The following is a summary of Session 8 of my podcast, The Engineering Career Coach (TECC) Podcast with Anthony Fasano, PE. I will summarize the main points in this session here; however, you can also listen to the show through the player below or by subscribing on iTunes. I offer a career-changing tip at the end of each podcast session.
By no means is the message here that going to work in a cubicle every day is a bad thing. In fact, many of you reading this post may really enjoy doing that. The point here is that you don’t have to do that. There are other options that you can pursue with your engineering background and degree.
My guest for Session 8 is Dan from Washington, who is 26 years old and working in the electrical engineering field. The key points that I outline with this young engineer are as follows:
- A critical component of building flexibility into your career and lifestyle is building your reputation. It’s important that you gain expertise and the proper credentials that will allow you to work independently as a consultant or freelancer, which can offer more freedom and flexibility than a typical 9-to-5 job.
- Building your skills and resume should be done immediately when you enter into a new industry, whether you are a recent engineering graduate or a veteran looking to change disciplines or start your own engineering firm.
- By building your resume and skills early on in your pursuit of a goal, you are immediately putting yourself in a great position to succeed.
- Working independently on your own terms can not only dramatically increase your enjoyment level in your career and life but also eliminate the salary limitations that you may have with a typical corporate engineering job.
- When you have freedom, you can work on what you WANT to work on every day.
- Your engineering degree provides you with an analytical method of thinking that you can utilize in all aspects of your life.
- When preparing to leave a traditional engineering job, ensure that you consider a plan B to fall back on if your new venture doesn’t work. For example, do you have your professional engineering license? If not, could you get it if you leave your traditional job and then try to come back to it in a few years?
- Always utilize your downtime to better yourself.
If you are looking to build more freedom and flexibility into your engineering career and life, implementing some of the strategies listed above should help you do so. Don’t spend 20 years in a cubicle if you don’t want to; you certainly don’t have to.
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This is a guest post by Anthony Fasano, PE, author of Engineer Your Own Success. Anthony found success as an engineer at a very early age and now writes and podcasts to help other engineers do the same. Visit Anthony’s website atEngineeringCareerCoach.com and subscribe to the top 3 resources Anthony has used to become a partner in a firm at the age of 27.