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THE COMMUNICATION CONNECTION

The ability to communicate effectively, especially in large group settings, is an important attribute for successful engineers and computer scientists. Although various speaking assignments may result in feelings of discomfort, the application of common sense and the fundamental principles of public speaking can improve results and build speaker confidence.

The most important step in preparing interesting and successful presentations is to analyze the audience and then design the presentation for their benefit. Content and structure are best designed by starting with an outline of major points. Effective use of visuals increases audience interest and is one of the best methods for you to build confidence.

To be an effective speaker, start planning early, rehearse many times, and become familiar with your visuals. You can create interest and speaking style by adding charts and pictures, changing voice speed and volume, using natural gestures, and applying innovative ideas.

Many skills enhance success in a life-long career. Continuing education, productive work habits, interpersonal skills, and the ability to balance time among many responsibilities are important. However, the true test of a professional is not only knowledge, but also the ability to communicate that knowledge effectively to others. 

This presentation will give you practical ideas on how to:

• Analyze different types of audiences
• Develop appropriate visuals
• Minimize nervousness and develop self-confidence
• Eliminate written notes by using visuals as a guide for your comments
• Give effective presentations to live audiences and web-based conferences
• Participate successfully in team presentations
• Answer questions from the audience

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IN SEARCH OF DIAMONDS

Success is in the mind of the beholder. Some search for diamonds and wealth. Others desire opportunities to make significant advancements in their profession. Most people have a goal to succeed and to achieve life-long dreams. As engineering and computer science students, you work hard to prepare for your profession. Although your professions are based on technology, to be successful you must develop and effectively use many non-technical skills.

Diamonds of opportunity can be found by developing personal and professional networks. Networks provide sources of new information and improve your technical skills. Networks also offer excellent opportunities to develop non-technical skills. Networking should start in classrooms, study groups, laboratories, and senior project teams. These provide opportunities to practice interpersonal skills in low-risk situations.

Networking can best be developed by active participation in student and national professional organizations such as the IEEE. Building networks with alumni who are employed is one of the most important activities for students.

So how can you find your "field of diamonds"? Is it by keeping current with technology? Yes. Is it by developing many non-technical skills? Absolutely. The secret of success is joining these two areas into a balanced career. Building successful networks is one of the best methods of obtaining life-long goals and success.

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IT’S YOUR BUSINESS

The American Dream has often been defined as the ownership and operation of a personal business. Many individuals think a new or unique idea or product is the main ingredient in establishing their own business. However, the successful operation of a business with sustaining profit levels also requires the knowledge and application of business principles.

Successful ventures are usually based more on the business of business than technology or unique products and services. Some engineering curricula include a limited amount of skill development in communication, teamwork, interpersonal relationships, diversity and other non-technical areas. However, it is unusual for graduates in technical professions to understand or to be skillful in business practices without some experience by working in an established corporation.

Does this mean that engineers and other technical professionals can not start a business and be successful in its operation? No, but it does indicate the importance of learning key business principles before considering the start-up of a new venture.

Interviews with prospective employers include a discussion of your strengths and limitations. A self-evaluation of the same personal skills and experiences is necessary if you want to increase your success potential when starting your own business.

Important topics in this presentation include:

• Is there a reasonable demand for the product or service?
• Have you developed business skills by working for an established company?
• Is the plan for establishing a new business based on a realistic foundation?
• Do your personal work habits and characteristics fit into a self-supervised environment in which you must be a leader and make decisions?
• Are you willing to invest personal time and resources to much greater extent than typically required when working for others?
• Do you have financial resources and personal support of family and others?
• Have you learned how to successfully work with and influence people?
• Have you established support resources to handle financial and legal needs?

“It’s Your Business” is designed by an engineer for engineers who are considering entrepreneurship.  By using the results of a self-evaluation exercise during this lecture, you will have a better idea of skills needed to start and operate your successful business.

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YOUR PERSONAL MARKETING PLAN FOR CAREER SUCCESS

Unlike past generations in which engineers worked for or owned a single company during their entire career, engineers today face a different and very dynamic future.  Because you will probably work for more than one company, your career will include many options and outside forces that will play a significant role in determining your opportunities for success.

So, this raises some interesting questions.  How do you prepare to make important decisions for career paths?  In addition to your formal education and work experiences, what other resources do you need to move on when your job is terminated or when you want to change directions in your career? How can you be successful in your career and life?

This presentation will answer these questions by showing you how you can use marketing principles to develop a personal marketing plan to compete successfully in the marketplace.  By using this information, you will learn how to capture information and then use it as a resource in your job searches and future job changes during your career.

Major topics included in this personal marketing plan discussion include:

• Personal skills
• Personal portfolio
• Potential employer research
• Resume and cover document
• Engineering contributions
• Life-long learning

Engineers develop the ability to think logically and to apply this approach to non-technical areas of their career. As an engineering student, you can apply this same process to capture, retrieve, and use important career related information.  Then, you will be in a strong position to “market” your special skills to future employers or start a successful business of your own.

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FROM SHADES OF GRAY TO BLACK AND WHITE

Engineers and other technical professionals provide their greatest contribution to society by solving problems and making decisions in the application of technology. The design and application of technology should include the responsibility to provide quality products and services.  Our profession should create a positive impact on society and the quality of life.

In making ethical decisions, engineers need to be sensitive to how their decisions will impact others. Unlike many principles of engineering, ethics is not easy to structure or to teach. Webster defines ethic as “pertaining to morals” and ethical as “in accordance with the rules or standards for right conduct or practice, especially the standards of a profession.”

Ethical situations often are not black or white issues. Typically, there are shades of gray with no apparent right or wrong answer. In such dilemmas, engineers must search for the best solution. We need to ask should it be done in addition to can it be done.

Although ethical behavior is somewhat based on personal values, it is important that we use proven guidelines to help us turn shades of gray dilemmas into black and white ethical decisions. This presentation addresses ethics from a practical viewpoint and includes audience team exercises. It is designed to build an awareness of ethical dilemmas and to provide standards and an engineering process for their solution.

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THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT

Technical professionals manage many projects and your most important project is your career.  Career management starts as soon as you enter the educational process. Career choices are experienced early, and you need to continually review your goals and career desires to find the areas of interest and highest potential success.

Choices should be made to enhance and achieve your goals and skill needs. There are many proven approaches that can lead to success including:

• Identifying and refining short and long term goals
• Developing and using an effective time-managing process
• Building a foundation of technical expertise
• Developing a balance between technical and non-technical skills
• Having a life-time learning plan
• Learning to work successfully with other people, both technical and non-technical
• Developing effective speaking and written communication skills
• Taking reasonable risks and learning to build success from failure
• Developing personal networks with a wide range of peers
• Starting early and continuing to be actively involved in professional societies

Although the definition of success is based on personal values, most would agree that we should strive to achieve the highest level of growth and professional contribution possible. Career management is the key to achieving success and it can only be accomplished when you personally take control of the process.

It has been said that if you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there. Unfortunately, those who do not take control of their career often find the results are much less than what they would like or could achieve. Therefore, the time to start managing your career is now.

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ENJOY THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE

Time!  Every day, you are given 24 hours.  To a great extent, you have the power to determine how to invest 1,440 minutes each day.  Successful use of 86,400 seconds in 24 hours is directly proportional to the degree of your planning and control.

Time can be your best friend or worst enemy.  You cannot create time, but can misuse or waste it.  So, it is a good idea to invest your time wisely.

A time management process is more than entering information in a calendar.  This is only the first step.  Successful time management includes estimating time requirements for tasks and developing a schedule to start and complete them within the desired target date.

Concepts included in this time management discussion are easy to adapt to your lifestyle and can help you achieve successful use of your time without the process becoming a burden.  Time management does require some work, but you can use these ideas to become efficient and have more time to enjoy the pleasures of life.

If you are already using a time management system, this presentation will verify that you are on target or show you new ways to make your system easier to use and more effective. 

If you have tried using time management but have been discouraged with results, we will discuss how you can make your future time management efforts more successful.

If you have never tried a structured approach to managing time, this presentation will give you a simple, proven approach to begin a time management system that will work for you.

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LEADING THE WAY TO SUCCESS

Leadership is an important engineering tool, and learning to be an effective leader in various environments helps to guarantee your personal and professional success as an engineer.  Leadership skills will definitely be part of your career when you are a leader or when you work with others who are leaders.

So, what do you think is a good definition of a leader?  Thousands of history books have been written about leaders.  Typically, these focus on individuals who have been heads of state, generals in a military setting, corporate officers, front-runners in a cause, or outstanding individuals in academia and other areas.

However, leadership is not limited to the famous of history.  In fact, it can be found in all walks of life including engineering.  And to the benefit of mankind, engineers will continue to be leaders as they apply important technology to help solve the challenges of a fast moving world.

Leaders have vision and the ability to inspire others to accomplish great things.  There are two reasons you will benefit by understanding the principles of leadership.  First, you can apply these to leadership opportunities and achieve greater success.  And second, you can work more effectively with leaders when you are part of their team.

This presentation will give you practical ideas on how you can develop and enhance leadership skills now so you will be prepared to be a leader and/or work more effectively with leaders in your career. This discussion includes:

• Common principles of leadership
• Your opportunities to develop and improve leadership skills
• How you can practice working with leaders
• How you can apply your experience in leadership roles to your working career
• How you can use leadership skills in your profession and community

When you learn to be a leader and to work with other leaders you achieve greater success in your career and life.

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IN SEARCH OF GOLD

Your use of time, energy, and money to achieve a formal technical education is one of the best investments you will make during your lifetime. By now, you should be familiar with the value of working hard to achieve the most from this experience.

Information obtained during class lectures and in solving homework problems is designed to prepare you for future career challenges. This technical foundation is further strengthened when you apply engineering principles in various laboratories. This hands-on experience provides additional information and builds technical expertise and confidence.

Experienced engineers and computer scientists are well aware that high levels of career success depend on a balance of effective technical and non-technical skills. While some non-technical skills can be obtained in the formal classroom and laboratory, you need to find additional methods of enhancing interpersonal, teamwork, leadership, project management, and other people related skills.

IEEE and other student organizations offer, for a very small financial investment, a laboratory in which you can practice many people-related skills in a friendly, low-risk environment. This includes being active in group projects, becoming a leader as an officer or project manager, learning how to effectively communicate and work with a diverse group, and accepting responsibility to plan and complete projects and activities.

In addition to activities typically available in any student organization, IEEE-USA offers many ideas, programs, and resources for your application. These are called professional ventures and conferences.  Even if you are not an officer, you are encouraged to volunteer and get involved in these activities.

“You need to develop an action plan because even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.” (Quote by Will Rogers) This presentation will show you how volunteering now and being actively involved in IEEE and your profession can be an important part of your action plan.

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