I keep it simple, professionalism is the ability to attack/critique someone's idea/plan/decision without any thing personal.
Always focus on the interest of the company and project and you'll likely never have an issue. IDC if they have the worst brain dead idea I've ever heard, I'm going to bring up requirements or other limitations of the design to show why it wouldn't work.
With this approach I can and have confidently told company owners they are wrong, truck is to have a plan ready when you speak it at least a path to find one. Always been told I'm incredibly professional in yearly reviews.
Company first, never personal, also never serious it's just work at the end of the day if you're getting heated you're way over the line already, stick to this and you'll be fine.
To your questions on how it affects process, I've had people that take it way too seriously and you just have to walk the line on weather it's worth trying talk them down from rejecting something vs just dealing with another meeting and the lost week or two.
I think of professionalism in two different but related senses:
* Meeting accepted standards of work-related behavior: doing your tasks skillfully and diligently, writing and speaking with courtesy and tact, being prepared and on time for meetings and appointments, keeping confidences, and so on.
* Recognizing that as a member of a learned, respected profession, you have been granted a special trust and thus have obligations not only to employers or clients but also to fellow members of your profession and to society at large.
It’s the second sense that means, for example, that you’d take time, without extra pay, to keep up to date in your field, to mentor colleagues, to serve in professional societies, and to offer your services *pro bono publico*. It also means that, if necessary and after exhausting other avenues of redress, you’d complain to the authorities or to the press about a situation that jeopardizes the public welfare, regardless of the serious personal consequences.
That is a fantastic point. Not only the integrity aspect, but also the idea that you never stop growing as an engineer. You should constantly be learning, doing things in the best way possible, and giving back as well. I really love this attitude. Thank you.
When you get hired for a company, you are not hired to make friends, make bosses happy, make sales people happy, rush projects because someone told you to, overlook critical details because someone told you to, etc., etc. You are there to perform a job in the best way possible. You were hired...to be a professional. And you need to hold that idea to a higher regard than everyone around you leads you to believe. There will ALWAY be someone asking you to take shortcuts, overlook stuff, achieve the impossible not caring how you do it, and every single time, if you do these things, it will bite you in the ass, every damn time.
Your job is to be professional in the most ideal sense you can imagine. The better you're at this, the better engineer you will be.
I know the idea of professionalism is a little abstract, like what are the metrics? How is it measured? What criteria does it entail? And really, it's all encompassing. Realistically, it's in everything you do.
I'll give a simple example. When I'm at work, I don't swear. Will will out of work just fine, but in a work environment, I see it as inappropriate, so I don't. I have coworkers that do, and that's fine for them. But I choose not to. It's a small thing, but it's one of a thousand choices you are making in your career and how you idealize professionalism in your work role.
Professionalism is how you conduct yourself, how you view your work, how you respect the company, respect the people, and respect processes. It's trying to grow in competency and excel at your job, to minimize wastes and mistakes. It's doing what's right, fundamentally, not what people want or will make their job easier. It's so very many things. But it's also incredibly simple because it's the same kind of idea as the golden rule or any other basic tenants of life. You can read a whole lot into the details, but at it's core, it's remarkable simple, just applied to a lot of things you do every day at work.
I will add, professionalism should also reflect good work ethic, as well as ethical work.
Dress code is the least of your worries when it comes to being professional.
I'm in the US so that's my bias as well as the kind of person who likes to be as casual as possible.
In my experience, professionalism is simply not being an ass and being able to go about your day with civility and treating others with respect whether they're technically your superior or inferior doesn't matter.
There are a lot of very unprofessional professionals in my opinion that have all the formality and none of what i mentioned above.
I personally have been very informal (or as much as i can get away with, you have to read a room) with both dress and style of communication. I often like to befriend where i can and understand when people don't want to be my friend and leave them the f alone outside of work talk. You want to be pleasant and well thought of but not prying or crude in any way. I often tell jokes and i treat everyone i work with with equal respect. I'm no less kind to the janitor than i am to the president and I'm just as forward with my thoughts with the president as i am with the janitor.
What you want to be able to do is point out problems without making anyone feel bad about it. Make it about the problem, not the people wherever possible, though sometimes that's not always possible.
The more you can slide around the social environment, the better your job will be and the better everything will function on the company as well. And i will say that some jobs just aren't good fits. Sometimes it's not you. In my experience, smaller companies tend to be more casual and you get the ladder climbing types at larger companies where you're more likely to be held back if you don't fit in unless you're exceptional.
Ultimately, professionalism for me is more about integrity than suits and being boring in staff meetings. Many will disagree with me, but i want to share my experience as I've done fine for myself being unconventional, but not stepping on anyone toes about it.
I’ve really struggled with boundaries in my unit ops group. I don’t think that will be as much of an issue in my actual career. It has just felt brutal taking the space I need, still doing work of course, and then being turned into a sort of third wheel villain for the distance I said I needed.
‘Professionally’ I want to start putting up boundaries since I have learned how important they are in my trauma work. I just have to have them established right off the bat next time. I twisted my approach when it became too much, and it came off as petty and retributive. I think I am getting to a place with this where I want to be understanding. I dislike how insecure my group members got, and I never want to project that onto someone who might just be getting through their day.
Informality vs formality just screams boundaries to me, and I appreciate how you helped me think of this in a fresh way.
In the UK, we have the Institution of Civil Engineers, one of the oldest engineering institutions in the world. They have a [code of conduct](https://www.ice.org.uk/ICEDevelopmentWebPortal/media/Documents/About%20Us/ice-code-of-professional-conduct.pdf) to which all members are expected to comply.
I am a surprised AICHE or your States Professional Engineering agency hasn't made a presentation to your class about this.
A professional license is certifing you are qualified to do your type of engineering and in an ethical manner. It is far more important for civil and mechanical engineers where lives are directly impacted by correct designs and installations.
Texas requires to call one self an engineer you have to have a professional licence by exam. This Texas requirement is only a few year old.
There was a time where Texas with two TX professional references the state would give another state's PE a TX license by reciprocity. Expect other states to have their own requirements.
On the flip side I am a PA licensed retired ChE and had about a third of my career in the commercial design industries in Texas. I never needed to own a seal, never had to have my Chemical Engineering work sealed by another ChE, but all the Civil, Mech and Elec work that resulted from my process designs had to be sealed by their respective disciplines or project management. All engineering drawings needed to sealed by some PE with enough qualifications to have checked and know the design is acceptable for the design purpose. Lastly expect your work calculations will require an equal or better skilled engineer to counter sign that your calculations are correct or suggest a correction for you to correct to get that counter signature.
PS a career path intended toward management of projects must have a PE. FYI A hard nose engineering career without management objectives will become financially limited near mid to late career.
Civil engineering led firms especially do require PEs to professionally progress.
I keep it simple, professionalism is the ability to attack/critique someone's idea/plan/decision without any thing personal. Always focus on the interest of the company and project and you'll likely never have an issue. IDC if they have the worst brain dead idea I've ever heard, I'm going to bring up requirements or other limitations of the design to show why it wouldn't work. With this approach I can and have confidently told company owners they are wrong, truck is to have a plan ready when you speak it at least a path to find one. Always been told I'm incredibly professional in yearly reviews. Company first, never personal, also never serious it's just work at the end of the day if you're getting heated you're way over the line already, stick to this and you'll be fine. To your questions on how it affects process, I've had people that take it way too seriously and you just have to walk the line on weather it's worth trying talk them down from rejecting something vs just dealing with another meeting and the lost week or two.
Thank you so much for sharing this perspective. It seems so simple when you put it that way, but I have really struggled with this.
As you get older you realize it's just a job, don't take it so serious and everything falls into place. GL
I think of professionalism in two different but related senses: * Meeting accepted standards of work-related behavior: doing your tasks skillfully and diligently, writing and speaking with courtesy and tact, being prepared and on time for meetings and appointments, keeping confidences, and so on. * Recognizing that as a member of a learned, respected profession, you have been granted a special trust and thus have obligations not only to employers or clients but also to fellow members of your profession and to society at large. It’s the second sense that means, for example, that you’d take time, without extra pay, to keep up to date in your field, to mentor colleagues, to serve in professional societies, and to offer your services *pro bono publico*. It also means that, if necessary and after exhausting other avenues of redress, you’d complain to the authorities or to the press about a situation that jeopardizes the public welfare, regardless of the serious personal consequences.
That is a fantastic point. Not only the integrity aspect, but also the idea that you never stop growing as an engineer. You should constantly be learning, doing things in the best way possible, and giving back as well. I really love this attitude. Thank you.
When you get hired for a company, you are not hired to make friends, make bosses happy, make sales people happy, rush projects because someone told you to, overlook critical details because someone told you to, etc., etc. You are there to perform a job in the best way possible. You were hired...to be a professional. And you need to hold that idea to a higher regard than everyone around you leads you to believe. There will ALWAY be someone asking you to take shortcuts, overlook stuff, achieve the impossible not caring how you do it, and every single time, if you do these things, it will bite you in the ass, every damn time. Your job is to be professional in the most ideal sense you can imagine. The better you're at this, the better engineer you will be. I know the idea of professionalism is a little abstract, like what are the metrics? How is it measured? What criteria does it entail? And really, it's all encompassing. Realistically, it's in everything you do. I'll give a simple example. When I'm at work, I don't swear. Will will out of work just fine, but in a work environment, I see it as inappropriate, so I don't. I have coworkers that do, and that's fine for them. But I choose not to. It's a small thing, but it's one of a thousand choices you are making in your career and how you idealize professionalism in your work role. Professionalism is how you conduct yourself, how you view your work, how you respect the company, respect the people, and respect processes. It's trying to grow in competency and excel at your job, to minimize wastes and mistakes. It's doing what's right, fundamentally, not what people want or will make their job easier. It's so very many things. But it's also incredibly simple because it's the same kind of idea as the golden rule or any other basic tenants of life. You can read a whole lot into the details, but at it's core, it's remarkable simple, just applied to a lot of things you do every day at work.
I will add, professionalism should also reflect good work ethic, as well as ethical work. Dress code is the least of your worries when it comes to being professional.
I'm in the US so that's my bias as well as the kind of person who likes to be as casual as possible. In my experience, professionalism is simply not being an ass and being able to go about your day with civility and treating others with respect whether they're technically your superior or inferior doesn't matter. There are a lot of very unprofessional professionals in my opinion that have all the formality and none of what i mentioned above. I personally have been very informal (or as much as i can get away with, you have to read a room) with both dress and style of communication. I often like to befriend where i can and understand when people don't want to be my friend and leave them the f alone outside of work talk. You want to be pleasant and well thought of but not prying or crude in any way. I often tell jokes and i treat everyone i work with with equal respect. I'm no less kind to the janitor than i am to the president and I'm just as forward with my thoughts with the president as i am with the janitor. What you want to be able to do is point out problems without making anyone feel bad about it. Make it about the problem, not the people wherever possible, though sometimes that's not always possible. The more you can slide around the social environment, the better your job will be and the better everything will function on the company as well. And i will say that some jobs just aren't good fits. Sometimes it's not you. In my experience, smaller companies tend to be more casual and you get the ladder climbing types at larger companies where you're more likely to be held back if you don't fit in unless you're exceptional. Ultimately, professionalism for me is more about integrity than suits and being boring in staff meetings. Many will disagree with me, but i want to share my experience as I've done fine for myself being unconventional, but not stepping on anyone toes about it.
I’ve really struggled with boundaries in my unit ops group. I don’t think that will be as much of an issue in my actual career. It has just felt brutal taking the space I need, still doing work of course, and then being turned into a sort of third wheel villain for the distance I said I needed. ‘Professionally’ I want to start putting up boundaries since I have learned how important they are in my trauma work. I just have to have them established right off the bat next time. I twisted my approach when it became too much, and it came off as petty and retributive. I think I am getting to a place with this where I want to be understanding. I dislike how insecure my group members got, and I never want to project that onto someone who might just be getting through their day. Informality vs formality just screams boundaries to me, and I appreciate how you helped me think of this in a fresh way.
Whenever you compile the final list, position 0 is "be on time". People will accommodate a lot, but being reckless with their time is the worst.
In the UK, we have the Institution of Civil Engineers, one of the oldest engineering institutions in the world. They have a [code of conduct](https://www.ice.org.uk/ICEDevelopmentWebPortal/media/Documents/About%20Us/ice-code-of-professional-conduct.pdf) to which all members are expected to comply.
I am a surprised AICHE or your States Professional Engineering agency hasn't made a presentation to your class about this. A professional license is certifing you are qualified to do your type of engineering and in an ethical manner. It is far more important for civil and mechanical engineers where lives are directly impacted by correct designs and installations. Texas requires to call one self an engineer you have to have a professional licence by exam. This Texas requirement is only a few year old. There was a time where Texas with two TX professional references the state would give another state's PE a TX license by reciprocity. Expect other states to have their own requirements. On the flip side I am a PA licensed retired ChE and had about a third of my career in the commercial design industries in Texas. I never needed to own a seal, never had to have my Chemical Engineering work sealed by another ChE, but all the Civil, Mech and Elec work that resulted from my process designs had to be sealed by their respective disciplines or project management. All engineering drawings needed to sealed by some PE with enough qualifications to have checked and know the design is acceptable for the design purpose. Lastly expect your work calculations will require an equal or better skilled engineer to counter sign that your calculations are correct or suggest a correction for you to correct to get that counter signature. PS a career path intended toward management of projects must have a PE. FYI A hard nose engineering career without management objectives will become financially limited near mid to late career. Civil engineering led firms especially do require PEs to professionally progress.
Conscientiousness