This is the most complete career resource guide book for engineers dealing with the non-technical side of engineering. It provides career advice for engineers at all stages of their careers, whether newly graduated, mid-career, or soon-to-be-retired. This book provides many real world, practical, proven, common sense career tips supported by actual work and experiences/examples. Tips deal with problems the engineer may encounter with supervisors, co-workers and others in the corporation. The book provides step-by-step guidance on how to deal with career problems and come out ahead.
Written by an experienced engineer, Practical Career Advice for Engineers: Personal Letters from an Experienced Engineer to Students and New Engineers is a series of personal conversation-style letters that offers practical career advice to all engineers. It guides them through their entire career from early education, to professional certification, on into the workplace, and eventually to retirement. Important topics such as how to acquire leadership skills, improve communication skills, and develop the business side of engineering, as well as how to find a good engineering job, are also addressed. The book guides engineers on how to make good career decisions, using precise and systematic processes. It offers inspiration and insight to student engineers and working engineers on how to have successful and satisfying educations and careers. It can also help experienced engineers to more effectively guide and mentor new engineers. It explores the important topics of creativity, ethics, intellectual property, and scientific principles in engineering and at the same time weaves real-world stories, concepts, diagrams, and tips throughout the book in the form of personal letters perfect for quick and easy comprehension. The book targets all engineers working in all disciplines, all industry sectors, and all locations. Engineering students can also learn more about a career in engineering and what they need to do to prepare for it by reading this book. Radovan Zdero, PhD, CEng, MIMechE, has decades of experience as an engineer and a mentor to engineers. His engineering background includes a master’s degree in aerodynamics (McMaster University, Canada) and a doctoral degree in biomechanics (Queen’s University, Canada). He is a Chartered Engineer, a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and a Professor in the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering (Western University, Canada). He has published many scholarly research articles in peer-reviewed engineering, science, and medical journals. He is also the editor of the engineering textbook Experimental Methods in Orthopaedic Biomechanics. Contact the author: [email protected]
"Early in his software developer career, John Sonmez discovered that technical knowledge alone isn't enough to break through to the next income level - developers need "soft skills" like the ability to learn new technologies just in time, communicate clearly with management and consulting clients, negotiate a fair hourly rate, and unite teammates and coworkers in working toward a common goal. Today John helps more than 1.4 million programmers every year to increase their income by developing this unique blend of skills. Who Should Read This Book? Entry-Level Developers - This book will show you how to ensure you have the technical skills your future boss is looking for, create a resume that leaps off a hiring manager's desk, and escape the "no work experience" trap. Mid-Career Developers - You'll see how to find and fill in gaps in your technical knowledge, position yourself as the one team member your boss can't live without, and turn those dreaded annual reviews into chance to make an iron-clad case for your salary bump. Senior Developers - This book will show you how to become a specialist who can command above-market wages, how building a name for yourself can make opportunities come to you, and how to decide whether consulting or entrepreneurship are paths you should pursue. Brand New Developers - In this book you'll discover what it's like to be a professional software developer, how to go from "I know some code" to possessing the skills to work on a development team, how to speed along your learning by avoiding common beginner traps, and how to decide whether you should invest in a programming degree or 'bootcamp.'"--
Focusing on basic skills and tips for career enhancement, Engineer Your Own Success is a guide to improving efficiency and performance in any engineering field. It imparts valuable organization tips, communication advice, networking tactics, and practical assistance for preparing for the PE exam—every necessary skill for success. Authored by a highly renowned career coach, this book is a battle plan for climbing the rungs of any engineering ladder.
Intent on solving the ever-emerging problems created by the requirements of society and advancing technology, today's engineers tend to lose sight of the important professional, governmental, and community-based activities that can profoundly affect the outcome of their careers. This comprehensive introductory text helps illuminate the many socio-economic issues that are an integral part of the engineer's life from college to career to retirement.
Software engineering education has a problem: universities and bootcamps teach aspiring engineers to write code, but they leave graduates to teach themselves the countless supporting tools required to thrive in real software companies. Building a Career in Software is the solution, a comprehensive guide to the essential skills that instructors don't need and professionals never think to teach: landing jobs, choosing teams and projects, asking good questions, running meetings, going on-call, debugging production problems, technical writing, making the most of a mentor, and much more. In over a decade building software at companies such as Apple and Uber, Daniel Heller has mentored and managed tens of engineers from a variety of training backgrounds, and those engineers inspired this book with their hundreds of questions about career issues and day-to-day problems. Designed for either random access or cover-to-cover reading, it offers concise treatments of virtually every non-technical challenge you will face in the first five years of your career—as well as a selection of industry-focused technical topics rarely covered in training. Whatever your education or technical specialty, Building a Career in Software can save you years of trial and error and help you succeed as a real-world software professional. What You Will Learn Discover every important nontechnical facet of professional programming as well as several key technical practices essential to the transition from student to professional Build relationships with your employer Improve your communication, including technical writing, asking good questions, and public speaking Who This Book is For Software engineers either early in their careers or about to transition to the professional world; that is, all graduates of computer science or software engineering university programs and all software engineering boot camp participants.
At most technology companies, you'll reach Senior Software Engineer, the career level for software engineers, in five to eight years. At that career level, you'll no longer be required to work towards the next pro? motion, and being promoted beyond it is exceptional rather than ex? pected. At that point your career path will branch, and you have to decide between remaining at your current level, continuing down the path of technical excellence to become a Staff Engineer, or switching into engineering management. Of course, the specific titles vary by company, and you can replace "Senior Engineer" and "Staff Engineer" with whatever titles your company prefers.Over the past few years we've seen a flurry of books unlocking the en? gineering management career path, like Camille Fournier's The Man? ager's Path, Julie Zhuo's The Making of a Manager, Lara Hogan's Re? silient Management and my own, An Elegant Puzzle. The manage? ment career isn't an easy one, but increasingly there are maps avail? able for navigating it.On the other hand, the transition into Staff Engineer, and its further evolutions like Principal and Distinguished Engineer, remains chal? lenging and undocumented. What are the skills you need to develop to reach Staff Engineer? Are technical abilities alone sufficient to reach and succeed in that role? How do most folks reach this role? What is your manager's role in helping you along the way? Will you enjoy being a Staff Engineer or you will toil for years to achieve a role that doesn't suit you?"Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track" is a pragmatic look at attaining and operate in these Staff-plus roles.
At some point in your career, you'll realize there's more to being a software engineer than dealing with code. Is it time to become a manager? Or join a startup? In this insightful and entertaining book, Michael Lopp recalls his own make-or-break moments with Silicon Valley giants such as Apple, Slack, Pinterest, Palantir, Netscape, and Symantec to help you make better, more mindful career decisions. With more than 40 stand-alone stories, Lopp walks through a complete job lifecycle, starting with the interview and ending with the realization that it might be time to move on. You'll learn how to handle baffling circumstances in your job, understand what you want from your career, and discover how to thrive in your workplace. Learn how to navigate areas of your job that don't involve writing code Identify how the aspects you enjoy will affect your next career steps Build and maintain key relationships and interactions within your community Make choices that will help you have a "deliberate career" Recognize what's important to your manager and work on things that matter
