Michael DeSafey | Executive Recruiter and HR Professional
Moving up in the Engineering Workforce: Humbleness is the Key to Career Success
Moving up in the workforce should be the goal of any employee, but especially for engineers. If you’re not progressing, you’re stagnating, and that can lead to a lower quality of life, unhappiness with a position, and an overall bad outlook on one’s life in the workplace and life in general. Career success is something that can help alleviate all of those things, and humbleness is the key to career success, especially within the engineering workforce.
There is a clear difference between humbleness and confidence, as one can have both at the same time. The true art of humbleness is being aware of your abilities, being able to present your value to a superior, while at the same time not being cocky about those abilities. Take this advice from Life Hack: “humility does not call for us to be meek, or consider ourselves lower in stature.”
A worker who is not humble has trouble seeing their faults, and that can easily shine through in their work. They are too cocky about what they can do, while at the same time ignoring everything that they’re inhibited from doing. When employers look to promote, they don’t want to hire these types of people. They know that they aren’t truly looking to improve themselves or hear critical opinions from others around them, and therefore, they are not the most attractive candidates.
Instead, the humble candidate is the one who is ideal for the employer to promote. The humility demonstrated by this candidate can lead to that employee being aware of what they can’t do, and actively trying to improve on those things. At the same time, it shows awareness on what they can do. Overall, the humbler employee has a general self-awareness that comes across as a very attractive trait for a possible promotion.
One in the engineering workforce who cannot see their faults is said to be closed-minded, and that is a huge red flag in that field of work specifically. Engineers typically need to be open minded, aware of what’s around them, and open to ideas from others to help solidify their own. This is what helps them move up and get promoted to higher levels. Having a humble mindset will make this open mindedness come much more easily than it would for someone who is over-confident in their abilities.
Don’t confuse humility with being cowardly. Humility does not mean that one sits and takes every bad thing that happens to them. Humility is more about being aware of abilities and shortcomings, and improving in all possible areas. Engineering employers can see this trait easily.
Michael DeSafey is a leading executive recruiter for professionals in the construction, engineering and environmental industries. He is currently the President of Webuild Staffing www.webuildstaffing.com . To learn more about Michael or to follow his blog please visit www.michaeldesafey.com