World Famous Comics: Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School: Skills for Success in the Real World
Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School: Skills for Success in the Real World
By: Carl Selinger Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Press Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Wiley-IEEE Press Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 192 Publication Date: November 03, 2004
Product Description: An engineer's road map to professional and personal success
Congratulations! You're an engineer, and now you're ready to take the corporate world by storm. But in order to succeed in your career, you'll need more than just great technical skills. You'll need to be able to promote your ideas, share them with others, and work with a wide variety of people. Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School: Skills for Success in the Real World is designed to give engineers entering the corporate world the "soft" skills they'll need to succeed--in business, and in life. Based on the author's popular leadership seminars, this easy-to-digest guide to success will help even the most inhibited engineer to comfortably deal with the difficult people, processes, and meetings of today's competitive business world.
Step by step, you'll learn important skills like * Setting priorities * Working in a team * Being more effective at meetings * Speaking in front of a group * Negotiating personal or business issues * Dealing with stress * And just having more fun in the process!
Filled with insightful, practical advice addressing dozens of vital skill areas and helpful tips you can apply immediately to any situation, Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School will help you take charge of your career and achieve the success for which you've worked so hard.
A must read for every engineering graduate, in or out of school Every engineering graduate should definitely read this book. It is concise, lucid, and to-the-point.
I do not quite agree with the title in its entirety. We do learn quite a few of these things at engineering schools. However, in our relentless pursuit of gaining technical knowledge, we keep learning these things at a much lower priority. Chapter 15, "Having Fun" describes something, which is actually quite real. I have personally experienced this, where our professors would sometimes force us to go ahead and have some fun. Carl Selinger mentions many such important things, which the engineer needs to be good at including writing and communication skills.
Carl Selinger starts by referring to Dale Carnegie's famous book "How to make friends and influence people". This makes the reader, develop very high expectations about the book. Despite his best effort, his style does not live up to the standards of Carnegie. Unlike Carnegie's book, there are not many third-person examples or experiences, which have been discussed. This sometimes lends a preaching style to the writing, which can become annoying.
For someone who is inexperienced, freshly graduated and has never been taught any of the things which the book discusses about, will find it difficult to comprehend and realize the importance of learning these skills. This is primarily because Carl largely mentions personal experiences. A naïve reader might critique the book as being too one-sided. Overall, the book is very good as a reference.
Stuff I Needed to Know and Should Have Learned The book was very readable and filled with insights. I was particularly fond of the chapters on assertiveness and leadership. The book has an excellent combination of helpful business and social tips, reasons to learn them, and methods to gain these traits for yourself.
A Toolbox of Real World Skills Essential to Success This book is a great toolbox to start my career. The examples and tips given in "Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School" are truly helpful. I plan on keeping it available for referencing at each and every profession that I explore in the future.
Easy Steps for Success Selinger offers a condensed, easy to read synopsis of important skills engineers need to know to succeed in business, such as how to conduct meetings, time management, and decision making. The ideas are given in practical, easy to follow, guidelines, with examples. Good sourcebook for career development.
Practical Advice for the Young Engineer I am always looking for good information on our fascinating profession.
when I graduated from engineering school, there was not much written for young engineers getting their first introduction to the world of work. There were plenty of books on how to "think successfuly" or "sell more" that were targeted to the liberal arts/sales types. There was very little for those of us doing technical things. This is why his book is much needed.
Carl Selinger is on target for his efforts and employers owe him a debt as well. Managers benefit because they get a window on what Carl discusses with students when they attend his seminars (which I assume is where many of the quotes from students come from).
As we go through many of the current management fads, folks like Carl seem to understand that it is the "software" (i.e., the people) that make the difference. People skills are extremely important if you expect to survive. Every good project manager I have ever worked with or sharp youngster I have had the priveledge of developing "gets it" at this basic level.
The organization of the book touches on topics that most engineering schools cannot teach.
For those of you with lower grades in enginering school than you would have liked or those of you who know a recent engineering grad or a soon to be engineering grad, this is the book for you.
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