Carl Selinger is a private consultant specializing in aviation and transportation, developing business strategy and applying new technologies. His 35-year career includes 31 years at The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. Carl left the Port Authority in 1999 as Manager of Aviation Business Development, where he developed business, concessions and technology initiatives for Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports. Carl’s motto: "Ideas are always welcomed!"

Carl has been an adjunct college professor for over 25 years, teaching transportation, aviation and marketing courses at The Cooper Union, SUNY Maritime College, Pace University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and City College of New York. He holds civil and transportation engineering degrees from Cooper Union, Yale University, and Polytechnic University. He is Past President of the Cooper Union Alumni Association, and a faculty advisor to Tau Beta Pi.

Among Carl's many professional interests, he is active in ASCE, ITE, WTS, and the airport industry. Carl originated a unique seminar — "Stuff you don't learn in engineering school" — to help engineers learn non-technical soft skills that are important to be more effective and happier in the “real world”. These skills include decision-making, setting priorities, negotiating, teamwork, running meetings, and better writing and speaking. Carl has given this seminar to several thousand engineers during the past dozen years.
Carl is very involved in IEEE. He has given many "Stuff" talks/seminars to S-PAC Conferences, PACE meetings, GOLD chapters and local IEEE sections, to the 2006 Young Engineers Forum, to Illumination 2006 in Saskatoon (attached are attendees' evaluations), and to ComSoc in NYC. He is a Contributing Editor for IEEE Spectrum magazine where he writes articles in the Careers/Resources section on professional skills. His book, Stuff you Don’t Learn in Engineering School: Skills for Success in the Real World, has been published by Wiley-IEEE Press. He has just prepared an IEEE Expert Now module that is now under development. He was a panelist in the online IEEE Spectrum Career Accelerator Forum during fall 2005.

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STUFF YOU DON’T LEARN IN ENGINEERING SCHOOL

Engineers today start their careers with excellent technical skills and subject-matter expertise. However, they are often less able to cope with the people, procedures and pressures of the real world.

This one-hour presentation discusses why engineering school can only do so much, the importance of taking personal responsibility for one's professional and career development, and reviews findings of an engineering managers' survey — on the relative importance of various professional soft skills to young engineers and how well they do in each skill area. Then the presentation identifies the most important "soft" skills engineers need in order to be more effective in work and in life. Selinger's book is usually available at presentations ... Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School: Skills for Success in the Real World (Wiley-IEEE Press, 2004).

If more than one hour is allotted, a certain number of soft skills can be covered in detail while others are overviewed, from among the following skills: running meetings, making decisions, setting priorities, working in teams, better understanding of yourself and others (like co-workers, clients and your boss!), leadership skills, getting feedback, dealing with stress, and improving the communications skills of speaking, writing and listening.

4/06