Increase the Value you Provide to your Current Company, Part I

By Brian Quinn:

This month’s newsletters are a reflection on a presentation I gave in February at the Structural Engineers of Illinois (SEAoI) Young Engineer’s Forum.

Our current economic situation is one of the most challenging that most of us have ever faced. I graduated from Purdue with my MSCE in 1991 and there were very few jobs available at the time and when you read of unemployment reports, most talk about our current levels being the highest since the early 1990’s. Someone recently mentioned to me that while unemployment is still less than 10%, more than 50% of people are concerned about the stability of their jobs.

My talk for SEAoI was divided into 2 segments: First, how to increase the value you provide to your current company (to decrease your chance of getting laid off) and Second, if you are affected by the economy and find yourself needing to look for work, what you can do to increase your chances of getting a job.

Today’s newsletter will focus on increasing the value you provide to your current company by bolstering your technical skills.

Increase the Value you Provide to your Current Company

If your company had to make a very difficult decision to lay people off at your company, why should they NOT want to pick you? Or, put another way, how can you perform at a high level such that your chances of getting laid off are decreased? The key word here is PERFORM. I classify performance into 2 sub-categories: Technical and Non-Technical.

Technical Performance
As structural engineers, we normally think about “technical performance” – or the process of designing the structural elements of a project correctly and getting that information into contract documents (drawings & specifications). There are countless ways to improve technically, some of which don’t take much time, others which will take more time and experience. Set some goals for ways you would like to improve technically and then create a plan to achieve those goals. Ask your supervisors what they would recommend for areas to improve upon. Find out if there are technical topics your company would like to become more familiar with, so that your willingness to learn can directly benefit your company.

One example of something you could do THIS WEEK would be to watch a couple of the technical sessions from last year’s North American Steel Construction Conference (NASCC) and then do a “lunch and learn” at your office for everyone to benefit. These sessions are available at no cost from AISC at www.aisc.org/2008nascconline. I highly recommend watching these soon before they are no longer available.

Another way to learn technically is to be a “sponge” and learn as much as possible from everyone around you. You can learn from co-workers & supervisors, by attending seminars, and by reading technical papers and trade magazines. I encourage you to pursue at least two methods to bolster your technical performance.

“Non Technical” Performance
The non technical aspects of your performance are just as important as the technical. We’ve talked about several of these aspects in prior newsletters, but I want re-emphasize the importance of personal skills in the workplace. Here is an interesting statement I found in Zig Ziglar’s book, Top Performance…
“Fifteen (15) % of the reason you get a job, keep that job, and move ahead in that job, is determined by your technical skills and knowledge – regardless of your profession.”

…Research has proved that “85 percent of the reason you get a job, will keep that job, and move ahead in that job has to do with your people skills and people knowledge.”

Tune in to our next Newsletter on March 17, where we will focus on increasing the value you provide to your company by bolstering your non-technical skills. Rounding out the March series will be a newsletter on March 31 that discusses what you can do to increase your chances of finding a new job.