Consulting-Specifying Engineer - May 2008 - (Page 32) How to be the best mentor A mentor is defined as “A wise and trusted counselor or teacher.” There are many ways to mentor less experienced engineers; listed below are just a few. • Remember to teach ethics and morals. You do this by practice, discussion, and explanation. Share the National Society of Professional Engineer’s Creed and Code of Ethics with your mentees. Review it yourself. • Remember that as a mentor, you will learn as much by teaching as your mentee learns as a result. • Share your experience and your references freely. You will find that you receive more than you give. • Teach your mentees to teach themselves and to be mentors for other people. Make them the department expert on a calculation, system, or equipment item. Let them do the research with your guidance. Require them to teach others in your company. • Assign responsibility for master specifications to younger staff members so that they learn the details of what they mean and keep everyone in the firm up-to-date. • Patience is a virtue. Remember if you are short or impatient with your mentees, they will be reluctant to ask questions when they need to. • Encourage interdisciplinary mentoring so that your engineers and technicians learn other disciplines and understand what coordination is. Mentees at the ready A mentee is a person who is guided by a mentor. Be sure that you’re a good learner and listener. A few tips include: • Many mentors require training. Not all knowledge will be easy to get from a mentor. Find a way that you can work with them. Carry their tools if you have to. • You don’t have to check your ego at the door, but put it in your back pocket. Arrogance and self-importance in a mentee will stop the flow of information from a mentor faster than anything I can think of. (This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t stand your ground if you are convinced that you are correct. Mentors are not perfect, but you will gain much more from them if you use some respect and humility.) • Don’t ask questions to save yourself work; ask questions when you are out of ideas. Using this principle, don’t be afraid to ask questions. To a good and perceptive supervisor, this is a sign of strength, not weakness. • When you are stumped on something and your mentor is not available, learn to find something else to do so that you can continue to be productive. • Seek learning, challenge, and responsibility. Ask for assignments that you are interested in. Be proactive in finding training classes that you want to attend. • Huge amounts of information are available via the Internet. Browse magazine archives, professional and technical society publications, and equipment manufacturers’ data. • Insist on being hands-on. Go see the result of what you have designed. Insist on participating in the construction administration of what you have designed. • Identify, document, and evaluate candidate system types to meet requirements for the types of facilities that your firm designs. Learn the codes and nonmandatory guidelines that establish best industry practice. • Know realistic rules to rough-size systems for evaluation purposes early in the design process. (Also learn when and how to perform the detailed calculations that establish the final equipment selections.) • Evaluate equipment options and vendors that give the best value for your project. • Prepare process flow diagrams and general sequences of operation. This requires detailed knowledge of controls and how systems work. In my opinion, it is a mandatory requirement that design engineers understand how the systems they are designing will safely function to meet the project requirements. • Prepare a basis of design narrative to convey your analysis and proposed design to others to build consensus with the design approach to meeting the project requirements. • Plan and organize a set of drawings and specifications to be efficiently produced. • Perform equipment sizing calculations that result in equipment that is realistically sized—not grossly oversized, and not undersized. An engineer must learn the appropriate safety factors in each situation. In some cases, additional safety factors result in increased performance at marginal additional cost and is advisable. In other circumstances, excessive safety factors are synonymous with increased cost and poor performance. • Prepare equipment, piping, and duct arrangements that allow efficient installation, maintenance, and, ultimately, replacement. Engineers must learn and consider the impact of system arrangement over the lifecycle of the facility that they are designing. Requiring and paying the installing contractors to do coordination drawings is not a substitute or excuse for not considering this 32 Consulting-Specifying Engineer • MAY 2008
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