This episode of The Engineering Commons podcast is about the lessons engineering professionals learned during the first two or three years.

People development related highlights and ‘professional signposting’ observations include:

• Organisational change comes slowly, and requires a consistent and concerted effort to alter behaviours and attitudes.
• Technical issues of great concern to individuals are often of little concern to the broader organisation.
• Survivorship bias can cause us to overlook conditions and situations that may lead to organisational failure.
• One of the best ways to learn quickly is to chat with others who have substantial experience dealing with the technical issues you are trying to understand.
• Answers are rarely found at one’s desk; if you want to learn about a problem, go to the manufacturing floor, or the machine shop, or a customer’s site.