Last year I published a post (link here) where I broke down the major skill categories I need as a mechanical engineer. I then proceeded to evaluate myself in each of those categories. The goal was to stir my critical thinking and help me focus my improvement efforts. Last year was actually the second time that I evaluated myself in this manner. Year three makes it a personal tradition.
If you didn’t read the previous post – the 10 meta skill categories I decided on were: learning, design, analysis, prototyping, testing, communication, documentation, time management, teamwork, and business skills. Just about everything that I do falls primarily under one of these categories. Each of these has a large number of sub skills that I am mentally nesting underneath them. Maybe someday I will get more specific, but right now this is good enough.
For each category, I’m going to evaluate three numbers: how critical is it to project success, what percent of time do I do this, and how good am I currently. The importance is based on how much it affects the success of my projects at work. Percentage of time is just an educated guess and not from any record keeping. My strength in the skill group is a self assessment that I did on a couple of different days. This isn’t very objective, and I don’t expect to be able to track my “progress” over time. Lack of precision not withstanding, I think it is still useful. Without further ado:
| How Important | % of Time | Strength | Composite Score | |
| Learning/Researching | High = 3 | 10% | Strong = 1 | .3 |
| Design | High = 3 | 20% | Strong = 1 | .6 |
| Analysis | Med = 2 | 10% | Medium = 2 | .4 |
| Prototyping | Med/High = 2.5 | 8% | Strong/Med = 1.5 | .3 |
| Testing | Med = 2 | 5% | Weak = 3 | .3 |
| Communication | High = 3 | 15% | Strong = 1 | .45 |
| Documentation | Med = 2 | 10% | Strong/Med = 1.5 | .3 |
| Time Management | Critical = 4 | 5% | Strong/Med = 1.5 | .3 |
| Teamwork | Critical = 4 | 15% | Strong = 1 | .6 |
| Business Skills | Low/Med = 1.5 | 2% | Weak = 3 | .09 |
The numbers were chosen so that I could multiply everything together and come up with a composite score. Something that is very important, that I do regularly, and that I currently stink at would be my highest improvement priority. Something that is unimportant, that I rarely do, and that I am awesome at (air guitar comes to mind) would be the lowest improvement priority.
Below are my insights and goals that come from this exercise:
- I said this last year, but it is important to point out – I rank myself strongest in the categories I think are most important. Let’s acknowledge that there is some cognitive bias staring me in the face right there. I hope the rankings are true; I want to be best at what matters most. However, numbers that make me feel better about myself might be covering up some other truths.
- There are a few ways to parse the numbers. The composite score would suggest that I focus on improving my Design and my Teamwork. I like the composite score approach (which is why I made it in the first place), but there are other ways to improve. Fix weakness focus = Testing and Business Skills. Magnify strengths focus = Learning, Design, Communication, and Teamwork.
- Since these are “skill groups” the way I improve is by actually focusing on a component skill within that group. I have a running list of “improvement ideas” that currently has about 40 items on it. Random stuff like “make design checklists” or “gain proficiency with Raspberry Pi”. Funny enough, I didn’t have any improvement ideas that fit the teamwork category. That is sticking in my brain. Why is something that I rate as so important, something that I don’t know how to improve? Because of this I have decided to focus my improvement efforts for the next few months on improving at teamwork. It seems like fruitful and under explored territory, just the kind of place I want to focus.
- Last year I wondered if I should keep business skills as a category since it scores so low in every way that I rank it. I’ve decided that I am definitely keeping it. Owning a business is a personal dream and understanding how businesses work is a skill that impacts my long term career trajectory (10-20 years).
This exercise is no Rosetta Stone to personal growth success. This is a snapshot in time after all. Everything I need to be successful is variable from project to project. Squishing my entire work experience into 30 numbers leaves out a lot of detail. I hope I don’t sound like I am repeating caveat after caveat. I’m just trying to keep myself grounded. I did not just figure out how to become Superman. What I did was decide what gadgets Batman wants to build next.