Episode Transcript
It’s your dream to be known for something in your career. To make a difference. To make an impact in a certain area.
I hear this from clients all the time. As an engineer you want to have expertise. You want to build expertise in a certain area. And eventually be known as an expert.
Expertise is great to have as a foundation for your work and career. It’s great to be respected as an expert and known for the impact of your accomplishments.
Your expertise can be the seed of your engineering career. It can be the focal point. If you can grow expertise around a subject area that aligns with you, this can facilitate a fulfilling career experience.
It gives you a focus. It connects you with a community. It helps you become known. And it’s a stepping stone to wherever you want to go in your career. Even if you decide to move away from that area of expertise.
Now, you know experts in your field. You know experts in your technical community. They know stuff. They’re intelligent. They’re experienced.
So are you. Yet I’ll bet you don’t consider yourself to be an expert. I’ll bet expertise isn’t something you’ve paid much attention to. Even though it would be cool to have, it seems kind of untouchable.
But here’s the thing. Expertise is within your reach.
Your Engineering Expertise is Attainable
It’s possible for you to be an expert. If you want to, you can make that happen. At least to a degree, you can build expertise and work at becoming an expert on whatever topic resonates with you.
I tell you this because it tends to be a challenge for women engineers. It’s a bit puzzling to me. But in my experience men more readily see themselves as experts. Women tend not to see themselves as experts. And both men and women tend not to see other women as experts.
You’ve heard me say before that women engineers don’t get good mentorship. It’s often assumed that they don’t care that much about engineering expertise.
Plus, since women have good people skills, they’re often encouraged to emphasize that part of their work, rather than the technical side.
I tell you this because I want you to know that expertise is attainable for you. That pursuing expertise can be very rewarding. That if it’s your dream to be known for something in your career, go for it.
What It Means to Be an Expert
In plain language an expert is someone who has knowledge and understanding, training and education, experience and practice in a certain subject area. They have a particular interest in this area and study it intentionally.
- An expert has a certain perspective or philosophy that they base their insight on.
- An expert has credentials such as degrees, certifications, awards.
- An expert is known in the field and knows other experts on similar and related subjects.
- An expert knows the limits of their expertise (knows what they don’t know).
- An expert stays aware of new developments and changes over time.
At What Point Can You Be Called an Expert?
You can think of the level of “expert” as a target that you never really reach. You just continuously increase your expertise while moving toward it.
Expertise is relative. Whether or not you’re called “an expert” depends on many things. Like how much is known about the subject area in general. And how long you’ve been accumulating knowledge and experience.
If you take a purposeful approach starting earlier in your career, you can raise the breadth and impact of your expertise overall. But you can build expertise anytime during your career. Here are some examples of how you might do this:
- You may gain expertise just by being in the right place at the right time. But this is rare. Most people have to be more strategic and intentional about it.
- You might gain expertise by default. Simply by working in the same area for a long time. You’ll eventually reach a point when you have more knowledge and experience than most of your coworkers.
- You may work for an organization that wants you to build a certain expertise and helps you to get there.
- Or you might embark on your own expert journey at any time by choosing an area you’re interested in – maybe an emerging technology – and make a plan to learn more.
I gained expertise in government R&D program management simply by working in this area for a large portion of my career. More by default than by intention.
But my expertise in additive manufacturing was more planned and strategic. Starting about mid-career I became interested in this technology area through my involvement in a professional society and during grad school.
I knew this was an exciting emerging technology. So I decided to focus more here. To learn as much as I could. And find where I could make a contribution.
Beyond Expertise to Thought Leadership
I didn’t want to close this episode without mentioning thought leadership. Maybe you’ve noticed that this concept has become more popular in recent years.
Thought leadership is another dimension of expertise. You might aspire to go beyond “expert” to “thought leader.”
You definitely need expertise to be a thought leader. But that isn’t enough. Others have to regard you as an expert. They have to trust you and see you as influential and inspiring.
Plus you need to be recognizable, accessible, and referenceable. People have to be able to find and follow you.
Thought leadership is an admirable goal. As you achieve a level of expertise, thought leadership can make your career blossom and give you a more fulfilling and rewarding experience.
I encourage you to explore the idea of expertise more. What is your area of expertise? Or what would you like it to be? Get creative about building it. Make it compelling. Use your energetic center.
BTW, I would love to help you with that. If you want to know more about how to go about building expertise in your engineering career, book a strategy session with me. We can explore your interests and figure out how to make them the core or the seed of your career.
You’ll discover possible subject areas that align with you and provide a way for you to make a contribution. Signing up is easy.
Next time on Her Engineering Career Podcast I’m gonna give you some potent questions to ask your boss about your progress. You won’t want to miss Episode 66.
