What Makes Someone a "Professional"?
There comes a time in every engineer’s life, somewhere between leaving campus after graduation and walking out the front door of your office after your retirement party, where he/she becomes a professional at what they do. Professionalism is an integral part of the workplace, yet it is not something that necessarily comes to you overnight. It looks different for every person, it’s valued differently by every company, and there’s no way to perfectly achieve it. So, what is professionalism and how do I go about obtaining it? Glad you asked! Professionalism can be defined as the competence or skill expected of a professional. Most people’s minds quickly jump to what someone looks, or dresses like in a business setting. I think the definition really encompasses something much broader, which is the way a person carries themselves in a professional setting. In this blog I’ll touch on five main points I’ve learned in the engineering consulting world that would help characterize someone as
