FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
Career Management is becoming increasingly important. Recent engineering and technical graduates no longer have the security of long-term employment that was the safety net for previous generations. This timely volume was designed to help you to engineer" your career by stressing basic, pragmatic management and leadership concepts, knowledge, and skills.
From the Inside Flap
Engineering Your Future: Launching a Successful Entry-Level Technical Career in Today's Business Environment provides the recent engineering or other technical graduate or the entry-level technical person with basic, pragmatic management and leadership concepts, knowledge, and skills.
These results-oriented fundamentals should be immediately useful on the job and will also help the young professional learn more efficiently from day-to-day professional experiences. Technical competency, although necessary, is not sufficient for the young engineer or other technically educated professional who wishes to quickly realize his or her potential in the consulting business, industry, or government.
Technical competency must be supplemented with basic management proficiencies and leadership understanding if the entry-level professional is to be productive for his or her employer. Unfortunately, management concepts, knowledge, and skills are typically not introduced in undergraduate engineering and related curricula, and virtually nothing is taught about leadership. Accordingly, management and leadership must be learned by doing, often inefficiently at high monetary cost to the employer and at the risk of jeopardizing the young professional's career.
This is not a transition from engineering to management book. A premise of this book is that all engineers and other technical professionals are managers from day one -- at least they are managers of their time, their assignments, their relationships with others, and their careers. The best leaders in technical organizations are most likely to be those professionals who began to develop management skill and leadership understanding very early in their careers who knew, from the beginning, how to develop the soft as well as the hard side of their careers.
Career management is becoming increasingly important. The parents of today's young professionals often entered into unwritten but binding contracts with their employers. In that era, the young engineer or other technical professional would typically focus on technical matters and do them well, and the employer would, in turn, agree to provide long-term employment. Increasingly, such employment contracts are vanishing, average periods of employment with a given employer are diminishing, and major organizational upheavals caused by financial difficulties, acquisitions, and mergers are increasing.
Perceptive young professionals will recognize these changes, anticipate employment problems, and prepare for employment opportunities. This book will help you engineer your career.
AUDIENCE
The book assumes that readers are, or soon will be, graduates (BS or MS) of an engineering or other technical program with little or no engineering, business, or management experience. The book further assumes that readers want to take a proactive approach and quickly build on their technically oriented education to become even more productive members of their organization.
Because of the intended audiences, senior and/or graduate student or recent graduates, the book is written to be used as either a textbook or a reference book for young professionals. It could also be used to support seminars and workshops directed at young engineers and other technical professionals. Portions of the book are intended to be of value as a textbook or reference book to young professionals outside of technical fields, that is, in business, government, and other areas. Much of the material presented in this book will also be immediately useful to students. That is, while they are students, future technical professionals can utilize some of the tools and techniques presented in this book, such as, but not limited to, time management, delegating, managing meetings, project management, total quality management, business accounting, and marketing.
ORGANIZATION AND CONTENT
Many aspects of management and leadership are covered. Examples are self-management, management of others, understanding how organizations work and how to work in organizations, project management, total quality management, engineering or decision economics, basic business accounting methods, legal issues, ethics, the design function, the role and selection of consultants, marketing professional services, and shaping the future.
Chapters are arranged in accordance with the preceding order of topics. Although some sequencing of chapters should be followed for effectiveness, such as Chapter 10, Legal Framework, being followed by Chapter 11, Ethics, there is no compelling argument for reading or teaching all chapters in their order of presentation in the book.
A set of exercises is included at the end of most chapters to provide opportunities to further explore or apply ideas, information, and techniques presented in the chapter. Some exercises are well suited for modest to major team projects. Because effective teamwork is an important aspect of modern management, faculty members and others who use the book for teaching courses and for leading seminars and workshops are urged to assign some exercises to be done as team projects. By so doing, college students or seminar or workshop attendees will benefit in two ways. They will learn more about the subject matter, and they will learn more about being an effective member and occasional leader of a team.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Most of the material presented in this book was developed over a six-year period beginning in 1988 when I began teaching Engineering Management, a senior course in the Department of Civil Engineering at Valparaiso University. The material was further refined starting in 1990 when I initiated a two-day seminar titled Management for the New Engineer as part of the American Society of Civil Engineers Continuing Education Program. This course was later offered in video-tape format to improve its accessibility by the entry-level technical professional community. Opportunities to conduct special in-house seminars and workshops and to provide management and leadership consulting for engineering organizations naturally grew out of the preceding teaching efforts and resulted in further expansion and refinement of what now is the content of this book. I clearly recognize and sincerely appreciate the many contributions made by former engineering students, seminar and workshop participants, and clients.
Other materials and ideas, reflecting primarily management and leadership applications, were obtained and developed over almost three decades while I was employed in the public and private sectors in engineering practice and education. Besides practicing engineering and being an educator, I administered and was administered to, managed and was managed, and led and was led. During that time, I witnessed some very enlightened and some very poor management of individuals, projects, and organizations. These were excellent learning experiences and constitute the personal experience base of this book. I received a wealth of useful ideas and information from, and have been positively influenced by, numerous individuals. My debt to other professionals is suggested, in part, by the extensive list of references that appear at the end of each chapter. I drew ideas and information, and, therefore, reference materials from a wide range of sources. The resulting eclectic collection of cited and supplemental references indicates that technical professionals can learn much about all aspects of management and leadership by looking both within and outside of their fields.
Book writing labor and logistics are challenging and a major management effort. I gratefully acknowledge the crucial role of Vicki F. Farabaugh, formerly my administrative assistant in the College of Engineering at Valparaiso University, who supervised essentially all of and did much of the word processing, produced the graphics, and obtained reference citation information. I also appreciate the meticulous proofing of punctuation, grammar, and spelling performed by Camille Gudino, secretary in the college. Much of the writing of this book was completed while Jerrie, my wife, and I traveled and worked for six months on our vessel Sabbatical while on sabbatical from Valparaiso University. The university's support is appreciated.
Finally, Jerrie provided source materials, constructively critiqued the entire Text, and, as always, provided total support.
Stuart G. Walesh
These results-oriented fundamentals should be immediately useful on the job and will also help the young professional learn more efficiently from day-to-day professional experiences. Technical competency, although necessary, is not sufficient for the young engineer or other technically educated professional who wishes to quickly realize his or her potential in the consulting business, industry, or government.
Technical competency must be supplemented with basic management proficiencies and leadership understanding if the entry-level professional is to be productive for his or her employer. Unfortunately, management concepts, knowledge, and skills are typically not introduced in undergraduate engineering and related curricula, and virtually nothing is taught about leadership. Accordingly, management and leadership must be learned by doing, often inefficiently at high monetary cost to the employer and at the risk of jeopardizing the young professional's career.
This is not a transition from engineering to management book. A premise of this book is that all engineers and other technical professionals are managers from day one -- at least they are managers of their time, their assignments, their relationships with others, and their careers. The best leaders in technical organizations are most likely to be those professionals who began to develop management skill and leadership understanding very early in their careers who knew, from the beginning, how to develop the soft as well as the hard side of their careers.
Career management is becoming increasingly important. The parents of today's young professionals often entered into unwritten but binding contracts with their employers. In that era, the young engineer or other technical professional would typically focus on technical matters and do them well, and the employer would, in turn, agree to provide long-term employment. Increasingly, such employment contracts are vanishing, average periods of employment with a given employer are diminishing, and major organizational upheavals caused by financial difficulties, acquisitions, and mergers are increasing.
Perceptive young professionals will recognize these changes, anticipate employment problems, and prepare for employment opportunities. This book will help you engineer your career.
AUDIENCE
The book assumes that readers are, or soon will be, graduates (BS or MS) of an engineering or other technical program with little or no engineering, business, or management experience. The book further assumes that readers want to take a proactive approach and quickly build on their technically oriented education to become even more productive members of their organization.
Because of the intended audiences, senior and/or graduate student or recent graduates, the book is written to be used as either a textbook or a reference book for young professionals. It could also be used to support seminars and workshops directed at young engineers and other technical professionals. Portions of the book are intended to be of value as a textbook or reference book to young professionals outside of technical fields, that is, in business, government, and other areas. Much of the material presented in this book will also be immediately useful to students. That is, while they are students, future technical professionals can utilize some of the tools and techniques presented in this book, such as, but not limited to, time management, delegating, managing meetings, project management, total quality management, business accounting, and marketing.
ORGANIZATION AND CONTENT
Many aspects of management and leadership are covered. Examples are self-management, management of others, understanding how organizations work and how to work in organizations, project management, total quality management, engineering or decision economics, basic business accounting methods, legal issues, ethics, the design function, the role and selection of consultants, marketing professional services, and shaping the future.
Chapters are arranged in accordance with the preceding order of topics. Although some sequencing of chapters should be followed for effectiveness, such as Chapter 10, Legal Framework, being followed by Chapter 11, Ethics, there is no compelling argument for reading or teaching all chapters in their order of presentation in the book.
A set of exercises is included at the end of most chapters to provide opportunities to further explore or apply ideas, information, and techniques presented in the chapter. Some exercises are well suited for modest to major team projects. Because effective teamwork is an important aspect of modern management, faculty members and others who use the book for teaching courses and for leading seminars and workshops are urged to assign some exercises to be done as team projects. By so doing, college students or seminar or workshop attendees will benefit in two ways. They will learn more about the subject matter, and they will learn more about being an effective member and occasional leader of a team.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Most of the material presented in this book was developed over a six-year period beginning in 1988 when I began teaching Engineering Management, a senior course in the Department of Civil Engineering at Valparaiso University. The material was further refined starting in 1990 when I initiated a two-day seminar titled Management for the New Engineer as part of the American Society of Civil Engineers Continuing Education Program. This course was later offered in video-tape format to improve its accessibility by the entry-level technical professional community. Opportunities to conduct special in-house seminars and workshops and to provide management and leadership consulting for engineering organizations naturally grew out of the preceding teaching efforts and resulted in further expansion and refinement of what now is the content of this book. I clearly recognize and sincerely appreciate the many contributions made by former engineering students, seminar and workshop participants, and clients.
Other materials and ideas, reflecting primarily management and leadership applications, were obtained and developed over almost three decades while I was employed in the public and private sectors in engineering practice and education. Besides practicing engineering and being an educator, I administered and was administered to, managed and was managed, and led and was led. During that time, I witnessed some very enlightened and some very poor management of individuals, projects, and organizations. These were excellent learning experiences and constitute the personal experience base of this book. I received a wealth of useful ideas and information from, and have been positively influenced by, numerous individuals. My debt to other professionals is suggested, in part, by the extensive list of references that appear at the end of each chapter. I drew ideas and information, and, therefore, reference materials from a wide range of sources. The resulting eclectic collection of cited and supplemental references indicates that technical professionals can learn much about all aspects of management and leadership by looking both within and outside of their fields.
Book writing labor and logistics are challenging and a major management effort. I gratefully acknowledge the crucial role of Vicki F. Farabaugh, formerly my administrative assistant in the College of Engineering at Valparaiso University, who supervised essentially all of and did much of the word processing, produced the graphics, and obtained reference citation information. I also appreciate the meticulous proofing of punctuation, grammar, and spelling performed by Camille Gudino, secretary in the college. Much of the writing of this book was completed while Jerrie, my wife, and I traveled and worked for six months on our vessel Sabbatical while on sabbatical from Valparaiso University. The university's support is appreciated.
Finally, Jerrie provided source materials, constructively critiqued the entire Text, and, as always, provided total support.
Stuart G. Walesh
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet.
|
|||
|
Video reviews
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
(learn more)
management forum, engineering ethics, managing your boss, hypothetical consulting firm, net project income, time utilization rate, personal professional assets, consultant selection process, other technical professions, other technical organizations, other technical professionals, nonsalary costs, walkway collapse, other technical work, project time management, consulting engineering firm, discounting factors, cash flow diagram, engineering license, overhead ratio Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Journal of Management, Decision Economics Chap, Management of Self Chap, United States, Management of Relationships, Others Chap, Industry Week, Management of Communication Skills Chap, John Wiley, Project Management Chap, Legal Framework Chap, The Organization of Organizations Chap, Total Quality Management Chap, Construction Contracting, Business Accounting Methods Chap, Engineering Times, American Society of Civil Engineers, Ethics Chap, Civil Engineering, Introduction Chap, Habits of Highly Effective People, Time Management, Martin's Press, Prentice Hall Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
management forum, engineering ethics, managing your boss, hypothetical consulting firm, net project income, time utilization rate, personal professional assets, consultant selection process, other technical professions, other technical organizations, other technical professionals, nonsalary costs, walkway collapse, other technical work, project time management, consulting engineering firm, discounting factors, cash flow diagram, engineering license, overhead ratio Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Journal of Management, Decision Economics Chap, Management of Self Chap, United States, Management of Relationships, Others Chap, Industry Week, Management of Communication Skills Chap, John Wiley, Project Management Chap, Legal Framework Chap, The Organization of Organizations Chap, Total Quality Management Chap, Construction Contracting, Business Accounting Methods Chap, Engineering Times, American Society of Civil Engineers, Ethics Chap, Civil Engineering, Introduction Chap, Habits of Highly Effective People, Time Management, Martin's Press, Prentice Hall Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > Business & Investing > Job Hunting & Careers > Guides
- Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Project Management
- Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Entrepreneurship
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Business & Finance > Economics
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Business & Finance > Entrepreneurship
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Engineering > Industrial Engineering
- Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering
