How can someone pursuing Engineering truly be successful in their career? By developing various skill sets. Basically, a successful engineer needs to develop both their technical as well as soft skills. Here are the top 5 skills all engineers need to shine in this ever-evolving field:
1. Communication
There comes a various moment where engineers need to express their ideas for a project. Communication is a key skill required for this, especially when dealing with someone with a non-technical background.
An engineer will need to spend a lot of time in discussion with clients, team meetings, building relationships with customers, etc. In such situations, it becomes important to build communication skills to convey your messages properly and politely so that it is easily understood by everyone.
Tips to develop your communication skills:
If you are struggling or want to improve your communication skills, start having more conversations. During your college days, start talking with your friends while in a group. It will boost your confidence. Never feel shy asking your friends or family members about how your communication is. Look for how your seniors and professors speak during conference sessions.
Attend public events and seminars to know about their presentation skills. Whether you are an intern or a senior level engineer, communicating your ideas and engaging with others is the first thing that others will notice about you.
2. Flexibility and adaptability
Flexibility and adaptability means the ability to adjust to short-term changes quickly and calmly, to deal with unexpected problems or tasks effectively. In this modern world, engineers often have to handle multiple projects. They have to switch their roles and take on new tasks as assigned.
Engineers need to develop a flexible mindset to adapt to the high-pressure work environment. They need to keep themselves updated with new techniques and technologies.
Tips to develop your flexibility and adaptability skills:
- Be open-minded
Being open-minded allows the entry of new thoughts and ideas. It creates a more open atmosphere in and around you and encourages others to do the same. Open-minded people learn new things from their team members and participate in finding greater solutions. - Curiosity to learn new things
Curious people tend to be adaptable. Engineers are always exposed to technologies, and learning about new technology always benefits in the long run. Read about new industry news, follow the latest trends in your sectors, go to seminars, connect with colleagues and learn from them. - Take risks
Your comfort zone doesn’t allow you to take risks. Start with little progress, make smaller deadlines in your daily schedule so you become used to deadlines. For some, taking risk is bad, they run away from risks. But taking risks is key to becoming adaptable.
3. Teamwork
Engineers never work alone. They work with a wide range of people, both in their department as well as people from an outside department. There will be people with different job profiles, levels, skills and diverse backgrounds.
Thus engineers need to properly collaborate and work in a team to create a cooperative environment. Someone who doesn’t work well in a team won’t help their company to achieve their goals. Being a team player will lead to a healthy and effective atmosphere, make the work easy, and will help all of your team members to move forward to a common goal.
Tips to Become a Team Player:
Right from your college, engage in groups. Participate in group discussions, group meetings, and several group competitions. Some other tips include-
- Being open-minded
- Adapt quickly
- Meet your deadlines
- Allow others to express their ideas without interrupting them
- Appreciate your team member’s efforts
- Focus on team’s goals
4. Creativity
Engineers are meant for solving problems, and for that, they require creative solutions. They have ample technical knowledge, but finding new ways and applying it with existing knowledge is what makes engineering unique.
Engineers have to look beyond the traditional approaches to find the most feasible solution to a given problem. Thus making engineers to explore numerous options of working in such a fast-paced world.
Tips to develop creativity:
Indulge in brainstorming sessions. Brainstorming is a group activity in which efforts are made by every group member to find ideas related to a specific problem and thus to find a conclusion for the same.
Develop solution-oriented thinking. Solution-oriented thinking means focusing on a problem, finding reasons why that problem occurs and searching for possible solutions to solve or fix that problem.
For example, thinking about a given problem from its core and analyzing it from all possible aspects. If you found one solution to that problem, then don’t just stick with it and consider it as a final solution. Try brainstorming and finding other solutions which are less time consuming, less cost consuming, and most feasible one.
5. Attention to detail
Engineers have to work on extremely complex projects. Such projects may involve collaborating with a large group of people. A small mistake during planning or execution can lead to tremendous financial losses and potentially dangerous situations like injuries or sometimes death. Thus accuracy, precision and attention to small details are very important.
Tips on how to pay extra attention to details:
- Stay on schedule and avoid delays
- Improve communications between different departments
- Set realistic expectations
- Check your resources
- Perform risk analysis
- Be open to alternate solutions
Conclusion:
Mentioned above are the top 5 skills that every engineer must have. There are some other skills namely:
- Leadership qualities
- Enthusiasm
- Resilience and self-discipline
- Analysis and research
- Innovation
In such an ever-changing and competitive world, the current workplace has made engineers develop additional skills other than their technical skills. These 5 skills are crucial for engineers and also for other working professionals. Hence, it has become essential for all students to develop these skills.
That’s where Goseeko comes in. Goseeko is an online platform for students seeking higher education such as Engineering to provide them with the best academic resources.
What makes Goseeko unique is that we provide students with study materials as per their university syllabus. There are Topic-wise Notes, MCQ’s, Video Lectures, Question Banks and more. Along with these, we also focus on career development, upskilling skills and courses such as:
- Upskill + Mentorship + Placement (Know more here)
- Spoken English + Mentorship + Placement (Know more)
- The Career Code (Know more)
- And many more like these.
You can see the detailed course list here.
Similar blogs which might be helpful to you –
- Top 10 Engineering Colleges in India
- 5 Upskilling Courses that Engineers need
- Why are Internships important for College Students?
- And more Engineering blogs here