Stop Waiting for Your Career to Happen: The Junior Engineer's Guide to Taking Control | Career Pathways Part 2
From Passive Observer to Active Explorer
When I was a young engineer, I didn’t think much about career pathways. I was learning, happy with my job, and assumed my path was fixed. I thought, just do good work and the rest will follow. Six years passed on the same project. I was uninspired, bored, and wondering if this was it. That’s the danger of being passive, when the years slip by while opportunities pass unnoticed.
Your career won’t build itself. If you don’t take the initiative, you might miss the very chances that could give you visibility, development, and your next promotion. Managers can’t read your mind. Sometimes they can’t offer career guidance at all. That’s why you need to be curious, proactive, and take ownership.
Breaking Through the Career Visibility Barrier
Back then when I was first starting out, I naively thought that senior engineers just sat in meetings, passed down tasks and call it a day. From where we stood, it looked like that was the job. But when I finally got a seat at those tables, I saw the hidden layers: business development, strategy, client/stakeholder management, budgets, timelines. Steering the entire project ship and developing a system that works in a large scale project was the real work.
The iceberg analogy fits. You only see the tip: bigger title, higher pay, meetings, decision-making. Beneath the surface lies the strategic, commercial, and leadership work that defines those roles. If you don’t look deeper, you’ll assume career growth is just “being better technically” or moving into management by default. The reality is far richer.
Mapping Your Current Reality
I started questioning my career when technical design began to feel like rinse-and-repeat. I could do it, but it wasn’t my zone of genius. That’s when I picked up Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett, which encouraged me to pay attention to what drained me vs what energised me. That simple awareness was eye-opening.
Practical step: Take 15 minutes each week to reflect. Write down:
What tasks give you energy?
What leaves you drained?
Which skills feel natural and exciting?
Where are your gaps?
This provides you with the clarity and data about yourself that will guide your next move.
Saying Yes to Stretch Assignments
One of my earlier breakthroughs came when I was asked to undertake my first Project Manager Role, design and coordinate a rail depot project. I had never touched a depot before. It was daunting, but I said yes. Suddenly I was not just doing the technical design, but managing across disciplines, engaging with new stakeholders, and learning to see projects from a broader lens. That single yes expanded my career in ways technical work alone never could.
The lesson: stretch assignments feel scary because they’re uncharted territory. But those are often the moments that set you apart.
Reframing Career Conversations
I know the fear of asking someone for advice: They’re busy. Why would they waste time on me? I nearly didn’t ask. But when I finally did, the person I reached out to was generous and kind. She made me feel seen. And that’s when I realised: real leaders want to uplift others.
If you’re nervous, remember you don’t need to walk into these conversations with a perfect 3 or 5-year plan. The point is to explore, to expand your horizons.
Sheryl Sandberg describes careers as jungle gyms, not ladders. You don’t just climb straight up. You move sideways, diagonally, and sometimes backward. It is a journey of exploration until you find the places that light you up.
Supportive vs Unsupportive Managers
I’ve had both. With an unsupportive manager, I was left alone, figuring things out in the dark, thinking that was normal. Then I worked with a supportive manager, one who made me feel safe to try, to fail, to learn. That was when I truly began to thrive.
But what if your manager isn’t supportive? Don’t wait for them to change. Instead:
Look for mentors or sponsors outside your direct team. Sometimes the best guidance comes from elsewhere in the organisation.
Use project work as a testing ground. Volunteer for tasks that give you exposure to other leaders.
Document your interests and progress. Share them during reviews so your growth is visible, even if your manager isn’t actively nurturing it.
Build your own network of advocates. Relationships beyond your reporting line often open new doors.
Don’t make the mistake of waiting until you “know exactly what you want” before talking to your manager. That’s a limiting belief. Those conversations, whether with your boss or others, are meant to help you discover the possibilities in the first place.
Note to My Younger Self
If I could tell my younger self one thing, it would be this:
Developing your technical skills matters, but they are not the whole story. Don’t just sit behind the desk and mind your own business. Be brave enough to ask questions. Be curious about what happens in those rooms you think you’re not supposed to enter. The pathways are far wider than you can see right now.
Your Turn
Don’t just read this and move on. Block 15 minutes this week to reflect on what energises you vs what drains you. That reflection will become your compass. Building your career starts with small intentional steps.