Tips to remain confident at work without appearing arrogant

To be a full-fledged engineer is a feat achieved only by a select few. Being a certified engineer entails continuous dedication, persistence and tenacity, on top of limitless creativity, imagination and ambition. As such, engineers take much pride in their profession.

Many engineers exude a “can-do” attitude, swag if you may, which they bring with them everywhere they go – including their place of work. Years of intensive education and myriad surmounted adversities have armed engineers with the confidence that they hold the solution to any perceivable problem. At times, however, this beaming confidence can come off as arrogance, especially on the part of their non-engineer peers or line managers.

Being confident is an essential trait of employees, because it is one of the factors that drive their performance at work. On the other hand, being arrogant is frowned upon, and is usually the quality that rubs other employees or a company’s management the wrong way. There is a sea of gap between confidence and arrogance, and in an office setting, where perception can spell the difference between career advancement and stagnation, engineers better walk on the right side of that gap.

Here are some tips to be confident at work without appearing as arrogant:

1. Never fake it

Some people swear by the adage ‘fake it till you make it’. Well, we say that it is a trap.
Engineers who are trying to fake confidence at work are the ones who often come across as arrogant, because what they show is not what real confidence looks like. For example, they will raise their voice in a meeting, because that’s what they think confident people do. Or they will want to push their opinions and choices despite contrary empirical data, because they think confident people ought to make a grand stand.

As engineers, you no longer need to fake confidence to impress people at work. You already have it. It will come out in the way you think, express your thoughts, or present your designs or engineering solutions. You do not have to fit the mold of whatever you imagine confident people to be, because as an engineer you have an air of confidence that is uniquely, naturally yours.

2. Recognize that you are not the best in everything

Engineers, with their natural talents and educational formation, have the ability to invent or derive solutions to many challenges. They have the facility to come up with innovative methods of doing things faster and better.

To say that engineers are important members of any company’s workforce is the understatement of the century. They oftentimes hold the most crucial positions in any company! For example, in a manufacturing firm, product development engineers play the biggest role in turning concepts into products that people actually buy and use. Electrical engineers, on the other hand, make sure that facilities have enough electricity to continue manufacturing and achieving production and delivery targets.

But sometimes, no matter how good engineers are, they have to take a step back and let their colleagues shine in certain situations. Some engineers have to learn to recognize their limitations and acknowledge the capability of others.

Engineers have to understand that conceding the stage to other employees does not, in any way, diminish his experience, value or talents. Confident engineers see their colleagues as collaborators and, as such, are always ready to see the best in them. Confident engineers do not regard their co-employees as competitors in a race but as teammates in a relay towards achieving their company’s goals.

3. Embrace vulnerability

Confident engineers do not resist vulnerability. Engineers who are truly confident in themselves admit to their mistakes, acknowledge their accountability and welcome responsibility.

Being confident is not tantamount to being perfect. In fact, confidence is the foundation that makes it okay for engineers to drop the ball a few times and still know that they will be fine. Confident engineers do not put the blame on others or on the system to save themselves from a predicament. Confident engineers trust themselves that no matter how challenging a situation is, they can resolve it and emerge as better, stronger people.

Our engineers, as our other employees, take pride in their contribution to bringing reliable electricity to key parts of the world. They are guided by our shared principles of integrity, respect and tolerance, trust, professionalism, competence and commitment to excellence. For more information on our company, services and values: http://www.altaaqaglobal.com/about-us/about-altaaqa-global


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How Mentorship Can Be Valuable to One’s Engineering Career

Mentorship is a two-way street, where the mentor engineers reap as much benefit as their protégés

Engineers spend years learning the fundamentals and complexities of their craft. They strive to amass knowledge to become experts in their fields and productive in their jobs. Unfortunately, not all engineers are able to apply the majority of what they have learned in their present functions. Most engineers find themselves in jobs that only require a fraction of what they actually know. Owing to this, a significant part of their knowledge becomes unutilized or forgotten, and learning opportunities start to slow down and eventually cease.

Many companies that employ engineers, like manufacturing firms Concepcion Industries or the National Steel Corporation in the Philippines, recognize that one of the foremost motivators of engineers is the prospect of continuous learning. Be it through continuing professional development (CPD) courses or industry-specific seminars and conferences, engineers welcome opportunities to acquire additional knowledge or share their expertise. In line with this, many companies are nowadays discovering the benefits of mentorship, not only to the protégés but also to the mentor engineers.

Mentorship allows experienced engineers to take apprentices under their tutelage, imparting the same knowledge and skills that allowed them to scale the heights of their careers. Through mentorship, protégé engineers can learn about best practices in engineering design, project management and equipment operation & maintenance. They can also learn about professionalism and company culture, which can come handy once they embark on their own engineering careers.

A good illustration of this is Altaaqa Global’s Customer Development Program in Cameroon, where the company mentored the local engineers and technicians. The locals were intensively taught theories on modern engineering best practices and were allowed to assume key roles at the company’s power plant sites. They were also given complete access to on-line learning platforms so they can study or review at their convenience.

As of today, the local engineers and technicians are already operating their city’s power plants and are helping deliver electricity to more than 2,500,000 residents and businesses in their country.

As stated above, mentorship is a two-way street, and the mentor engineers reap as much benefit from it as the mentees. For example, through mentoring budding engineers, more experienced engineers can activate the knowledge and skills that they don’t usually apply at work. They are able to brush up on their skills in essential subjects like Physics, Calculus and Trigonometry and refresh their memory of vital engineering formulas. At times, they also learn from their mentees’ innovative thinking, fresh approaches to old problems and knowledge of updated technologies.

Mentorship also allows both parties to expand their professional networks. Mentors and protégés can introduce each other to their respective networks of engineers or groups of engineering professionals. This can prove beneficial in gaining access to more learning opportunities in the form of industry events and educational seminars, or even to progressive career opportunities.

Mentoring also develops leadership, communication and supervisory skills on the part of the experienced engineers. As technically inclined professionals, most engineers find transitioning to management roles challenging because of the deficiency in key communication and people skills. Mentorship partially bridges this gap by exposing seasoned engineers to select functions relating to people management.

Have you ever tried taking an apprentice under your wings? Tell us your experience.


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Altaaqa Global
Tel: +971 56 1749505
jsanchez@altaaqaglobal.com