A big part of both engineering and leadership is the ability to make timely, well-thought-out decisions. I think the ability to make a choice and stick with it makes the difference between an effective engineer, and a poor one. If you can’t make the decision to take the next step, you’ll always be on step one, which won’t get you anywhere.

Photo Credit: SodanieChea

Big Career Decisions

My ability to make decisions was tested in a big way recently, and I wanted to share this experience with you. My hope is that you can glean something from the approach I took and use elements of it for your own big decisions.

Today, I’ll give you part 1 and discuss first steps when you’ve got a big decision to make. In the next part, I’ll walk you through what I do to sift through this information and how I make a final decision.

I’d Like You to Go To South America

It was last Friday morning and I was making my way to my cubicle after dropping off some paperwork to a colleague. I ran into my manager on the way and he asked me to step into his office. I stepped in and he closed the door behind me. Then, he popped the question. No, not  that question. He asked if I would be willing to go to South America for 3-6 months. My job would be to help the production folks at a manufacturing facility to build the first few units of a major order. The idea being that if an engineer is on site, it’ll be easier to troubleshoot any issues that come up.

Holy cow. One minute I’m stapling a bill of materials document, the next I’m being asked to pack my bags for another hemisphere. Cool.

Questions and Answers

I was (and still am) a mixture of surprised, excited, honoured,  and anxious. I’ve done a ton of site work before, but I’ve never left Canada to do it. I’ve also never been any further south than Florida, so this would be a totally new experience for me on all fronts. New experiences for young engineers = good times.

As you might imagine, I had a slew of questions about this. When would I need to leave? When would I come back? How would my current projects be affected? Can I make trips home? Can my wife come with me? Is it safe down there? What will I pay for? Will I work overtime? Will I need to learn the local language? How will this benefit or hurt my career? How will this benefit or hurt my family? Et cetera, et cetera.

Before I could offer any kind of rational response to this offer, I had to set up a bit of a procedure for myself. Like a complex design with numerous variables, you’ve got to be methodical about this kind of decision.

Step 1. – Have a Chat With My Wife

Step one for me was to talk with my wife. I believe strongly that family is of the utmost importance, and that any decision that could impact the time that we normally spend together should be made in concert with her. My being away for months at a time will definitely put a strain on our relationship and put additional pressures on her to maintain our home and go on with day-to-day life without my help. That’s a big deal to me, and I wanted to make sure I understood her thoughts and concerns so that we could a) decide if I should even consider going in the first place, and b) if I do go, how to make sure we keep our marriage as strong as possible.

I would recommend that even unmarried and single people go through this step. Think about your relationships (significant others, friends, siblings, parents, etc.) and who depends on you. How will you being away affect those relationships? Can you deal with those effects? Can you find ways to mitigate against the damage that being away will inflict?

The point here is not that you shouldn’t leave on a business trip if you’re attached. Rather, the point I’m trying to make is that you need to understand that being away will affect your personal relationships. You need to be prepared for that, and to make sure that the other people affected by the potential move are kept in the know. In my case, my relationship with my wife is the most important thing in my life, so I’m treating it that way.

 Step 2. – Make a List of Questions

With any big decision comes the possibility for big change. No doubt you’ll have a hundred questions swirling around in your head about how that change will look.  Write down all your questions so you can keep track of them. It’ll take time before you’re confident you’ve taken everything into consideration.

One exercise I like to go through is to play two situations out in my head; how does my life in South America Look, and how does life at home without me look? Visualize it and try and pick out things that aren’t certainties. For example, in imagining my commute from my apartment to the factory, I realized I didn’t know whether I’d have a vehicle at my disposal. Did I even need one? Who would pay for it? How would I get insured? Once you get going, this can be a very helpful exercise.

Step 3. – Talk to People Who Have the Answers

This is critical. There are some things you can answer on your own (i.e. what’s the weather like in South America in September?), but most of them will require input from others. Ask your boss for details, and ask your colleagues for their previous experiences. You’ll glean a lot from those who have gone before you. I would also urge you to get answers from more than one person – you don’t want one person’s strange/ exceptional experience to overly influence your impressions.

Most importantly, ask these people what they would ask if they were in your shoes. Their experiences will give them insights into things you would never think of.

Part 2

I’ll present the next steps in a subsequent post so I can keep things manageable for the time being. Stay tuned!