Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills
Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills
(OP)
I have a general question. Now that I have been in industry for about 10 years, I have found that I am slipping into more and more of a project management role, and am losing some of my "hard" engineering skills. To make matters worse, I have found that I am having a hard time keeping up with the changes in the industry and world around me. Professional organization meetings are quite a way away from here, and I try to read all the trade publications I can, but can anyone provide information or share their experiences with how you can stay abrest of the changes in the world as well as advance your own skills. I see this as benefitting my current employer as well as me personally.
I apologize in advance if the post rambles a bit, but hopefully it can generate some discussion.
I apologize in advance if the post rambles a bit, but hopefully it can generate some discussion.





RE: Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills
It would probably more useful than being 25th on the [can't mention magazine name] distribution list and read it only during boring phone conferences.
RE: Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills
So, I don't get much out of them.
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills
(this is 1/2 sarcasm)
RE: Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills
The technical aspects, I believe you'll get the most by buying used technical books, downloading available free pdf files, attending seminars and conversing in forums like this one.
At some point in your career with the current employer, you'd have maxed out the learning curve and would need to transfer to a new firm so you can acquire newer skills. On the business end of engineering, talk to senior firm owners at the professional associations, read business section of engineering monthly magazines and surf the net to read project management sites.
RE: Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills
My apologies to you if I sound too cynical or sarcastic.
RE: Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills
Are you sure you're not just being too hard on yourself? No one can know everything. That's why companies hire hundreds to thousands of people. I'm sure you have your moments in the sun when you are knowledgable about a specific topic on the job. Don't let other people get you down when they have their day in the sun. I'm sure you know something that they don't know in another area of your job. So don't be hard on yourself. All we can do is the best we can do. It sounds like you're putting in a lot of effort to keep yourself educated outside of work. Keep up the good work. A lot of engineers don't read magazines or books at all. So, good for you for keeping yourself up to date. Don't forget to take time to enjoy life though too. We work to live we don't live to work.
RE: Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills
If you were a professional tennis player, and you no longer played/practiced, would you expect your skills to diminish?
Same thing with engineering. The more management and non-hard core engineering you do, the more you will loose your skills in the hard-core technical area. Reading, keeping up in societies are all good. Still, nothing replaces actually doing the work.
You are in transition, career wise, from technical to managerial. It is tough to maintain 2 careers. And yes, management is a career that is every bit as tough as the technical engineering was. I really think that many people underestimate just how hard it is to be a good manager.
"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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RE: Improving Yourself/Adding New Skills
Definitely.
Meanwhile, if you are sure you want to spend time on sharpening your technical skills why not work with your newest sharpest EIT on a tricky technical problem that no-one else has the time to nut out? He'll benefit from the attention, you'll benefit from the intellectual workout.
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.