3 Things All Successful Tech Engineer Do.

How are some engineers so successful?

They seem to be naturally gifted, their careers move at a quicker pace, and opportunities fall into their laps. I’ve been an engineer for almost a decade and have observed how.

They do these three things.

Photo by Ian Stauffer on Unsplash

1. ALWAYS Be Learning Something New Expanding Your Knowledge and Skillset.

If sharks stop swimming, they die, and if you stop learning, so will your career.

Photo by Oleksandr Sushko on Unsplash

If you don’t enjoy learning new things, I’m afraid you may have chosen the wrong career path. The tech industry grows bigger and faster than any other, and to be successful, you NEED to keep up.

Long gone are the days when employees wanted you to specialise in one thing; companies now seek a jack of all trades and a master of some. Take a look at any job application you're interested in; I guarantee you'll see a stream of technologies and skills you need to be proficient in. I achieved my Cisco Certified Network Administrator (CCNA) in February 2020, and in the same year, they changed the whole exam criteria. By September 2022, I was studying again just to renew it, as the majority of IT certifications expire after three years due to the speed technology changes. If you stop learning, you will become a dinosaur, slowly becoming extinct, and while you wait for your career to die, you will also be pigeonholed for the one/few things you did learn, going nowhere (a lot of animal-related metaphors in this piece).

The tech industry moves at record paces and does not wait. To be successful, you need to swim and swim fast; otherwise, you will sink. When I started my Network Engineer journey, there was no mention of writing code or software. Fast forward to today, and it’s the biggest thing spoken about. I have learned how to code, but I wonder what things would look like if I hadn’t. What would my job look like? What would my career options be? What would a company pay me?

Become Dory and ‘just keep swimming Learning*’.

2. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone and Develop Your Skills.

If you don’t feel imposter syndrome, you’re NOT developing.

Progress is only made when you challenge yourself. If your day-to-day work is as easy as sitting on your couch in the evening, then you're not developing as a person, an engineer, or an employee.

Photo by Coen Staal on Unsplash

Companies hire you for a role, of course, but who gets the promotions? Pay rises? Better projects? It's the engineers who grow, and growth only happens outside your comfort zone. My company asked me to write a program that would visualise an AI Virtual Assistant's Conversational Design for customers. Until this point, I had only written small scripts in Python. But after a lot of learning, getting things wrong, and getting even more things wrong, I managed to do it. Now, whenever there are new development projects, I am always asked to be involved.

If you want those promotions, pay rises, and better projects, you better show your company you're worth it {insert L’oreal joke}. Say yes to a project you know nothing about, volunteer for something outside of your normal duties, learn a new skill, whatever it is, don’t just sit still; we know how that ends.

If you don’t feel imposter syndrome, you're not developing as a person, an engineer, or an employee.

3. Be There When S**t Goes Wrong and Get Noticed.

Filmmakers don’t focus on the people getting to safety; they zoom in on the superhero holding up the building.

Photo by Alex Ayala on Unsplash

When things are going wrong, don’t hide in the corner; get involved. Companies want individuals who take ownership, responsibility, and are reliable, and a great way to demonstrate this is to be there when s**t hits the fan.

There is no other time in a company when so many people take notice than when things are failing, there’s an outage, or customers are complaining. The reason is there is a loss in some way to that company, and whoever keeps this loss small or even stops it completely is badged as a hero. Someone who saved the company from losing X thousand of pounds or a business opportunity will be known as a superhero among other civilian engineers. Who then do we think gets those pay rises, promotions, and better projects? HINT: It’s not the person who gets to safety.

All eyes are on the engineers who are saving the day when things are going wrong; you need to become one and take advantage of this limelight. I have met these people, and their word is taken as gospel; they are known as heroes, and everyone knows their name. It’s no coincidence they are in the best roles, highly compensated, and do really interesting work everyone wants to be doing.

Even if your role is small, make sure you’re involved; companies cherish these individuals.