The Future as Compliance Engineers

For most with an affinity to compliance engineering, little time is spent on thinking about our future. Too often we get caught up in details of our daily work without considering exciting opportunities on the horizon. There are several items one must recognize in order to be successful in the future.

1. Open our minds to a new way of thinking. There is usually more than one way to solve a problem. Creativity is a wonderful thing. Using the “not-invented-here” syndrome or being adamant about your way is the only way may cause more problems than you can imagine. Remember, there will always be someone who knows more than you and is willing to give advice.
2. Embrace advances in technology with high levels of enthusiasm. Doing the same thing over and over can become boring. Look to advances in technology as opportunities to have fun, even if it means spending long hours to understand something that you have never had exposure to.
3. Minimize use of electricity and the need to build more power plants. The world has a voracious appetite for electricity and there is a finite number of power generating plants with an aging transmission line infrastructure. By designing energy efficient products, we will be able to conserve our electrical power for a world dependent on electronic products and services.
4. Specializing within electrical engineering hinders our ability of being a solid designer. We must understand other areas of engineering such as material science, physics and thermodynamics. Senior engineers must also learn about other facets of the engineering discipline such as computational analysis. Advances in technology means that things that we use to take for granted now play a critical role in system design and cannot be ignored.
5. Being able to work with fellow engineers with different specialties, such as speaking their language or understanding their unique talents and ways of doing design and development is becoming critical. Many companies have offices all over the world. Cultural differences and language may cause problems when things need to get done quickly.
6. Joining professional Societies with intent of advanced or continued education and networking. This is a key element to being a successful engineer, especially with technology yet to be invented. Professional societies host conferences and produce technical publications. Social networking is a great way to not only ask but receive help should a difficult problem arise and there is no easy answer. There is always someone with higher levels of knowledge with answers to questions and enjoys publishing or presenting their knowledge.

What EMC engineers face now will surely be the same in the future, except that the level of complexity will increase significantly. What is critical for success in the future is continuing education and networking, remembering the
six points above.

Mark I. Montrose is an EMC consultant with Montrose Compliance Services, Inc. having 30 years of applied EMC experience. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the IEEE (Division VI Director) and is a long term past member of the IEEE EMC Society Board of Directors as well as Champion and first President of the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society. He provides professional consulting and training seminars worldwide and can be reached at mark@montrosecompliance.com.