Show Notes
In the spirit of enabling your dream career, today’s discussion is on the 3 aspects of your engineering career that you should own. You play a role in manifesting your dream career. And owning these 3 aspects is a good first step.
As I started writing this episode I was thinking about your energetic center. This is a good place to start today’s conversation. Let’s go there with your energetic center in mind.
Your energetic center. That powerful place where your values, skills, strengths, and passion meet. Honoring your energetic center will help you command your career and will give you the right perspective on these 3 aspects that you should own.
If you need a refresher, Episode 22 is all about your energetic center.
As women engineers we often feel like we don’t own our careers. Maybe because we’re in the minority. Because we do for others more than we do for ourselves.
Maybe because we trust that others have our best interests in mind. Because we believe that our hard work will get us where we want to go.
While there’s nothing wrong with trusting good people and doing good work, this is not sufficient for manifesting your vision. For being who you want to be in your career.
The First Step to Taking Charge of Your Engineering Career
As much as they like to think so, people don’t always have your best interests in mind. And hard work only takes you so far. There’s a point where you need to take charge. Set your boundaries. Steer your own ship.
Taking charge of your career is not easy. You have to make your way up a learning curve. You have to figure out what you want. You have to learn how to navigate the available opportunities. You have to work with people and negotiate your path.
But one big step you can take now is to own 3 aspects of your career that have a significant impact on your present experience, your future “dream” career, and what happens in between.
The 3 aspects of your career that you should own are your vision, your workload, and your calendar. If you can take charge of these 3 things, you’ll be well on your way to owning your engineering career.
What It Means to Own Your Career Vision
- Vision – It’s not too difficult to own your vision. After all you created it. It’s uniquely yours. You can go back to Episode 5 to learn more about creating your vision. No one quite understands your vision like you do.
But you need to be the caretaker, the dream keeper. Don’t let others talk you into a future that you don’t want, or talk you out of what you do want. Your vision can certainly change. But the changes should be yours.
If you feel you’re being pulled onto the wrong path, you have to be the one who makes the decision to head in the other direction. This is what it means to own your vision.
What It Means to Own Your Engineering Workload
- Workload – Your workload is not so easy to own. But it’s very much in your control. Episode 11 is all about workload.
Early in your career you may not have as much influence on your workload. But that can change rather quickly. And you always have a say. While occasionally we all have to do some amount of work we don’t want to do, this should be the exception not the rule.
Owning your workload means not leaving the management of it to others. At least not entirely. Manage your workload because it’s part of your job. Speak up when you’re overwhelmed or your workload is otherwise not serving you. You can do this!
Here are some tips for managing your workload:
- Take things off your plate. Or add things to it.
- Find ways to make tasks easier on yourself.
- Make sure you don’t have more than your fair share of “extra duties.”
- Tailor your workload to fit your status.
- Say no to work that doesn’t fit your goals.
You can go back to Episode 11 and get more details on these tips.
What It Means to Own Your Calendar
- Calendar – I often think people should take charge of their calendars more than they do. The tasks of managing your calendar are simple, but the decisions required are not always easy to make.
It’s important for women engineers to own their calendars because they tend to have a need to show competence by doing more. And women tend to say yes to too many things and not say no enough.
But mostly I think people just need permission to own their calendars. I’m giving you permission.
Owning your calendar means maintaining a reasonable schedule of meetings, events, and engagements that serve you. So that you’re not overly stressed and you stay on the path toward your vision.
Tips to Help You Own Your Calendar
Here are some tips for owning your calendar:
- First, review it weekly (or daily) and optimize it. Remove or reschedule or rearrange when events interfere with your priorities. You have the power to do that.
- Second, put all important events on your calendar and don’t allow people to schedule over them. This includes non-work engagements.
If I had a call with the doctor’s office or a meeting with my realtor or had to transport my child from school to piano lessons, I put it on my calendar. Sometimes I would disguise the name of it if I didn’t want people to know my business.
But if I scheduled it, it would get worked into my day with no conflicts. This practice took a lot of pressure off me.
- Third, say no to meeting requests when you don’t need to be there or you already have something scheduled.
- Fourth, take action when your overall calendar becomes overwhelming or unmanageable (in the same way that you manage your workload).
Taking Charge Brings Clarity to Your Dream Career
Don’t say yes when you mean no. Don’t feel like you have to take on every task and be at every meeting. Don’t think saying no is bad for your career. Don’t be a people-pleaser. Don’t think following your dream is crazy.
Instead, take charge and do what’s best for you. And if you need some guidance in this area, please check out my Signature Program. It’s a carefully crafted, comprehensive program, tailored to you to help you have a more impactful and fulfilling engineering career.
All you need to do is fill out the application and we can set up a Discovery Call.
Now, step back and think about how it will be when you own your vision, your workload, and your calendar. Do you feel the stress falling away? Do you feel more freedom?
Can you see your dream career more clearly? Can you envision the future you, the engineer and leader you always wanted to be? I hope so!
Next time on Her Engineering Career Podcast we’ll talk about how to build risk tolerance. I hope you’ll join me for Episode 35.