is vital for safe construction.
Don’t wait for opportunity to knock on your door. Seek opportunities and perform exceptionally to shine.
Sheikh Rafik Manihar Ahmed is a control system engineer and innovation catalyst, Fluor Daniel India Pvt. Ltd., and among the winners of the 2018 Engineering Leaders Under 40. Edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media, [email protected].
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KEYWORDS: Engineering career help
Engineers should maintain a positive attitude.
Work with a mentor and ask for guidance.
Create goals for training to help advance career goals.
Consider this
Do you match training to career goals?
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See results from the Control Engineering Salary and Career Survey from 2018 and advice from engineers who took the survey.
