ASME member Kok B. Chang was lucky enough to have two mentors — a graduate school professor and the owner of the first company that hired him out of college — to help him navigate his career course after graduation.
Inspired by their generosity of spirit and the positive effect their advice had on his engineering career, Chang decided to follow their lead and become a mentor himself through ASME’s E-Mentoring Program.
“It was their selflessness and generosity that motivated me to sign up” to be an E-Mentor, said Chang, who is a senior project engineer at Taylor Forge Engineered Systems in Paola, Kan. “I believe in nurturing the next generation of engineers and encourage them to pass on their learned knowledge to the next generation. I am very grateful and lucky to have two mentors in my career. They took me under their wings and guided me through college and career.” In fact, Chang said, “my mentors and I are still very much in contact, visiting each other occasionally.”
ASME has more than 800 mentors like Chang who are waiting to help guide students and early career engineers via the Society’s E-Mentoring initiative. Participants in the program, which is open exclusively to ASME members, can ask career questions, get a perspective on the day-to-day issues they face in the workplace, learn about different career options, and more. An E-Mentor also can help with the transition from college to the workplace or when changing engineering fields.
Another E-Mentor, Lubomir A. Ribarov, added that taking part in the program benefits the mentor as well as the mentee. “Through these informal discussions, students and young engineers can gain a better understanding of their future career plans, continued education, and professional service to ASME and to the mechanical engineering profession,” said Ribarov, a senior research engineer at Hamilton Sundstrand in Windsor Lock, Conn. “For the more experienced engineers, E-Mentoring provides the connection with the younger generation, keeps them informed of the latest academic innovations that these young professionals bring to engineering, and expands their professional network. It is a rich two-way learning process.”
In addition, a mentor can help new engineers find an engineering career path they can feel passionate about, according to Chang. “Many entry-level engineers work too long in jobs in which they are not crazy about, and it’s agonizing to have to go to work for 9-10 hours a day that way,” said Chang, who has mentored six early career engineers in his five years with the program. “It’s either the pay is good, it’s close to home, there’s nowhere else to go, etc., that caused them to stay on. Talking to a mentor can give a new and exciting perspective about what an engineering career can be.”
Young engineers may also get advice on other important questions young engineers may have — such as whether they should take the P.E. licensing examination or try for an M.B.A or a master’s in engineering while they’re working — from their E-Mentor, he said.
Members who are interested in finding an E-Mentor simply need to go to the program’s sign-in page on ASME.ORG — https://secure.asme.org/signin/ementoring.cfm — and take a look at the various mentor biographies in the E-Mentor database, or search for an E-Mentor by industry or location. E-Mentors in the program represent a wide range of companies and organizations, including Abbott Labs, Boeing, Caterpillar, Cessna Aircraft, Duke Power, Entergy Nuclear, IBM, Lockheed Martin, UPS, Procter and Gamble, the Smithsonian Institute, Sunoco and TRANE. Candidates then submit an application form, specifying up to three mentors who best fit their career interests. ASME will confirm your membership status and the matching process will begin. Mentors and mentees will be notified by e-mail when their match has been made.
Ribarov, who became an ASME E-Mentor last year, has nothing but praise for the program. “It is delightful to be able to offer my experience, both academic and industrial, advice, and encouragement to these young engineering professionals,” he said. “I believe the ASME E-Mentoring Program is ideally positioned to bridge the gap between the academic and the ‘real’ industrial worlds.”
To find out more about the ASME E-Mentoring Program, visit www.asme.org/Jobs/Mentoring/Ementoring_Early_Career.cfm, or contact Noel Netel, ASME E-Mentoring Program Coordinator, at neteln@asme.org.
—Benedict Bahner