Episode Transcript
You’ve been thinking about your future. And the future of your engineering career.
You have aspirations. You have ideas for what you wanna accomplish.
How you wanna make your contribution in your field and to the world. How to realize your dream career.
But then you inevitably come back to reality. Back to your everyday job.
You Have Awesome Potential and Your Engineering Dream Career is Real
It seems like you’ll never get to your dream career. You can’t see how it’s gonna happen.
There are too many obstacles and roadblocks. Too many mundane tasks in the way.
You wish you had more time.
You wish you had more say in what you work on.
You wish you had more experience.
You wish you had more power.
And you wish you had more confidence.
If only you had more of these things. Then you could move farther faster in your career.
You wish you had more of these things. So you can realize your dream career and be much more fulfilled compared to where you are now.
Well, my engineering friends, I’m here to grant you some wishes.
Get What You Wish for to Smooth the Path to Your Engineering Dream Career
Let’s take a closer look at how you can get the 5 things you’re wishing for in your engineering career.
- The Wish for More Time
I hereby grant you time.
Not more time per se. Because more time is not helpful. It’s how you spend the time you have that’s important.
Time expands when you’re spending it on the most important things. Not when you’re cranking out a bunch of tasks just because they’re on the list.
Time expands when you spend it on less rather than more. When you only do tasks that get you to your goal.
When you’re doing what you love. When you’re in the flow.
I grant you permission to be in the flow as much as possible. So you get the most expansion of your time.
- The Wish for More Say – more say in what you work on
I hereby grant you more say.
You know you already have this, right?
At first – as a beginner – you don’t have much say in what you work on. But you soon gain autonomy as an engineer. And this is something you need to grasp.
The choice is there – so take it. You can choose what you work on. And you can say no to work that doesn’t support your goals.
I grant you permission to own your career. To own your workload. And thus I grant you more say.
- The Wish for More Experience
I hereby grant you experience.
Here’s what to remember when it comes to experience – and many other things in life:
You know everything you need to know and have everything you need to have exactly when you need it.
No matter where you’re starting you do have experience. Useful experience. And it all counts.
Use what you have. Visualize where you want to go with it. And the rest takes care of itself.
Experience is a function of time. And I’ve already granted you time.
I further grant you permission to head in the direction of your dream career.
And as time goes by your experience will increase.
- The Wish for More Power
I hereby grant you power.
As an engineer you have expert power. You have information power. You have position power. You have power.
But you have to stand in it.
The issue is not that you need more power. Just that you have to stop giving it away. Stop blocking it.
Power is a good thing. Don’t resist it, embrace it. You’re ready. You’re capable.
I grant you permission to stand without fear. Thus I grant you power.
- The Wish for More Confidence
I hereby grant you confidence.
Voila. Your confidence is there. I can see it.
You’re just not feeling it because it’s hiding behind your perfectionism and self-criticism.
Behind that armor you wear to protect yourself from vulnerability.
As you increase your engineering experience and take on more challenging roles, your confidence naturally builds.
I grant you permission to let go of perfection. To improve your self-talk. And to put yourself out there without your armor on.
So that your confidence emerges.
Take a Different Perspective and Realize the Power You Have in Your Engineering Career
Now that you have all that you’re wishing for, I hope you have a different perspective on the future of your engineering career.
I hope you can see that you have more possibility than you think. That being successful – the way you define it – is within your reach.
Let me help you leverage this perspective in a strategy session. So we can clarify your vision and how you want to move forward. Sign up here.
Be visionary. Be self-affirming. Be disciplined to follow your energetic center.
And my wish is that you move easefully toward a more impactful and fulfilling engineering career.
Next time on Her Engineering Career Podcast we’ll explore strategies for returning to your engineering job after maternity leave. Be sure to tune in for Episode 126.