Badger Crossroads

Engineering Studies, Careers, and Transitions

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Geothermal Insights Series

October 15, 2017 /

A while back leading up to our big U.S. geothermal conference I was asked to write a series of LinkedIn articles regarding the industry. It seemed useful to construct this in sort of a past/present/future perspective; to step back from the day-to-day and try to identify trends over a longer term of several decades. The links are provided below.

If geothermal isn’t your thing – perhaps you are into wave power, biomass, solar, wind etc etc, and kudos regardless to you – it still might be worth posing yourself similar questions regarding the technology that has your primary focus. For a young engineer, it would be useful to identify trends to confirm your field has current and sustained appeal for your priorities. So, give this series a read if so inclined.

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Support Your Folks in the Field; You Might Be One

August 16, 2017 /

There is a lot written about how to prioritize your work tasks. Everyone tries to develop a matrix where we sort the urgent and the non-urgent; the important versus the unimportant. We may try to avoid or fall into the trap of “last come, first served” to the cubicle. We have a host of lists and tools to organize our day. There is a steady stream of emails, Outlook Calendar reminders, people at the coffee machine, etc. It is hard being white collar.

Now here is a very simple algorithm for deciding which tasks should leapfrog which, in your office work as an engineer: supporting your people in the field is the top priority.

Prize: figure everything out while sweating in 40 deg C on 2 hours of sleep

How does this make for a reasonable principle?

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Approaching Donor-Advised Funds – Change Your Perspective

August 8, 2017 /

Several years ago I had come across Donor-Advised Funds (DAF) as one avenue to do charitable giving in the mid/late career phase. It occurred to me that the mechanics of a DAF can be configured to parallel in many respects the aims of people like me that try to center their own lives and ideally their communities around sustainable trajectories. There are some tactics to alter how we might value setting up a DAF that might encourage more people to follow this path. I may have approached my DAF differently if I had learned about some strategies sooner, perhaps even as early as 5-10 years before implementing one. For those of you in high tax brackets and still with a healthy set of deductions to itemize, a DAF can be especially advantageous. So if it helps, here are several considerations to ponder well in advance.

Think several moves ahead

 

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Factors in Considering Postgraduate Degree Timing

July 23, 2017 /

This post is intended to describe some considerations for deciding when to go on for postgraduate education, facing two options:

(a) immediately after a bachelor’s

(b) working for some time, then going back for a master’s

In some countries or fields of study, the option to defer postgraduate education really isn’t applicable; one has to plow through school continuously to get it before one is able to practice. However in the U.S. in engineering, timing is definitely an option, so for those folks here are some factors to consider. One centers around tea.

This is my favorite tea. Sometimes

Let’s consider several factors:

  1. Focus
  2. Finances
  3. Respite

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