Panel Discussion: What Can You Expect for Your Engineering Career: Engineering or Management?

Wednesday, August 20, 2008; 6:30pm-9:00pm
Michaels at Shoreline, Mountain View

What does a career for the engineer look like in the long run? Do we stay engineers? Do we become managers? Do we become entrepreneurs? What does the market expect?

Join us for a lively discussion with a panel of experts; engineers and managers who will answer these questions and more. Our panel is made up of engineers, managers, and business people who have:

• Remained engineers throughout their career.
  
• Made the transition from engineer to manager.
  
• Managed engineer.
  
• Been engineers, managers, and returned to engineering.
  
• Consulted to startups and large corporations alike regarding team-building, conflict resolution, and strategic planning.
  

In this lively panel discussion you will hear the answers to questions such as:

• What will help me remain an engineer throughout my career?
  
• What is the easiest way to make the transition from engineer to manager?
• What does it really like to be an engineering manager?
  
• How important are people skills in my engineering career?
  
• What do managers want from me?
  
• What is it like to be in charge of my own team, my own department, my own company?
  
• How different is management from engineering?
  
• Do I have to become an engineering manager to “be successful”?
• What's the best timetable for advancing my career?
  

The goal of this panel discussion is to bring together three major philosophies:

• What does it take and what's it like to be an engineer for most of your career?
  
• What's it like to make the transition from engineer to manger?
• What are the issues facing engineers who become managers in running a company or organization?
  

More information and registration for this program at: http://www.aiaa-sf.org/dmtg/08-08.html

Open council positions

The AIAA San Francisco Section has several vacancies on its council. Here are the responsibilities of each of those positions.

Programs Director

• Plan and execute of a regular schedule of Section meetings, specialist meetings, and field trips.
• Select speaker or speakers and arrange the meeting place.
• Encourage attendance at Section and specialist meetings, and welcome attendees.
• Arrange joint meetings with other professional societies when it is mutually beneficial.

Membership Director

• Maintain all available information and forms pertaining to qualifications and enrollment of new members and elevation to higher member grades in the Institute.
• Keep an up-to-date roster, maintained in an accurate manner, and make necessary reports to the Council on this activity.
• Encourage attendance at Section and specialist meetings, and assist in welcoming attendees.
• Provide special hospitality to new members, service to corporate members, and attempt to prevent delinquent members from dropping out.
• Be responsible for membership development and for encouraging membership upgrading.

Honors and Awards Director

• Recommend to the Council for special recognition, including the Engineer of the Year awards and Certificates of Appreciation, any members who have performed outstanding work for the Section.
• Submit to the Council the names of Section members who would be outstanding candidates for the annual Institute awards.
• Upon approval by the Council, aid in the preparation of the candidate's nomination forms and ensure that the nomination is submitted to the Institute in a timely manner.
• Upon request by the Institute or when circumstances warrant it, recommend to the Council any Section members who merit nomination for any Institute office.

Public Policy Director

• Promote the objectives of the Section and the Institute within the general area of public policy and public affairs.
• Monitor national developments in this area and organize timely and appropriate Section responses to them.
• Inform the public of contributions made by engineers and scientists in Institute-related disciplines to the solution of current societal problems.
• Encourage the use of expertise within the Section membership in the solution of local and regional problems.
• Where appropriate, conduct these activities in concert with other professional societies.
• No statements within the Section shall be construed as encouraging or authorizing lobbying or any other activity not in consonance with the objectives or the Institute.

It's Alive!

A New Medium
Silicon Valley. We sit in the middle of it. That is, the AIAA San Francisco Section sits in the middle of some of the most innovative computing technology in the world. Every so often, we need to sample some of the tools that come out of the valley and other computing technology centers. If nothing else, we're in a good position to try things out and get it critiqued.

So it is with this blog. We haven't really tried blogging yet, although our parent organization seems to have done a little of it. (Examples: the 2008 Aerospace Sciences Meeting, the Space 2007 Conference.)

We welcome comments from members and our friends.

About Us
To learn more about the AIAA San Francisco Section:

• AIAA national website
• AIAA San Francisco Section website