Starting a new job always brings up a wide range of emotions, running the gambit from anxiety to outright excitement. Too often, those in technical professions do not think through the practical methods to make the transition as smooth and beneficial as possible. What steps can a new employee take to make a positive and measurable impact with the new company?
Today’s topic is an interesting one, and depends largely on personal preference. It’s something that comes up for engineers every day: Be decent at many things, or be the absolute end-all-be-all expert in one thing? Some might respond with, “Well, how about being an expert at everything?”
Aside: It sounds funny, but this should probably be the goal for every engineer. I got great advice from my first manager: create a skill matrix. It was essentially an organized goal table consisting of career goals, skills, techniques, subject matter to learn, etc. that I wanted to accomplish. Being an expert in all of them is optimal, but time and job constraints often prove this difficult.
Starting a new gig? Here’s how to make an immediate and lasting impact