A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Essay Example

Abstract

Continuous learning within the mechanical engineering career field takes not only honing those engineering skills but also taking on a deeper and broader look at leadership, project management, negotiation and communication skills.  The skills of the 21^st century are different from those of latter centuries.  The hard and soft skills must provide quicker reactions, more complex problem solving and include a globalized economy.  These skillsets focus more on the softer skillsets because these are only gained through experiences while some of the hard skillsets are taught in an academic setting.  While the hard skillsets are still a prerequisite, there is a need of the soft skillsets to be able to maximize the total package of skills.

Continuous Improvement and Learning

Throughout my career as a mechanical engineer there are multiple areas of education, training and growth opportunities that I must focus on to become not only an expert in my career field but also a well-rounded asset to my organization.  Through professional development, career expansion and extending my core capabilities outside of the normal operations I will be able to create a competitive advantage for myself and become a valuable keystone to any organization that I become part of.  Continuous learning is taking the skills gained from the core career chose and honing those skills, expanding those capabilities and sharpening the sword, so to speak.

In order to further my career I need to focus on both types of skillsets.  Skillsets are broken down into two subsets including hard and soft skills.  Hard skillsets include those that focus on skills and abilities that can be taught and learned in a specific, measurable and quantifiable manner.  Soft skills, conversely, are harder to measure because they are focused on personality, interactions and other actions that lead to seemingly intangible outputs.  These examples include leadership, negotiations, communication or other personality and interaction capabilities (Kotter, 2012).

Broadening the skillset of mechanical engineering professionals includes honing soft skills that utilize their core capabilities and expands them into other areas such as project management.  I plan on garnering a greater understanding of mechanical engineering by diving deep into the role in which I gain after graduation.  This on-the-job training (OJT) will help fortify the baseline education I gained during my undergraduate studies.  While I am working in a mechanical engineering position I plan on progressing myself through self-study in my core focus area as well as expanding my horizons by choosing complimentary but separate focus areas outside of mechanical engineering.  This will potentially give me a greater breadth of knowledge while I am generating a depth of knowledge through OJT.

This includes assessment, selection and application of choices and decisions.  Not only does this take into account the decision process it also includes continually reviewing and improving those choices.  Continual improvement in the leadership capabilities will ultimately allow me to become a better leader and a greater asset to those within my span of control.  Training for my career as a mechanical engineer must be maintained on a continual basis in order to stay abreast of the changes in the career field as well as new ways to make our training and development more effective.  While working on my depth of knowledge in mechanical engineering, I feel it is critical to my career progression to understand how to manage and lead a project through the entire development lifecycle.  I want to garner a professional certification in project management called the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification (PMI, 2008).  This requires many hours leading a project and a foundation of study that I can accomplish during my OJT as well as during my personal time off duty.  Project management will give me the ability to lead and manage projects in the mechanical engineering career field and take my experience in that career field and leverage it to create and deliver high quality products to the customer.  Project management incorporates many tools and techniques to facilitate the opportunity for the success of a project implementation. When developing a project there are three areas of concern including scope, schedule and cost of the project. I will manage and control these aspects and provide engineering products at the highest quality, on-time, on-target and on-budget.

Through OJT, educational expansion and self-directed learning I can expand and increase my knowledge base but there is still a missing component to the equation.  Through networking and attending engineering based seminars I am going to seek out a mentor to not only help guide me through my mechanical engineering focus but also to seek guidance and direction in my career as a whole.  By establishing and building a relationship with a mentor I will be able to ask questions and gain insights into the career field and other areas that I would not be able to receive without that of a mentor.  The value of a mentor is immeasurable and will provide a high rate of return when I look back at my career progression in 3, 5 and 10 years down the road.

Conclusion

Mechanical engineering is a highly technical and demanding profession that requires a continual effort to maintain a strong capability within the career field.  There is a demand to increase the knowledge base, extend the leadership capabilities, demand project management and progress the engineers within the organizations that hired them.The capability to utilize the the skills of project management, mechanical engineering and my broadened experience through self-education will allow me to be a well-rounded and highly skilled engineer.  While experience will ultimately come to me, I plan on continually growing and learning during my career to help my growth potential expand exponentially.

References

Kotter, J. (2012). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Project Management Institute, P. M. (2008). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. (4th ed.). Newtown Square: Project Management Inst.