Whether you are just starting out in your career, or you have some experience in your field, there will come a time when your career will seem to hit a brick wall. This can be caused by a number of situations including: not being able to land a job upon college graduation, layoff at work, or even lack of interest at work due to change in responsibilities and/or work load that make you feel that you are not using your experience or knowledge. Instead of sitting back and letting time and faith lay the path for your future, you need to step up and initiate change. Here are a few things that you can do to help your career when it seems to come to a halt:

Participate in professional networking sites

Get involved with networking sites such as LinkedIn to communicate with other individuals in your industry. This does not mean to create a page, add a bunch of connections and then forget about your account. Join groups and participate in the discussion boards. The possibilities are endless on how much you can learn from other individuals as well as how much other people in the group can learn from you. It can also open the door to countless opportunities that you may not know are even out there.

Get involved with local Professional membership organizations

Most states and/or regions have chapters of ASCE. Some of the events that these groups hold are career development seminars, happy hour get together, hiking trips, day trips to a big construction site, and other seminars. These events will vary by chapter and are based on the interests and wants of the active people in the group. The idea is to get to know the other people in the field and also make connections that you may call upon in the future. While you may end up going after the same job or client, don’t see these people as enemies. While everybody is struggling for business, engineers also need to stick together to preserve the integrity of the engineering field and continue to work together to come up with solutions to engineering problems. If you are fresh out of college, you do not need to be scared about being the “newbie” in the group. Many states offer Younger Member Groups which are made for those younger engineers who do not have the expansive engineering work experience.

Make the most of your down time and read up on the industry

Instead of just sitting around and playing solitaire or chatting with friends, read up on issues that are affecting your industry. This can prepare you for the changes that are being made in your industry as well as help you avoid poor decisions that others have made which resulted in failure. Stories can be found online, or even in professional Civil Engineering publications.

Practice in programs that are used often in your field.

In today’s day and age, computer technology is a big deal and can be a big strength or weakness on your resume. For civil engineers, the most important program to study up on is AutoCAD. Try to keep up to date on the newer add-ons and how they can help you be more efficient in your daily routine. Microsoft Office also has some amazing capabilities and can be utilized for more than just writing a simple report, or doing a simple chart in Microsoft Excel. Project management/scheduling programs are also a big plus if you want to focus on the project management side of engineering projects.

Evaluate your strength and weaknesses and work to make your weaknesses a strength

What are some of the weaknesses that you have? Work on turning these weaknesses into a positive asset that can help you advance your career. If your public speaking skills are lacking, look for a Toastmasters club to help you improve your public speaking skills. If technical writing has been a challenge for you, look for classes at a local college which focuses on technical writing to help you improve your skills.

Keep in mind jobs that may offer lower level field work

While you may want to focus on the design side of engineering, it is always positive to have some hands on knowledge of the construction side of the project. What may look perfect on paper, could be nearly impossible to construct in the field, or take a lot of time to accomplish the design when the client is on a strict time schedule. Field experience also gives you a greater understanding of what you are actually designing and how it works as opposed to just knowing how it is supposed to work from theory.

This article was written by guest blogger William Merunka at www.powerfulpurposeblog.com.