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Goal Setting: Start With Your Values

March 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Goal SettingThe following is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of my soon to be launched book Engineer Your Own Success: 7 Key Elements to Creating an Extraordinary Engineering Career:

An important first step in setting goals is taking a good look at your values. These are defined in the dictionary as a principle, standard, or quality considered worthwhile or desirable.

What are your principles? What are your standards? What are your values? Take a notepad and paper and make a list of everything you value in your life.

Your values might include your family, friends, honesty, and integrity among others. This is a very important first step to goal-setting because your values will act as the foundation for achieving your goals. [Read more...]

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Have You Accomplished Your Goals This Year?

December 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment


William Merunka


Featured Guest Blogger: William Merunka

Follow me on my journey to become a great engineer.

Let’s connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/williammerunka

As 2010 wraps up, we will try to think about the resolutions we made at the beginning of 2010 and which ones we accomplished. While we would all love to brag about all of the resolutions we made and how we accomplished them, the truth is that for a lot of people this may not be the case. This could be the result of several factors including: forgetting the resolutions because we never wrote them down, not aggressively pursuing the resolution and saying we still have time to accomplish it, or even giving up on the goal and say we will do it next year. While we can say that we will do better next year, and won’t fall into the same pitfalls again, we need to understand where we went wrong before we can begin to change our actions.

One of the main reasons we can’t evaluate our performance on reaching our goals is lack of recollection. The body works in mysterious ways, we may say we are definitely going to do something, and then a few months later forget what we were trying to do. The way around this is to write your goals on paper. When writing the goals, try to be as descriptive as possible. For example, don’t just say “get a job”, instead say “get a job with a civil engineering company focusing on water resources and working under a licensed PE who can help me with the process of obtaining my PE license”. Another good thing is to set dates, or measurable factors for the goals. If your goal is to lose weight, mention how much weight you want to lose and when you want to lose it by. After writing your goals, you should make at least 2 copies. One to hang up someplace you will see, and one to give to a friend you trust. By hanging the goals, you will be reminded of them on a daily basis and will always be thinking about them. Giving a copy to your friend makes you accountable for your goals. If you make goals and keep them to yourself, you can remove goals or alter them if you don’t feel like working on it. However, by giving a copy away, you have somebody to push you, and who can help get you back on the correct path when you start to wander off. [Read more...]

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What Is Your Ultimate Career Goal?

September 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Anthony Fasano

Did you ever take the time to stop and think, “What is my ultimate career goal?” It’s an open-ended question with tons of possible answers, but it will certainly force you to think about your career and where you are headed.

I am writing this post in response to a question that an engineer asked at one of my career advancement seminars.  The question was something to the effect of, “How does my role fit into the big picture of the world?”  What a great question!  Unfortunately, the only person that can truly answer this question is the person that asked it, however I thought I would share how I would answer this question.

In attempting to answer this question, I would start by brainstorming on the first question I mentioned above, “What is my ultimate career goal?”  Do you want to make a lot of money, be president of a company, work as little as possible and enjoy life outside of work as much as you can, own your own business, travel around the world during your career? [Read more...]

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Can You Stick It?

February 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Featured Guest Blogger: William Merunka
Follow me on my journey to become a great engineer.
Let’s connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/williammerunka

Throughout life, we encounter situations that are challenging and unavoidable.  When in this situation we have two options, fight or flight.  While our ego may tell us to fight and work through it, we usually take the path of least resistance and run away from the situation.  One of the most common times for this to occur is when looking to find a new job or changing the direction of your career.  With the economic recession playing a major role on the employment field over the past year, it has been easy to choose flight and make excuses for why we have not achieved the career goals that we set for ourselves or found that new job after being laid off.

Oftentimes I hear people saying that it’s not about what you know, but who you know.  Personally, I don’t believe in this mindset.  In my opinion it’s about what you do that will help make, break, or stall your career.  Yes, it helps to know people in positions of authority amongst the company or field that you are trying to get into.  However, just having a neighbor or 3rd degree friend who’s the lead engineer for the civil engineering department is not going to get you the job.

You need to impress in that person’s mind that you are worthy of their time and that you could be a valuable asset to their team and their company in general.  While you have the advantage of knowing the person, you still need to go in and seal the deal.  Your career is not going to come to you, you need to find that passion within yourself and pursue your career.  What makes you special and better than Mr. Smith who submitted their resume through the company’s website last week? [Read more...]

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Career Goals: Don’t Sell Yourself Short!

February 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I have said in the past that it is extremely important to have career goals, which act as a destination for where you are taking your career.  It is important when setting your goals, to take the time to figure out exactly what you want, nothing more, and nothing less.

Clearly defining your goal is extremely important.  Use an analogy of driving to a destination.  Is it easier to get somewhere if you only know the city or state or if you know the exact street address?  Your goals act as that street address that constantly tells you where you are going.

In setting these clearly defined goals, you really need to figure out what you want.  Many people will water down their goals during this process because they believe they are too lofty.  By doing this, you are giving up on your goal before you even attempt to achieve it.  Why?  You have the ability to achieve absolutely anything you want to in your career.  When you are setting your goals, just think about your current situation as scenario “A” and the goal you are seeking as scenario “B” AND DO NOT TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET FROM A TO B AT THIS POINT.  When people think about the route they will have to take, that is when they often start the “watering-down” process.  You can worry about action plans and steps you may take later, but when you are setting your goals focus on your desires, regardless of how unattainable you may think they are. [Read more...]

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