Find yourself a mentor

One of the first things you will learn as you begin your new career is that your experience base is typically sadly lacking fundamental knowledge for successful completion of some assignments. The lack of experience will come into play for a number of projects and assignments until you find you have spent three to ten years in the development of your career. Suddenly, you find yourself one of those experienced engineers that others look to for advice and counsel. The length of time will vary based on the type of engineer, the projects assigned, and the ability of the engineer to absorb the requisite knowledge. Could there be a better way than to slowly slog your way, project by project, adding to your experience base bit by bit? One approach may be through association with a mentor (or mentors). In the classical sense, a mentor is assigned to assist more junior members of the organization with learning what is necessary to move quickly to become a productive member of the group. The mentor may provide technical assistance or procedural assistance as the situation dictates.