Welcome to the 62EX AFSC discussion blog. The purpose of this blog is to foster discussion between future AF officers interested in this career feild and current officers in 62EX. The views expressed in this blog are solely the opinions of the individual authors and not of the USAF nor the DoD. There are six different kinds of Developmental Engineers (Aero, Astro, EE, Mech Eng, Project, and Computer Systems), this blog has officers representing each of those with posts pertinent to each.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Leadership Opportunities
What kind of leadership opportunities exist in engineering? How do they differ from other career fields, such as Maintenance?
The leadership opportunities are different than in Maintenance, but they are still there. Sometimes it comes down to a matter of initiative. I've found that the engineers are generally happy to let me step into larger leadership roles, because a lot of times they'd rather be doing the actual engineering & don't necessarily want the ldrshp or mgt responsibility.
The leadership is more in project leadership than people ldrshp. You'll be balancing cost, schedule, and performance across very complex programs. You'll have to manage/lead a difficult mix of military engineers, civilian engineers, and contractors. You may be answering to very high up folks on your program & you have to get a diverse set of folks to deliver the product on time, meeting customer needs. This is very different from leading 100 enlisted troops like you get to do in maintenance, but nonetheless a leadership challenge.
I've also found the engineering organizations are open to large scale change, if you can present the vision and the plan for getting there. I've had amazing opportunities rallying 75 people in an organization to completley change their business processes.
You have to understand when change is really needed and when it is not...making sure that the warfighters' & taxpayers' needs are being met. Anytime I can meet the warfighters' and taxpayers' needs better, I push for change...some people in the engineering organization may be uncomfortable with that & you can have amazing experiences implementing change in these environments (somewhat frustrating at times, but usually rewarding if you persevere).
3 comments:
The leadership opportunities are different than in Maintenance, but they are still there. Sometimes it comes down to a matter of initiative. I've found that the engineers are generally happy to let me step into larger leadership roles, because a lot of times they'd rather be doing the actual engineering & don't necessarily want the ldrshp or mgt responsibility.
The leadership is more in project leadership than people ldrshp. You'll be balancing cost, schedule, and performance across very complex programs. You'll have to manage/lead a difficult mix of military engineers, civilian engineers, and contractors. You may be answering to very high up folks on your program & you have to get a diverse set of folks to deliver the product on time, meeting customer needs. This is very different from leading 100 enlisted troops like you get to do in maintenance, but nonetheless a leadership challenge.
I've also found the engineering organizations are open to large scale change, if you can present the vision and the plan for getting there. I've had amazing opportunities rallying 75 people in an organization to completley change their business processes.
You have to understand when change is really needed and when it is not...making sure that the warfighters' & taxpayers' needs are being met. Anytime I can meet the warfighters' and taxpayers' needs better, I push for change...some people in the engineering organization may be uncomfortable with that & you can have amazing experiences implementing change in these environments (somewhat frustrating at times, but usually rewarding if you persevere).
Thank you so much for your help with this! Its nice to hear this information.
Post a Comment