There's no magic bullet

There’s no magic bullet. The magic bullet is the marketing strategy for appealing to the desire for one easy solution.

Many of us try to look for that one thing to make us successful…  When we meet and try to learn from high-performing people, it is easy to try to figure out the one thing they did:

• What is one thing you would do differently if you were getting your first job again?
• What is one thing I can do to be more productive?
• If I can do [verb], then I will be great in [worthwhile endeavor].

In reality, high-performers do not do just one thing. They spend years sculpting and refining a collection of habits that work for them. They also spend a lot of time learning from mistakes: their own and others. It takes a lot of hard work and a lot mistakes. It’s simple to say, hard to do.

By embracing the opportunities at IRE, students are able to make and improve from many mistakes that most graduates make at their first job. The result is a group of college graduates that have the habits of someone who has already started their career. These students are able to bring much more value to their companies. IRE students are constantly improving in many different habits and skills, including:

• Managing projects and tasks
• Successfully sharing responsibility and resolving conflicts in a team
• Acquiring new technical knowledge and skills in a short amount of time
• Making ethical decisions everyday
• Practicing effective written, spoken, and graphical communication
• Designing engineering systems
• Etc.

As I complete my final semester at IRE, I can confidently say that I feel well prepared to start my profession as an engineer. IRE provided an environment where I had the freedom to make and grow from countless mistakes. As a result, I was able to build a strong foundation of habits that will continue to expand along side my career.

There’s no magic bullet. I have known this simple truth for a long time, but it took many more years to fully accept it. I finally stopped looking.

Proofread by: W. Tycer

Written by: E. Diep