It’s actually pretty easy to spot engineers who will go beyond engineering and into an adjacent field like management/entrepreneurship/sales/etc. They are NOT sitting at the lunch table. They are out to lunch, with their network.

The great book and sage advice: Never Eat Lunch Alone, contains much good advice, but its title is the best advice of all for engineers on the move.

Why? 3 simple reasons.

1. Engineers MUST get beyond the computer screen and into the wild if they are to learn the socialization skills required to be businessmen. Incidentally, this IS something that I learned to be truth while at U.T. MBA school… antisocial types don’t make very good businessmen.

2. Engineers NEED to make friends outside the engineering department. Going to lunch (especially with those not at your company, or even better, not in engineering) is a good way to do that.

3. For anyone, not just engineers, having a good network of friends and colleagues is the only way to really keep job security. Your next job is VERY likely to come as a result of that network. (Incidentally, thanks to my friends/network for helping me with this task right now!).

Now, back to my Google Calendar… I’ve got lunch meetings almost every day next week!