A Guide to Enhancing Professional Development: From College Student to Company Principal >>
This guide will assist young and seasoned engineers alike in finding resources to be successful in today's engineering world. While developed from the young engineer's perspective, it's applicable to all facets of NSPE. By defining resources to enhance professional development skills, these ideas are applicable across the entire membership spectrum.
Career Asset Manager >>
Are you managing your most valuable asset your career with the same care and attention you give your financial and real estate investments? Career Asset Manager can help you examine your career development objectives and identify ways to achieve your goals.
Career Success in Engineering >>
Two of NSPE's members, Bernie Berson, P.E., and Doug Benner, P.E., have authored a new book.
Engineer Your Way to Success >>
America's top engineers from organizations like Eastman Kodak, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, IBM, AT&T, Boyle Engineering, and the University of Texas tell you what skills you need for a successful engineering career and share their personal advice on what they look for in hiring and promoting. This book is like no other career book you'll find. Whether you're an engineering student or an experienced engineer, Engineer Your Way to Success is the best book you can get for yourself, your employees, or any engineer who wants to enhance his or her career.
Government Relations
A Legislative Presentation On Effective Political Lobbying (Microsoft PowerPoint file)
A case study by Zoran Novak, P.E., and Charles E. Brown, P.E.
Human Resources
Recruiting & Retention 2007: Challenges to the Engineering Workforce (Online Course)
Your firm depends on its ability to attract and retain talented professionals and supporting staff. If an organization has trouble with either recruiting or keeping top talent or both, it can mean serious ramifications to delivering services and solutions. In other words, with an inadequate supply of resources, organizations will be extremely challenged to sustain themselves and growth will be out of the picture. This session focuses on the issues contributing to this problem and discusses recruiting tactics and retentions tools that have proved critical to the success of many engineering firms.
Leadership Development
Delegation: Letting Go to Move Ahead
This resource offers tips on delegating by George M. Smart Jr., MBA.
Increasing your Management & Leadership Excellence: How to Get From Good to Great! (Online Course)
This seminar covers a few critical skills for success for the young engineer who is currently in or about to move into a managerial, leadership role. The skill areas include
- Avoiding the managerial pitfalls that impede success;
- Bridging the gap between management and leadership;
- Developing staff through delegation;
- Listening actively and giving supportive and corrective feedback; and
- Creating a motivational environment where team members want to do what they are supposed to instead of having to do what they are supposed to.
Mentoring Guide for Small, Medium, and Large Firms
This guide provides guidelines for organizations of all sizes to create and maintain an effective mentoring initiative. By examining the dynamics of the mentoring relationship from the perspective of both the mentor and the mentee, this flexible guide lets you tailor a mentoring program to your organization. Based on a set of best practices, this guide is an indispensable tool for career and professional development.
Personal Characteristics for Success
The Peoplemap System
The Peoplemap System is designed to develop your people skills. These skills apply to all areas of your life—work, home and with friends. This fun, simple and easy-to-use program gives you a map that creates effective relationships, helps you solve conflict and work with others to reach your goals. The Peoplemap System comprises a set of inter-related programs that build upon the Peoplemap basic training program: Understanding Yourself and Others. No need to use a whole new set of concepts and language!
Retaining Future Principals
Efforts to Retain Future Principals (PDF)
Risk Management
Ethics and Risk Management (Online Course)
Making inadequate decisions, skimping on professional standards, looking the other way, fudging or inaccurately reporting test results -- all these actions put companies and even individual careers in jeopardy. Unethical practices leave companies vulnerable to severe losses, including the loss of valued clients or damage to a company's reputation. Or, in many cases, financial losses occur from defending claims filed against a company or individual. Effective risk management, especially for professional design firms, relies heavily on not compromising ethics. This requires always making the right decisions or providing good advice or direction for clients
PEPP Independent Study Course 500 (DVD)
Understanding and Managing Risk: Intro to Risk Management
Course 500 is an in-house learning opportunity using DVD and workbook-based training kits. The course has seven segments, which are worth two professional development hours each. Course 500 consists of the following topics:
- Concepts in Risk Management
- Legal Liability of Design Professionals
- Developing the Capacity to Manage Risk
- Evaluation of Projects and Clients
- Planning Phase and Design Risk Management
- Bidding and Negotiation Phase Risk Management
- Construction Phase Risk Management
PEPP Independent Study Course 600 (DVD)
Understanding and Managing Risk: Selected Topics in Risk
Management
Course 600 is an in-house learning opportunity using DVD and workbook-based training kits. The course has five segments, which are worth two professional development hours each. Course 600 consists of the following topics:
- Contracts for Professional Services
- Alternative Methods for Project Delivery
- Insurance for Design Professionals
- Dispute Prevention and Non-Adjudicative Resolution
- Adjudicative Dispute Resolution—Litigation or Arbitration
Running Effective Meetings
How to Run a Meeting (Microsoft PowerPoint file)
by Kevin J. Cooley, P.E.
How-to Manual for Seminars, Socials, and Ceremonies: A Practical, Step-By-Step Guide to Organizing and Hosting Events for Local and State Chapters (Online Catalog)
Created by the PEPP-YEAC, this manual provides ideas for planning successful events designed to attract young engineers and maintain active participation and membership in the society.
Social Skills
Dining Etiquette
Ball State University provides tips on napkin use, ordering, use of silverware, and more.
Technology Awareness and Application
Building Information Modeling (Online Course)
This presentation is an introduction to one of the crucial topics in the AEC industry today, building information modeling.
Toxic Mold 101: Identification, Recognition, Measurement, Toxicity and Abatement (Online Course)
This presentation is an introduction into the world of toxic mold. Randy Rakoczynski, P.E., will address which species of mold are toxic and how one goes about conducting a survey of suspected mold contamination and the options available to remediate mold problems in residential, commercial, and industrial structures.
Web Resources
- MatWeb, Your Source for Materials Information includesproperty information on thermoplastic and thermoset polymers such as ABS, nylon, polycarbonate, polyester, polyethylene and polypropylene; metals such as aluminum, cobalt, copper, lead, magnesium, nickel, steel, superalloys, titanium and zinc alloys; ceramics; plus semiconductors, fibers, and other engineering materials.
- iCivilEngineer is a Web directory that exclusively indexes and catalogs web sites of civil engineering knowledge and technology. It covers all disciplines of civil engineering. Of most interest are tutorials, featured technical articles, university lecture notes, online full text papers, real-world engineering project information, and Web based new media.
- TenLinks Inc. offers civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering information, and CAD technology resources.
- A free publication, the Progressive Engineer is an information source covering all disciplines of engineering in the continental U.S. The magazine features profiles of engineers, companies, and stories about projects that detail the accomplishments of engineers from a human perspective in an easy-to-read style. The magazine also has a job board and directories of engineering firms, engineering organizations, and engineering schools. Think of it as a one-stop shop for today's engineer.
