How to forge a career in engineering in 2021

(Photo : Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash)

If you want to pursue a career in engineering then there are a number of factors that you need to consider before you take the next step. 

Naturally, there is no one set route into engineering and it will depend largely on your background, your current skill-set, education as well as where you live in the world. You may already be on the engineering job ladder, studying for an engineering degree or completing an apprenticeship, which will help give you a more straightforward route into an engineering career.

Alternatively, you might be busy working in an existing career, but have always suspected that you would be better off pursuing a job in engineering. This is especially likely if you work in an industry that is closely linked to engineering - such as the sciences - and your talents are already well-suited to a career as an engineer. 

Whatever your situation, there are a number of common steps and questions you need to ask yourself before you jump head first into a dramatic career change. 

These include contemplating the reason why you want to become involved in engineering, which kind of subjects and jobs interest you, and whether it will fit in smoothly with your current lifestyle. 

Alternatively, if you already have a career in engineering, but you feel your work has stagnated or you are looking for fresh pastures, following these same steps may help you to regain the passion for engineering that has waned, and the career momentum you seek. 

Here are some pointers on how to forge a career in engineering in 2021:

It is best to stack skills in order to progress with your career

If you are looking to forge a career in engineering, then you will need to develop a range of core skills that allow you to become desirable to potential employers, effective at your chosen role and able to adapt to a constantly changing environment. 

These skills will depend entirely on which area of engineering you wish to enter, but it is best to think a few years down the road when building your skill-set. While gaining the core skills to land an entry level job is a sensible idea, it could also be worth developing further skills that will stand you in good stead later in your career.

For example, you could develop strong management and leadership skills, which would help you to move up the career ladder faster and give you the opportunity to take on more responsibility at an early stage. 

To do this you may want to consider an online master of science engineering management, which helps you combine your engineering skills with a more leadership-based role. Of course, if you are already working full-time and feel that it would be impossible to undertake a degree at the same time, remember that many of these courses are online based, allowing you to maintain your existing lifestyle. 

These online courses also take you a shorter amount of time to finish. While the average MBA takes at least a couple of years to complete, you can finish an online engineering management course in as little as a year if you study full time.

By stacking skills, you will be more adept in your chosen engineering role, stand out to potential employers, give you more options further down the road and prevent you from becoming stagnant in your career trajectory. 

Contemplate which area of engineering you wish to pursue

Pursuing any career path forces you to focus on one particular area of an industry - or on a certain job that you have always wanted to achieve. You should therefore pinpoint an area of engineering that interests you or would complement your personality and skill-set. By doing this, you can narrow your options down to those you are most likely to excel in, and prevent yourself from becoming overwhelmed with choice.

Although it is a great idea to keep your career trajectory open by stacking skills, you should not let this paralyze your decision process when it comes to plotting a career path. Take stock of where you are in your life - whether you are only starting out or if you have already worked in an existing career. Reflect on which jobs you have enjoyed, which ones you disliked, and which environments suit you best.

By going through this process, you stand the best chance of finding an engineering occupation that suits you.

Ask yourself what your overall career goals are

Continuing with this process of self-reflection, it is a good idea to ask yourself what you are ultimately hoping to achieve in your career. It is perfectly understandable if this question feels daunting, because not everyone has a slick one sentence answer - or needs to. Indeed, your answer doesn't have to remain the same as you progress through your career. It is only used as a guide to help you navigate through different roles and maintain forward momentum in your career.

For example, if you have always wanted to bring an engineering project to life, but have never had the facilities to do it, then perhaps your goal could be to either set up your own engineering company or to achieve a position where you are afforded the freedom to work on your own projects. 

Consider why you are getting into engineering in the first place, in order to plot a coherent path throughout the course of your career.

Gain experience in a wide variety of areas before deciding on a particular path

If you are struggling to work out which type of engineering career you would like to embark on, it may be worth experimenting with a range of different jobs, skills and experiences before settling on a single career path. 

There are a couple of reasons why this is a great idea, even if you have a good idea of your career goals already. 

The first - and most obvious - is that experimenting with different roles allows you to find out which types of jobs appeal to you, which ones make you unhappy and which roles you are just not suited to. By ticking off the fields that you don't want to work in, you are better able to find the ones in which you do. This will give you a far broader understanding of different engineering fields and may help you further down the road when deciding where to progress to next.

Secondly, having experience in a number of different engineering roles (whether paid or as part of an apprenticeship or degree), will give you a far more rounded skill set, which will almost certainly help you at certain points of your career. 

It may feel like a waste of time to work in a role that doesn't appeal to you, but you will learn more than you initially think, which will make you a far more attractive proposition to prospective employers and help you work alongside colleagues who still work in that role. 

Having an understanding of what it takes to succeed in particular engineering roles is particularly useful if you want to manage a team or run an engineering company in the future. A key element of effective leadership is that you know what each person in your team needs to do to excel in their role, and what they need from you in order to help them perform. 

If you have no experience of that role it may be challenging to see eye to eye, but if you have close-hand experience of your colleague's role then you can enjoy a better working relationship. 

If you become disinterested in your chosen field, find a way of taking on more responsibility

If you have already started your engineering career but you feel that your motivation is flagging or your career progression has stagnated, then it is easy to feel deflated. You may even want to give up altogether. 

However, there is a simple method for fixing this occupational apathy. 

Instead of receding into the background, offer yourself up for a greater level of responsibility. Although you may not be promoted immediately, there are always opportunities to take on more responsibility - whether it is taking the lead on group projects, offering to take on additional work, or acting as a mentor for a younger colleague. 

Quite apart from helping to sharpen your focus and make your day-to-day work more rewarding, you will likely catch the eye of a superior who will want to reward you for your performance. It could lead to a higher position in the long term, which would help you to regain the career momentum that you felt you lacked. 

Find a mentor to learn from

It may be a business cliche, but mentorship is one of the most effective ways of developing your skills, improving your levels of self-discipline and fast-tracking yourself along your career learning curve. 

A mentor is someone who is further along on their career journey than you and has already achieved in the same area you want to excel in. They must be someone of high integrity and ability who can help give you a guiding hand when it comes to your career trajectory, life decisions and skill-set development.

You may wonder where you can find a suitable mentor, but the answer is usually closer than you think. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all mentor, so they could be your boss, a retired engineer, a friend or someone you meet through a mentorship program. 

There is no right or wrong answer, as long as your mentor gives you valuable advice and is a positive influence on you. Furthermore, there is never a time when you should stop learning, so you should seek mentorship even if you are well established in your engineering career. There is always someone who knows things that you don't - whether it is technical knowledge or certain life experiences. 

By finding a mentor you will likely fast-track your career development, avoid certain mistakes and learn new skills that would have otherwise taken you a lifetime to accrue. 

This is not to say that a mentor is the answer to everything in your career, because you still have to make your own mistakes and learn your own lessons. You should therefore treat them as a guide who can answer any burning questions you have and act as a sounding board for your ideas.

If you already have a job but want to move into engineering, learn in your free time

You may be at a point in your life where you have established yourself in an existing career, but feel that engineering is your true calling. However, a natural obstacle is the fact that you may not be skilled enough at the engineering role you covet, and you feel you don't have enough time to learn alongside your current job. 

In fact, as long as you think outside the box, there are always opportunities to develop the skills you need to forge a career in engineering. If you work full time, for example, then you could make use of any number of free resources available on the internet to develop an initial understanding of your ideal engineering role or industry. From there you could enroll on an online course which you can undertake at your own pace - whether at weekends or in the evening after work. 

By doing this you will soon develop the necessary skills and qualifications, without having to give up your day job and sacrifice your existing income. While it may make free time harder to find, you effectively have the best of both worlds - the stability of your current income stream and the ability to progress in a new area which you are interested in. 

Engineering is about curiosity, so consider starting your own personal projects

If you have a burning desire to pursue a career in engineering, then you don't have to stop your passions when your work day is at an end. You could develop your engineering skills and indulge your interests by taking on projects outside of work time. 

If you are an automotive engineer, for example, you could buy a project car which you could work on restoring. It would serve to develop your skills, allow you to try out new ideas away from the pressure of your workplace and be a fun way of occupying your free time.