By John Hoschette
Co-Owner of CTS Group
San Jose, Calif.

Developing and sustaining a career in engineering takes a lot more than just applying technical knowledge you've learned in school. The transition from college to industry begins with a well-thought-out strategy that will take you through the span of your career. Getting a job is one thing; being happy at what you are doing is another.
          Many graduating engineers think they wonÕt have to worry about finding good jobs in todayÕs market. While that may be true for many, donÕt count on it.
          The job market changes constantly. You need to identify what you are going to do in both the beginning of your career and the future. Remember that the more you plan and think about your career, the greater your chance of establishing a successful one.
          First, ask yourself a few questions. Are you waiting for someone to tell you what to do? Are you expecting employers to come to you? Do you have a plan for finding not just a job, but the right job for you?
          A response that I hear from many students is, ÒNo, I really have not thought about it much. IÕm too busy with my classes; IÕll worry about it when the time comes.Ó
          You must realize that you are responsibile for your own career and take control and be determined to generate a career plan.
          When does an engineering student develop a plan to make a successful transition? Start the day you begin classes as a freshman and continue every day thereafter.
          Become a regular visitor to your career center, or find assistance through the IEEE Career and Maintenance Committee. I highly recommend that you look into the many resources provided to you. Another might be the Internet. I contribute career advice to several Web sites, such as sensormag.com/jobops.htm. You will find an unbelievable amount of guidance once you start looking.
          Along with getting good grades, try to visit your on-campus placement center.
          By working with a career adviser, you can learn what opportunities are open to you, what companies are interviewing, what degrees are in demand. Your adviserÕs office and the university placement center should be your home away from home. The people there have a finger on the pulse of what is happening in the industry and are there to help you get the best job offer possibile.
          Begin by creating your own network no later than your junior year of college. Network with societies, professors and other students. Discuss career plans with other students. Find out what other engineering societiess are doing to help their mebers get jobs.
          Contact legal engineering and technical organizations for assistance from senior engineers. They can help you formulate a plan for your senior year. Hook up with an association that that has career programs in place.
          The IEEEÕs and CM&D committee has several avenues of career advice.
          In addition, you will find most student organizations have a professor as an adviser. Such organizations are a great way to meet professors outside of the classroom, and get extra advice.
          A successful transition does not stop once you interview and accept a position. It requires a huge amount of work during your fines year on the job.
          Are you ready for the culture shock? Industry operates with an entirely different set of rules from the college and university life.
          During the first few weeks and months on the job, you will discover just how different the workplace is from academia. Think of yourself as the hard disk on your computer. For the past four years, the university has been programming you with information and the way to work within the system. The first thing industry does is erase the universityÕs operating system and replace it with its own.
          A few examples show how different the two sectors really can be. If you are aware of these differences and on the lookout for others, your transition from the university to industry should go smoothly.
         

• You will work on most projects with a team.

          At the university you usually worked alone or you may have worked on teams of two or three or possibily four students to complete an assignment. In industry it is normal to work on teams of 10, 20 or more people. This can be intimidating if you are not prepared for it.
         

• It is all right to ask for help if you can not come up with the solution to the problem.

At the university you are penalized if you share your answers during a test or report. In industry you are rewarded if you share your work. If you get stuck on a problem in indusrty, you are expected to talk to co-workers to find a solution. This is the direct opposite of the university, which encourages you to work things out for yourself.
         

• You will not recieve immediate feedback on completion of your work. In school, you received your grade almost immediately, often within days or hours of taking the test. In industry it is often months or years before you know whether your product or project is successful. It is like taking a final and waiting a year to find out a grade.
• As for career development, you are really on your own.

          In industry your supervisor is not like your university professor, who guided you at each step along the way. Your supervisor is not responsible for developing your career; only you are responsibile. A professor will tell you what you need to do to pass the course and what to expect for assignments and test. In industry it is mostly up to you to figure out what is needed.
         

• If your team succeeds, you succeed. If it fails, you fail, to a certain degree. In industry you are graded according to how the team does as a whole. For example, if the project is successful, youÕre rewarded. If the project fails, you all recieve a failing grade. It is similar to the whole class getting the grade of the student with the lowest test score. This may seem unfair, but it is a real motivation to make sure all team members do their jobs and the project succeeds.

Getting started right
Ask for a buddy or coach the first week on the job. In the first weeks you are going to have many questions and need plenty of help. The buddy or coach is a co-worker to whom you can go for help. This should not be your boss.
          Learn your companyÕs business--the products it makes, its customers, its department or division operations. You must know your companyÕs business if you expect to advance.
          Meet as many people as you can. Go to the human-resource department and learn all about the company benifits. Go to lunch with different people to expand your network of contracts.

John Hoschette is a Senior staff engineer with Lockheed Martin. He is Co-Owner of a training company, CTS Group (San Jose Calif.), and author of Career Advancement and Survival for Engineers, John Wiley and Sons. E-mail ctsgroup1@aol.com.