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

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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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...

... So I said, what is the most Googled search: how to find career success? You know, because that's kind of what we like to talk about. And so what do most people search about when they're looking for that? So it says according to available information:

"The most common Google search related to finding career success is likely how to find a fulfilling career or variations like how to find a career that you love as it...

...but today? Not normal.

I put together a list of quotes from people we listen to, respect, or at least keep an eye on. We’re gonna break them down, figure out what they mean for high performers—not saying we are, but, you know...

Yeah, they’re going to be good.

All right, let’s start by lifting people up with this one...

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....Most people think, “Yeah, I’m an awesome engineer. I get all my stuff done on time. I make the margins I’m supposed to. All the deliverables are complete, etc., etc.”

Yeah, five people in my 360 review out of 30 said I had exceptional skills in something. Stuff like that.

Exactly. And they’re like, “You know what? I’m awesome. I’m exceeding expectations. I’m a rock star.” Guess what? No, you’re not. You’re just meeting expectatio...

Chris Jasinski is with HGA (full service architecture, interior design, landscape architecture). He is a business development professional and we get into some great discussion on breaking some mindsets, but more importantly, talking the ACE Mentorship Program. We break it down and give you insights into the program from the perspective of a mentor and local RI chapter ACE board member. 

The ACE Mentroship Program has a mission that...

Most people track the wrong stuff. Let's start tracking the right stuff, doing more of what matters, and reach those goals without even tracking the output.

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The Impactful Engineering Project's purpose is to bring awareness, access, success, and mentorship to all new and aspiring engineers. But it doesn...

In this episode, we sit down with Dominic Michaud ing. M.Sc, the visionary founder of SDM Consultants. Together, we explore his journey—from humble beginnings to achieving technical mastery, and eventually, taking the leap into entrepreneurship. Dominic shares how "learning how humans work" became the cornerstone of his success, allowing him to strategically partner with someone who brought deep construction and equipment...

Let's talk a little bit about how our habits are stabbing us in the back and how we will see the way forward much faster by breaking them if they don't serve us. Your great habits could holding you back, especially this one. 

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The Impactful Engineering Project's purpose is to bring awareness, acces...

This is a short presentation I gave to the team at work to stir up some thoughts around delegation and challenge those thoughts that don't serve us. This is a solid reminder of the power of delegation and why you should consider it as an excellent tool, but also as a necessary growth lever as well.

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The Impa...