It has been the notion of many professional engineers, especially experienced ones, that once you’ve graduated engineering school, and gain sufficient experience to call yourself an expert at your own field, professional development ends there. While it may hold some truth, it isn’t entirely right.
Continuous education isn’t just for junior engineers, it’s for everyone. Yes, even senior engineers!
The Big WHY
It’s understandable that junior engineers need a lot of continuous education to develop their professional skills in the field. This is the best time for fresh graduates to become sponges and soak up everything they can learn to develop their engineering skills and practice them in the field. If you belong to this group, the best advice for you is to research, read, and apply. Read many books, magazines, and engineering articles, absorb them and see how you can apply then in your career. Attend as much seminars as you can while you still have a lot of time for it.
Source: OSPE
What about for experienced engineers? The answer is yes! While they won’t have a lot of time to spare attending seminars, they should try to learn and update themselves with the new engineering trends. Remember, in the engineering world everything is dynamic and will forever continue to improve. There will be new electronic devices, new machines, new technology that is needed to be learned and trained for. So the best way to catch up is to continuously learn. Another good reason for experienced engineers to continue their professional development is because they are going to be responsible for training the new generation of engineers.
The Bottom Line
Professional development, regardless what point you are in your engineering career, is a continuous quest. To be able to be updated and be effective and efficient in your profession, you should understand that learning doesn’t really end at any point in your career. It needs to continuously grow as your career progresses.
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