Presentation 3

[brianchapman]

How important is presentation of one's self.
I believe I am catagorized as a "noncomformest". Every
one in my office uses constant talk and "big words"
to present themselves. Is this good?

I have come to think that this is a pothetic attempt
to make on look better than they really are. Others
tend to use large vocabulary to cover there inefficiency.

I lack sufficient enough experience to know if I am right
or wrong. Can someone with experience in the civil engineering field tell me if daily preverbial talk is
imortant.

I believe if one can do there job efficiently, quickly,
and prove themselves through there work...communication
is as important.

Don't get my wrong. I believe communication is important,
but I believe I should present myself so that ANY person
can relate to and understand what I am talking about.

Most people I have met in the Civil Engineering proffecion
seem to do otherwise though...so am I wrong?

Is sounding technical more important?

 

[jheidt2543]

Brian:

You raise some interesting points, since space is short I will outline my response and you can fill in the blanks.

1. You describe yourself as a "non-conformest". We all want to "fit in" in some way, is this your way of being noticed?

2. My father use to say, "He who can brag without lying, let him brag!". While this is said somewhat "tounge-in-cheek, there is some truth to it too. We engineers spend so much time and money on our education, we sometimes want to show how much we "know". This tendancy can lead to some puffery and shows up in the engineer's main pitfall - lack of communication skills.

3. The number one facility an engineer should cultivate is how to communicate your ideas, designs, etc., clearly; particularly to non-engineers. If you can't get your point across to your client (whoever your client may be) in an understandable way, your design loses, your ideas don't get built.

4. Paraphrasing another saying that has much truth in it, "Your silence may lead others to think you a fool but, your speach can remove all doubt!"

5. The best advice I could give is find a knowlegdable mentor, someone who has been in the profession and through the battles. Watch him (or her), listen and learn.

6. Lastly, read two books by Samuel Florman, "The Existential Pleasures of Engineering" and "The Introspective Engineer". In my opinion, he is THE VOICE of the engineer in society today.

Best of luck for a long and fulling career.

 

[PBroad]

[IF]


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


--Rudyard Kipling

This is as true today as when written over a hundred years ago.

 

[DrFire]

The most important are results. I have realized that today all that counts is how fast You are and how well You can express yourself. Whether You do it with special phrases or not that finally does not matter. All that counts is money, and time is money.

 

[jheidt2543]

From the poetic to the cynical, that's what I like about these forums - everyone gets a shot!

I've felt like KP1 from time to time but, generally those days are in the minority. When the bad days outweight the good days it is time to find something else to do.