 What should I do when I start my engineering career? Here at EMI, we help engineers become better managers and leaders. And in this week's Engineering Manager 80-20 Shorts video, I want to respond to a question from our listener about what she should do as she's starting her engineering career. I'm going to give you three specific things that you can do to really launch your engineering career and set yourself up for future success. Number one, learn your technical craft. I can't emphasize this enough. A lot of younger engineers or recent graduates come into engineering and they want to become president of a company or owner of their own firm, and they think right away about management and leadership. Now don't get me wrong, here at EMI we are focused on helping engineers build their soft skills, their people skills, their PM skills so that they can become those great leaders, but you can't do that right off the bat. You have to learn your technical craft. So do every calculation, read every technical article, visit technical conferences, and really understand the technical component of the engineering work that you do. Because number one, that's going to help you to really do great projects and be a part of great projects. But also, when you get that bump to Project Manager, you're going to be able to work with your team because you understand the projects that they're working on. So please learn your technical craft number one. Number two, get your professional engineering license. Now this may not be applicable to all of you because I know that there are some engineering disciplines where the PE license may not be applicable. I personally think everybody should get it if you can because you don't know where your career is going to take you and when you might need that license. But the license gives you that credibility. It's going to bring you opportunities, your company opportunity. Nobody can take that license away from you once you have achieved it. And if the PE license isn't for you for whatever reason, find a credential that is and obtain that credential early on in your career again to build your resume and your credibility. Number three, last but not least, find a mentor. Learning your technical craft is great. Getting on the path to licensure is great. But having an experienced engineering professional who's gone through what you're going through that can give you guidance that you can check in with, that can help you build your confidence. They will really help you to get on that trajectory towards wherever you want to go in your engineering career. So if you're just getting started as an engineer, learn your technical craft, consider getting your PE license and find a mentor that can help you to achieve the goals that you want to achieve in your career. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube video here to get our weekly engineering career videos and we will continue to help you engineer your own success.