Engineering has always intrigued the world at large, be its accurate approach or its scientific fabric, or even its execution of very large-scale projects that seem impossible to the eye. It is civil engineering of sorts that took the world by storm. The pyramids of Egypt or the temples of ancient India or the huge theatres of Greece are evidence enough that the world 5000 years ago was not rustic. It was in fact far better equipped to handle mammoth and unimaginably huge structures which the modern world can’t imagine creating today. Take the Kailasa temple for example.

What then led to such huge construction scales? It was precisely the understanding of Mathematical abilities along with the knowledge of engineering that created such wonders.

We must understand that everything that we call modern is an outcome of somebody working day and night in a dingy room a century back because some idea had him or her craving something. Anything specific, anything measurable was constantly the curiosity of these people who never stopped at failure. In fact, a failure was reason enough to delve deeper and with greater resolve, hence today we rest with technologies that cater to our needs and which are a mere improvisation over what was created yesterday, hence our sincere thanks to the past, we have built on them.

That is exactly what we call a goal that is specific. Where the idea needs to be finally converted into something tangible irrespective of how many times one fails. The specificity is a direct outcome of a curiosity or a motivation to create which finally leads to its being measurable.

Edison inventing the electric bulb is a fine example of how specificity works. One thousand trials and one thousand failures were not enough for him to lose grip on his beliefs. He continued adding up on each failure and with that came success finally.

Measurables will always help the engineer to solidify the good ground he treads. His coping with thousands of hypotheses will take him closer to that one specific measuring with every step, which otherwise would lead him nowhere.

Similarly, Achievable, would be those filtered fragments of specificity and measurability that are leading him one step closer to his goal. He will finally only build on those that have worked and which he can quantify as being created and kept aside for amalgamation into the success series.

When the realistic picture greets him, he knows exactly why he is trying to create what he is working on. The end result should be a perfect fit into the theory that actually made him curious. He cannot substantiate or create an alter reality because if he does that it might not lead him to a completely unwanted reality. Though there have been great people who never had a plan B but got it just because their realties while moving upward got altered. Though this may not be an ideal situation but this too stays whether one likes it or not. Hence, a very realistic and transparent reality sure helps in reaching a desired goal.

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Time as a dimension and as a measure of success maybe a morbid idea when creativity is taking place and catching momentum, this would definitely prove a deterrent to free-flowing ideas and experiments, but then an already created platform may demand from the engineer adherence to the same.

Time is relative these days directly to the overall cost of the project hence it cannot be ignored. The engineer needs to adhere to them equally and position them as one of his top priorities. This may not be true for research-based projects where there are freewheeling experimentations and one can go on and on without bothering about costs and time lines.

Industry and human needs have recurringly driven production for mass usage. Times now demand very surgical business and production cycles so that there are no cost overruns and there is hardly anytime for the SMART ENGINEER to work on these specifics. Nevertheless, a macro look at these parameters would certainly help young engineers to differentiate between where they are going personally vis-a-vis professionally. This would keep them balanced and open to understanding what is right and what may or may not be true to professional ethics today.
Apart from the above an engineer has to have problem solving skills, logical thinking, mathematical ability, communication skills and team working skills.

In short SMART goals for an engineer should suffice very early in his career and they should be able to guide him through the very subtle ups and downs of the profession. He is bound to be successful if he doesn’t compromise.

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