Mr. Kostek is a Senior Member of the IEEE, was the 1999 President of IEEE-USA, and a member of the IEEE Board of Directors. He also served as President of the IEEE Aerospace & Electronics Systems Society in 2000 & 2001.

Mr. Kostek is a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the International Council on Systems Engineering, SAE, and the Project Management Institute. He is also a director of the Washington Aerospace Alliance.

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WHAT IS SUCCESS?

The dynamics of an engineering career are changing. Corporate restructuring, changes in technology, competition, and a move to temporary/contract employees all are impacting engineering careers. In your career you can now expect to work for multiple employers, spend time as a contract or temporary employee, and even be self-employed. Now more than ever we must take a greater role in managing our careers. To do this we need to evaluate (identify) our professional goals and objectives.

To manage your career you will need to ask yourself a series of questions:

• How do I define success?
• What are my career objectives?
• What are my personal objectives?
• Are these objectives compatible?
• If not, can they be reconciled?

Your answers to these questions can help you determine your career path. Your answers to these questions will also change as you move through your career.

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PERSONAL POSITIONING FOR ENGINEERS

As we enter the 21st Century the employment options we have are expanding and changing. What we do today may not be what we do tomorrow. Success will be determined by our ability to position ourselves to take advantage of opportunity. But not all of the options will work for each person. In this presentation we will look at employment and career options. We will discuss direct, contract, consulting, and self-employment along with a series of questions on each of these. We will also look at career options, large versus small employers, management versus technical.

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