My son turned 3 years old last week.  He kept telling my wife and I over and over, “I want Buzz Light Year for my birthday.”  While at the store purchasing Buzz I couldn’t help but think about the smile that would shine across my son’s face when he opened the almost life-size (for a 3 year old), talking Buzz Light Year.  However, in the back of my mind, I was also thinking about how in a month from now he would be bored of the toy and Buzz would be on the shelf with the rest of the “old” toys.

I believe that you can make an analogy between kids and their toys and engineers and their jobs.  After a period of time kids get tired of their toys, just like engineers get tired of or bored with their job.  I often hear engineers say, I’ve hit the ceiling in my current position and I don’t feel like I can grow anymore in this position.

There are always those engineers who somehow find a way to enjoy their job for a long period of time, sometimes many, many years.  How do they do it?  How do they stay engaged at the same company, in the same department for so long?

Through my experience coaching engineers, I have found that those engineers who stay engaged seemed to follow the some or all of the guidelines listed below:

1.       Be sure that your job is putting you in a position to achieve your goals.  If it doesn’t you will dread every day of work.  You will feel like you cannot wait for 5 o’clock to come.

2.       Never accept a position based on salary; accept the position because the job will allow you to do things that you enjoy doing.  THIS IS A BIG ONE.

3.       Respect the people that you work with, work for and work for you.  By treating people with respect, they will respect you, making your work environment a positive one.  People often think they need to intimidate people that work for them.  Not true; you can be firm with people, but still respect them.

4.       Try to avoid long commutes to work.  In my experience coaching engineers, those with long commutes had overall lower energy and more stress in their lives.

5.       During the interviewing process pay a lot of attention to the person that will be your supervisor.  Your relationship with your supervisor may be the most important relationship in your career.  If you get the feeling that you won’t be able to get along with the supervisor, pass on the job.

I know, in this economy you’re probably thinking you can’t be too picky, but I would beg to differ.  If you’re like most people, your career will consist of 40 years of 40 plus hours per week; you’ll be much better off enjoying it!

This is a guest post by Anthony Fasano, PE, author of Engineer Your Own Success. Anthony found success as an engineer at a very early age and now writes and podcasts to help other engineers do the same. Visit Anthony’s website at EngineeringCareerCoach.com and subscribe to the top 3 resources Anthony has used to become a partner in a firm at the age of 27.