Me experience from the Engineering management - Essay Example

?Reflective Essay Reflective Essay Through experience from the Engineering management and leadership and skills module, I have realized that for one to be successful as an engineer, it is crucial to have management and leadership skills. Most engineering companies or engineers emphasize more on technical ability as the most important requirement; this is good but, for success in the engineering professional, technical ability should be accompanied by management and leadership skills. An engineer with no ability to influence other people, manage priorities and make good decisions might not realize his full potential; this is because the technical skill does not contribute a lot to team management. Sometimes engineering with technical skill and no management and leadership skills are forced to go for training in leadership skills, presentation skills, communication skills and business skills; therefore, the executive management supports the training. This experience has taught me that to compete in the engineering profession; I should not only sharpen my technical skills but also leadership and management skills. In any profession, one must work together with others to attain the goals set by the organization; therefore, teamwork is crucial; this means that any one joining engineering profession should be ready to work together with other engineers and technical experts, and this calls for teamwork. Teamwork calls for trust, because lack of trust hinders teamwork, after my second year, I had an experience in Engineering design group with an NGO; this program was meant to empower the urban youth and artisans economically. This project required teamwork; the university students had to team up with the urban artisans to come up with effective machines for the production of briquettes. During this program, acquired skills on communication, coordination with others, sharing of information, listening to other people opinions and understanding others; am willing to keep this experience with me and improve on the skills learnt by experiencing other teams. All teams are not the same because of different team members and tasks; therefore, it will be good for me to engage with many different groups and learn more on how to be effective in teams. This will help me to have vast knowledge on teamwork, and compete well in the job market as a graduate. There are also university projects, which require student involvements, this projects are done in teams, and I would not waste this chance with good avenues for developing teamwork skills. Students are people we will combine efforts in the same field or even rivals, and working with them will give me a different experience of cooperating with people on the same level and with different views. This will help me to know how people with the same level of education take issue and their contribution and general behavior. This will give me an idea of what I expect from people in the same profession. Sometimes engineers do not realize how much they lose by not having management skills; most engineering firms are headed by people who have done business and management courses, while those with who have done engineering courses are left to head only departments in the firm. It is time for engineers to wake and work on their management skills for them to take up those big positions in big engineering firms. I want to be more competitive when applying for a job in engineering firms and other related firms; immediately after graduating with bachelors in engineering, I will enroll for a diploma in management; this is to equip myself with management skills through training. A diploma in management and a degree in engineering will give me a better chance to get management positions in engineering firms; this is when compared to my fellow graduates with only a bachelors degree. Apart from gaining top management positions, engineers always head projects in a firm, one need to be able to organize resources of both time money and human force to attain the goal of the project. This role can only be achieved by one with organizing skills. First he must be able to bring people together, assign tasks to them basing on their ability, then give them materials that would help them complete the tasks and set for them a completion time for each activity. Any engineer who does this effectively and efficiently is likely to succeed in the project, therefore, organizing skills in the engineering profession is important. The engineer would also have skills that would enable him or her to plan for the project under his management. The engineer has to decide in advance for the course of action for the desired goal to be achieved, therefore, decisions on what to do should be made with care. The engineer should have skills to help him or her to find the best ways and means suitable for accomplishing the predetermined goals. Planning also ensures that both human and non-human resources are well utilized; it is a function of an engineering manager, which ensures that wastages, risks, uncertainties and confusions are minimized. I would like to exercise more on this skill during my undergraduate project; I intend to plan the project in early to make sure that is complete in time. Also, I would like to utilize the existing resources to reach the goal for my project; I will accomplish this through correct specifications of materials required for the functionality of the project. Also, measurements of materials will be done in a way that will ensure minimum wastage. I will take this project as a project given to me by a potential employer; therefore, I will do it professionally and give it the seriousness it deserves. I will use this project to gauge my success in the future projects. As project managers, engineers should be able to direct all the activities of the project toward the project’s goals and that of the firm; this can be achieved through active supervision, motivation, leadership and communication. Supervision includes overseeing the work done by his or her juniors; he or she should watch over the workers as they work and give them direction on what to do and what not to do. Supervision should be done without scolding or making workers to fear asking questions and contributing to the project. Motivation is another aspect that should be used by the engineering project managers; workers need someone who will inspire them, stimulate s well as encourage them to work. In this case, manager will come up with a way that would motivate his or her workers, and this would be based on the sort of workers he or she is dealing with; there are those motivated by the way you talk to them and those motivated by material things. Directions are done through communications with the workers, and the way a project manager communicates with juniors matters a lot. First, the manager should understand each worker and create a rapport both at individual and group level; this reduces tension between the workers and the manager and hence, working becomes smooth. Workers are encouraged to talk to the project manager in case of anything or any contribution to the project; also, managers who are free with the workers find it easy to correct them. Sometimes, it is difficult to control those working under you fully, and sometimes persuasive communication saves the situation, especially if the task to be performed is important and urgent. Apart from management skills, leadership skills are also important for anyone in the engineering profession. A leader should be able to able to initiate change in a team or a way of doing things; is this done through his influencial character. Engineers are known to come up with systems that were initially, not in existence, and for an engineer to convince others to team up with him or her to develop such systems, he or she must have a strong influence on them. I believe that I have that characteristics, but I still have to perfect on it through gathering enough knowledge in the field of engineering. Also, before putting any proposed project for public scrutiny, I will have to study more about the system working mechanism, its efficiency when compared to other similar systems and the benefits and costs of the system to the group intended for. I plan to achieve this through personal project proposal; after my first degree, I plan to arrive at a project proposal, and try to convince financial institutions for funding. Also, am looking forward to join university engineering project competition, and I believe that involvement in this competition I will sharpen influencial skills. An engineer is also known to solve problems in the society; these problems are categorized as technical problems. However, in identifying the problem an engineer involves human beings, therefore, leadership skill of problem solving are also essential in the engineering profession. The technical part of an engineer is important, but since engineers do not work in vacuums, they need management skills and leadership skills to assist them to attain their goals. The engineers work with other engineers together with technicians, and the systems they develop are used to solve human problems. Their interaction with these people is not technical; this is where management and leadership skills come in. Any engineer should work on these skills by either training and through experience for him or her to be competitive in the engineering profession. Bibliography Safety, 2011. ASSE Professional Development Conference and exposition. [Online] Available at: http://www.asse.org/education/pdc11/assets/docs/Safety2011-full-brochure2.pdf [Accessed on 30 December 2011] Read More