Why you need to be a Mentor

Off the back of last weeks post, which we spoke about the importance that graduates and students alike, seek out the right mentor[s] to help speed up the process of learning - Starting up an Engine[er] will use this weeks post to appeal to our potential engineering mentors.

That's you. 
Me. 
That's all of us. 

For as long as I have been an engineer, or the very least been what I call a 'sentient engineer' and therefore able to form my own opinions on why engineers...well, engineer - I have thought about what it is that we 'sell' to the public.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't spent sleepless nights ponding the question, but let's just say that since I decided to set up on my own - the question has become more important to me. If you've got a problem with that - then go and write your own blog. I dare you. No, I double dare you! I'll probably follow you too... ;)

Still here? Good, because it just so happens that the question of what it is that we engineers sell, is at the heart of mentoring. Please allow me to show you why.

Early marketing techniques taught us that if you produce a quality product [or service], that customers will eventually hear about it, and line up to buy it.

More recently though, marketing bods told us that it really doesn't matter how good your product [or service] is, if you are not ramming it down people's throats... then you won't sell much of it.

The public obviously got bored of persuasion marketing, very quickly. So what we have been left with are a sales savvy population; who will cut you off [dead] if they sense a sales pitch coming up. Next up? Permission marketing. Thank. You. Seth Godin :-)

Build a powerful trust with your customers, and do not interrupt theirs lives incessantly by pedalling your wares. Then give them what they want, when they need it, and most importantly - surpass their expectations.

OK, so what are we selling? Well we do not have a product. I can say this with a certain amount of confidence because our customers do not simply wander in off the streets and ask for "One Millennium Dome please". No, this kind of product selling exercise is saved for our architectural and builder cousins.

So are we only selling our services to architects and builders? Business to business like?

Well my thoughts are that if we continue to think this way, we can rest assured that our engineering mojo will never be returned back to us anytime soon. Is this what we want?

Relying upon our most sternest critics to educate the public about why engineers deserve the attention that they seek; is to be frightfully honest...plain stupid. And we are not stupid. Are we?

I mentioned earlier that we don't sell products. Architects and builders do.

But there is one product which we have failed to recognise as a product, and this product is what the public is screaming out for too.

Legacy. It's my word of the month.

It's fine that we can no longer 'Brunel' up the engineering industry in the UK by self-funding large scale civil engineering works. Although, I did hear about a certain someone [and colleagues] making a BIG difference to a village in Cameroon. They started a charity, raised a shed load of money, and built a medical centre and a school for the villagers! [read about it here]

Our legacy is directly related to how well we can inspire new students, graduates and one another.

I am currently reading a book [forgive me, I'm not quite finished]. The book is the biography of Dr Fazlur Khan - Engineering Architecture. A promising read.

He was an all round nice guy. Inspirational. He forged super strong bonds with his piers and colleagues by helping them to understand engineering. His grasp of layman's terminology was formidable. Not only this, it appears that he went out of his way to help architectural students with advice and what ever they needed.

Thanks mum :')

He was a mentor, and he understood that students will always remember their mentors. That bond is never, ever broken.

When an aspiring engineer finally stands on their own two feet for the first time; and accept the accolades deserving of their hard work - who do you think they will be imagining by their side?

When an athlete who has worked, and trained impossibly hard for many years just so that they can compete on the biggest stage the world has ever known, who do you think they will be thanking first?

Our legacy is our product, and to tell the truth - it's a hell of a sexy product too! It's a promise to parents of engineering students that we will look after them, and train them. They will deserve all the opportunities they work hard for. Our legacy is worth protecting.

Try and beat that. Be a mentor.


Engine[er]