A recent article in the Wall Street Journal about Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility included the following:
"There was also the impact of job cuts, which at times replaced older, experienced engineers with young recruits. Mr. Jha said some of the older staff didn't have the newer skills required." (Sanjay Jha heads the Motorola cellphone group.)
That quote should remind engineers and engineering managers to keep their skills up to date. But given the number of courses, seminars, trade shows, magazines, Websites, Tweets, and so on, how can you stay current and still have time for both your job and a nonwork life? My suggestions follow, in no specific order, and they don't include obvious sources such as trade magazines, newspapers, and industry-related Websites.
I like trade shows and conferences, because they let me see what companies have to offer, and smart marketing people ensure they have knowledgeable engineers available to explain products and answer technical questions. Some time ago I wrote a short article, "How To Work A Trade Show," for Test & Measurement World magazine.
Exhibitors at trade shows often include book and magazine publishers and companies that provide other printed or online information. You get a chance to see what they have and to browse through materials. I haven't figured out how to do that at Amazon.com, and nearby bookstores no longer carry many technical books. University and college bookstores are worth a visit, too. Textbooks, teacher instructional packets, and other materials give you a good idea of what gets taught in engineering departments.
If your company cannot pay for you to attend a show or conference, use vacation time and your own money to attend at least one show a year. A small investment in staying current with products and technologies sounds better than unemployment.
Companies such as Microchip Technology, Freescale, and National Instruments hold annual conferences to explain their new products and to highlight interesting applications and customer success stories. Third-party vendors also attend some meetings and have displays. You can attend hands-on lab sessions and conference meetings to gather information and get a closer look at what companies are doing.
Distributors throughout the US, and perhaps in other countries, offer free or low-cost seminars about specific products. I have attended several -- a $99 daylong, hands-on seminar sponsored by Zilog and a free half-day tutorial sponsored by Texas Instruments stand out as particularly valuable. I took a vacation day and paid my own way for each. I talked with technical experts, got information about new products, and chatted with other attendees about the problems they wanted to solve, what they needed to learn, and so on. Attendees often take home cool hardware or software to play with.
Join a local engineering group. Professional societies have regional sections and might have a smaller group in a nearby city. I checked out the Utah Section of the IEEE and found no announcements of regular meetings and no upcoming events. With a local group, you'll have to put in time and effort if you want to meet with engineers.
Universities and government labs produce research-related magazines that cover many topics. I subscribe to magazines from Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, and I receive the Missile Defense Agency newsletter. The National Institute of Standards and Technology sends many interesting announcements and articles via email.
I welcome information about what you do to stay current. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Trade shows offer opportunities to talk with technical people who can help you understand new technologies, suggest new approaches to problems, and answer specific technical questions. I know from experience, trying to find such a person by cold calling a company or sending a query to support@company.com won't get me very far. The personal connections I make at trade shows pay off.
You don't expect your company to pay for your gas or train ticket to get to or from work and you don't expect them to feed you while at work, so why expect them to pay so you can keep your skills up to date? You could take another job any day and take your company-paid skills with you. I'm sorry some engineers don't get paid well and don't have opportunities to advance, but life and work are what you make of them.
I think you are way over-rating what attending a trade show is on your skills. Yes, its nice to stay current on the latest thechnologies available but most of that is available thru the web anyway. Secondly, having knowledge of what other companies are offering for products is hardly considered rocket science or something that would set an engineer apart.
And the comment that if my company cannot afford to send me, I should use my vacation and pay for the trip myself is ludicris. So now, on top of the crappy pay and promotional opportunities engineers are offered, I suppose to pay for what a marketing guy would get monthly for free?
You make a really good point, Jon. Perhaps if the Design News editors are listening, they would consider a version of Tear Down that includes some didactic contact, vis a vis, design intent and decisions. Thanks for your reply!
My brother Chris and I took apart a lot of lawnmowers, washing machines, and TVs and learned a lot not only about how things worked, but how to use and care for tools. I agree that engineering students can learn a lot from teardowns and many landfills and recycle centers have places where people can drop off somewhat-useful "stuff" others can salvage. So we have a lot of raw material for willing hands and minds. Nothing like salvaging a 2-cycle engine and building a go-cart around it. Or taking home a Sun server from the metal recycle bin.
Unfortunately, many of the magazine tear-down projects analyze only what's in a product and the author does not add any insight into why the designers might have chosen one type of design over another. Were plastic molded hinges easier to make but still as hardy as metal ones? Did the manufacturerer choose processor X over processor Y because the X device included a graphic accelerator? Those are the types of questions a good tear-down writer should address for his or her audience. --Jon
What's the relathionship you ask? Because when I think back how I learned as kid about design, it was through tearing things apart (and sometimes, eventually, putting them back together!) Inasmuch as we designers are just overgrown kids, I dare say that the same holds true for 'aging" engineer who wish to keep up to date on the modern technology.
1000X more fun than a booring webinar. And learning needs to be fun to be memorable.
It is easy to fall behind on technology if you let it happen. Webinars and other on-line tools are great ways to stay ahead, but it is hard to keep up with them during the work day. Strict internet policies do limit the ability to sit watching your monitor during the work day. Archived webinars are a great tool that you can use later to catch up on technology.
Speaking of IEEE, the Computer Society (www.computer.org) has a plethora of free (to members) online courses, a lot of which have CEU's attached. I believe you can join the Computer Society for a fee without having to fork over the whole membership fee of IEEE.
My feelings about networking sites such as LinkedIn et al - I think that the networks tend to be too 'diffuse'. You are 'networked' but many of your network is not very tightly (i.e. specifically) tied to whatever you might be doing at any given time. And, in some cases, not even close. If the network gets large then you have the old problem of just too much 'stuff' going on.
I also find that some of the postings on such networks are a bit vague or technically in error. That is probably just a weakness of mine - I like to have some solid engineering/science going on (and of course I don't necessarily regard that as a weakness!!) and when I jump in and contribute, my contributions don't have much impact. OK, I know - it is the communications thing!
Bottom line - I use those sites - they have value and some limited involvement is worthwhile BUT not the end all, be all.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of online webinars and presentations mainly because most run too long. I'd rather have presenters divide their information into separate 10-to-15-minute sections so I can fit them into my calendar as time allows. Also, providing a table of contents to these segments would help, so people can get a quick introduction and then jump into a section they think most applicable without having to sit through an hour-long presentation only to come away disappointed. An hour or forty-five-minute sitting in front of a computer monitor can put even those with insomnia to sleep. And, why not have some printed materials I can download and print? Diagrams, equations, graphs, and charts in such a document would simplify taking notes and let people retain information longer. I haven't seen any webinar invitations that include mention of backup information for participants.
Good points, Bob. I'm curious, though, about why you are skeptical about social networking venues like LinkedIn and even Facebook as a way to connect with the domain expertise of peer engineers and as a resource to keep up with skills.
The Machinist Calc Pro computes speeds and feed rates for milling, turning, and drilling: cutting speed, spindle speed, feed rate (inches/minute), cutting feed, etc.
During a recent meeting with engineering-school faculty and alumni, Contributing Technical Editor Jon Titus talked about whether colleges should educate generalists or specialists. What do you think?
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
2 
