The Impactful Engineer Project - Mentorship, Career Growth, and Personal & Professional Excellence for Aspiring Engineers

You don’t know which doors you’ll need to open—until they’re locked in your face. And when that moment comes, it’s too damn late to wish you had started building your network.

This episode isn’t about “networking.” It’s about regret-proofing your career.

Jake and Steve break down the truth engineers don’t hear enough: the relationships you build today are the skeleton key for tomorrow’s opportunity.

Not theory—practical, tactical advi...

In this episode, Jake and Steve break down a real-world story of a promising project derailed by ego-driven leadership—and how it quietly destroyed the motivation of a high-performing engineering team. If you've ever worked under someone who needed to be the smartest in the room, this one will hit home.
Not theory—practical, tactical advice.

Key Topics Covered:
 • How ego can quietly destroy team culture from the top do...

In this episode, Jake and Steve break down the core traits that separate engineers who accelerate teams from those who quietly stall progress. This is a raw, practical conversation about how ego shows up in engineering—and how to replace it with real influence, clear communication, and team-building behaviors that actually get noticed.

Not theory—practical, tactical advice from engineers who’ve been there.

Key topics covered:
• ...

This one’s for every engineer who’s ever been told to “speak up more” without being given a blueprint.

David Hall—author of Minding Your Time and host of The Quiet and Strong Podcast—joins us to dismantle the noise around introversion in the workplace. He’s not here with theory. This is tactical, field-tested insight for deep thinkers who want to lead without pretending to be extroverts.

We go deep into how to use your internal proce...

Episode 108: Guest Mark Smith - Fired, Hired, and Thriving — Real Lessons from the Early Career Shitshow

Your first engineering job might suck. It might burn you out, betray your expectations, or end with you getting fired. That’s not a failure—it’s training. In this episode, we sit down with Mark Smith, founder of Bothwell Engineering, to unpack the early career war stories that shape who you become. From getting let go in his firs...

Episode 107: Learn the Game: Systems, Strategy, and the Equity You’re Missing

In this no-BS breakdown, Jake and Steve dive deep into what separates high performers from invisible ICs. It's not just about doing the work—it's about building value that compounds over time. From turning templates into leverage, to earning internal loyalty and external referrals, this episode shows you how to play the long game in engineering.<...

Episode 106: Guest Aaron Moncur - If You’re Not Building Energy, You’re Dying at Your Desk

Guest: Aaron Moncur, Founder of Pipeline Design & Engineering

In this episode of The Impactful Engineer Podcast, Jake and Steve sit down with Aaron Moncur—founder of Pipeline Design & Engineering and host of The Being an Engineer podcast—to talk about the career factor too many engineers ignore: energy.

Not caffeine. Not motiva...

Episode 105: You’re Good at Your Job. Here’s Why That’s Not Enough

In this episode of The Impactful Engineer Podcast, Jake and Steve go deep on the real career tactics that separate average engineers from top performers. No guests. No fluff. Just two seasoned professionals pulling back the curtain on what actually moves the needle—especially early in your career.

From learning to advocate for yourself to mastering meetings and buildi...

Episode 104: Your Habits Are the Ceiling on Your Career

In this episode of The Impactful Engineer Podcast, Jake and Steve revisit one of the most important drivers of long-term success: your habits. Whether you’re trying to move up in your role, communicate more confidently, or just feel better every day—this conversation digs into how your lifestyle directly impacts your career as an engineer.

From fitness and nutrition to cluttered...

Episode 103: Your Habits Are the Ceiling on Your Career

In this episode of The Impactful Engineer Podcast, Jake and Steve dive deep into the daily habits that separate high-performing engineers from the rest. Technical skill might get your foot in the door, but it’s your personal systems—your sleep, your diet, your routines, your communication style—that determine whether you level up or burn out.

This conversation explores how simpl...

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Let's dive in!

The Impactful Engineering Project's purpose is to bring awareness, access, success, and mentorship to all new and aspiring engineers. But it doesn't stop there. What we talk about on this podcast applies to seasoned engineers as well. 

The community that will be built from this project has the potentia...

You do not want to miss this episode with our guest Salvatore Manzi. Expert coach, expert communicator. Hugely valuable insight into the world of communicating your expertise to others in a way that sets you apart and helps you in your career more than any other skill. 

I guarantee you will walk away with something useful to apply to your every day communications as an engineer. 

He also has a book launch in June (ish), of his first ...

...Let me ask you this. Going through university, did you ever think, "I shouldn't have picked this"? Since it wasn't your natural state to be building Legos, taking things apart, and figuring out how they work, did that thought ever cross your mind?

Absolutely. I had my eye on the prize: get the degree and start working in the field. College is an experience, to put it lightly. About halfway through, I looked up...

...Three weeks? Perfect. I had three and a half. I actually had about two months, because we still had to order the material and wait for delivery.

I easily could have said, because I’m a high achiever and didn’t want to upset anyone on the call, "No problem, we’ll get it done next week." But that’s exactly the trap. Avoiding the hard conversation — or even these mini conversations — is a huge mistake. I want to bring awar...

...There's this quote that I have been kind of living with this week because I really liked it. And of course it's from Marcus Aurelius, the stoic—you know, that it just is what it is. I love the way they think. But it says:

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

And what that means, of course, is that the thing in front of you that you think is an obstacle or perceive as an obst...

Even as high performers, we do get critical feedback. Sometimes this feedback can really dig into our egos. And if we aren't careful, it can push us to an emotional response that is going to hurt more than help our situation. Today, I want to quickly cover the do's and don'ts of getting critical feedback.

First, let's talk about the don'ts.

• Don’t react defensively. Avoid responding with immediate justific...

...Exactly. And even in emails now, I’ll start off with one bolded sentence that’s basically, “Here’s what this whole thing is about,” and then the rest is detail. Because I don’t expect everybody to read the whole thing. But I want to make sure they get the point...

 ...It's respect and it's clarity. It shows that you’ve thought through what you’re asking or delivering. If I get an email that’s just a brain dump, I think,...

...Someone once told me: "You need to be valuable. If you're not valuable, you're not going anywhere." That stuck with me. So I told myself I wanted to be cross-trained. If there’s no work in one area, I should have the skills for another. I told my supervisors, “I’m doing project engineering, but I want to learn superintendent work. And when I did that, I said, ‘Now I want to know how to be a project manager.’”

...

...So it was basically the person doing a loop around the office. Meeting time, meeting time, meeting time, meeting time, you, you. And then we'd all get in the thing. It's like, holy shit, okay. And then we would show up in the meeting room, big old table. We're all around it. And then the person would proceed to tell us, why don’t you guys have drawings? Does anybody come prepared to meetings? Literally. I am not e...