Australian Engineering Practice & Reflection

This assignment delves into the author's experiences and reflections on various aspects of Australian engineering practice. It explores their understanding of teamwork, leadership skills, time management strategies, and future career goals as a mechanical engineer. The document includes personal insights, self-assessments, and plans for professional development in the field.

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Australian Engineering Practice

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Team collaboration
According to me, to develop collaboration in a team the basic step is to trust each other. It’s
better to distribute a task to respective team members and by organising the process. The
leadership skills are easy for me as in school I was the class monitor and hence I know how
to manage people and get the work done easily (Hackman, 2011). I am still working on my
feedback skills and conflict resolution skills as these skills are necessary for effective team
working. I concluded that collaboration is very important in my team project as it gets very
easy to find the solution of a problem. It also results in good relationship between the team
members and hence the production or the output is fast. The best thing for me was that I was
able to get solutions to my problems very easily. By discussing the problems with everyone I
got many innovative ideas to solve the problem and it enhanced my knowledge too. Apart
from this, the frustrating part was that it was difficult to work solely. Being a part of team, I
have to help my team mates which wasted my time (Boyer, 2017).
Team leader
When I was in my college, once I was asked to be a team leader of a task in which we had to
create advertising banners for a car dealer. The team comprised of 5 members and I was
asked to instruct them and get the work done. All the team members pitched their ideas and
we choose the best idea. It was not at all an easy task as the team member’s conflicted and
some of the disagreed with others ideas. I told them that it was pointless to argue and it’s
better to move on and choose the perfect idea for the advertisement. The main challenge was
to assign the tasks to different team members as I was having no idea about their respective
capabilities. As a result, eventually the work was not going as per the requirements. It was
also a difficult task to maintain relationships and co-ordination between the team members
(Runde, 2013).
Be an effective engineer
To be an effective engineer respective of the working environment I would have to make
many key changes in my skills like,
1. Enhancing technical skills-It is very important to have good technical skills to carry
out the job. As technology keeps on updating its necessary to continue to learn and
indulge new technologies.

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2. Teamwork-It is very necessary to develop the ability to work in a team environment.
If I will be able to work in a team I will be able to think critically and will able to
create good solutions to problems.
The major key changes which I need to make in my work behaviours to be more effective in
my hometown country or in any country. I need to work upon my leadership skills, as it is
very important to have these skills because during project management I will have to plan,
make decisions and then would have to influence people (Adair, 2013). To cope up with the
environment of other country I should develop my communication skills, both orally and in
writing. If I will be having good communication skills and public speaking skills it will be
easy to describe and illustrate my ideas to my colleagues.
Time management
In order to effectively manage a project, you also need to effectively manage your own
time. It is very important to manage to improve the productivity. I believe I am not so
much effective in managing my time but I am finding and working on ways to improve
my time management. Some of my best behaviours in terms of time management are;
 I prioritize my work according to the importance of the work. The first step I take
is that I make a proper list of all the tasks according to the immediate tasks and
unimportant tasks.
 After making the list, I set up deadlines of each task. I always set my deadline few
days before the exact deadline of the task so that i can review my work. I
challenge myself to meet the deadlines.
 I avoid stress because I have realised that taking stress reduces my productivity.
Hence, I try to keep myself calm so that I can work in harmony and give my best
results (Forsyth, 2013).
Some of my worst behaviours in terms of time management are;
 I fail to manage distractions i.e. I easily get distracted. While working, if somebody
calls me or messages me I leave my work and start talking. Secondly, I am addicted to
watching movies and hence I waste a lot of time in these activities.
 I think that multitasking is an effective way to get my thinks early. Therefore, I take
many tasks and as a result the workload increases. Because of this I am not able to
manage my time and get stuck only with the work and my personal life gets affected.

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Career plan
As, I am an engineer I would like to work for my core company i.e.my core branch company.
I want to work for a company which has learning potential i.e. a company where I can
continuously learn and develop my new skills. The company should also have a good
position within the industry and it should be a right step in my career path. The company
should be an enhancing factor of my career (Doyle, 2017).
Being a mechanical engineer, I want to work as a product design engineer. The basic job role
of a product design engineer is to design products like biomedical devices, internal
combustion engineers or fuel-efficient motor vehicles and many other devices. I also want to
work in manufacturing area which involves designing and building the machines.
 To be a product design engineer, I need skills like:
 Mechanical design work and knowledge in manufacturing processes
 I need good sketching skills along with concept generation skills
 I should have knowledge of tools which are used to develop layouts and flow
diagrams
 I should know how to use Microsoft applications (Boothroyd, 2010)
As I do not have all of these skills therefore I will be taking training courses on those skills. I
will also try to apply my skills on field work. By undergoing proper training I will be able to
understand the core subjects more deeply (Rothstein, 2010). And if I will work on the field
then I will know how to apply my skills on the applications.

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References
Adair, J. (2013). Develop your leadership skills. London: Kogan Page Limited.
Boothroyd, G., Dewhurst, P. and Knight, W. (2010). Product Design for Manufacture and
Assembly, Third Edition. Hoboken: CRC Press.
Boyer, S. (2017). The Importance of Collaboration in the Workplace. Retrieved from
http://www.nutcache.com/blog/the-importance-of-collaboration-in-the-workplace/
Doyle, A. (2017). "What Type of Work Environment Do You Prefer?” Retrieved from
https://www.thebalance.com/what-type-of-work-environment-do-you-prefer-2061291
Doyle, A. (2017). Skills Mechanical Engineer Need. Retreived from
https://www.thebalance.com/list-of-mechanical-engineer-skills-2062433
Forsyth, P. (2013). Successful time management. London: Kogan Page.
Hackman, J. (2011). Collaborative intelligence. San Francisco, Calif.: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Rothstein, M. and Burke, R. (2010). Self-management and leadership development. Cheltenham:
Edward Elgar.
Runde, C. and Flanagan, T. (2013). Building conflict competent teams. San Francisco, Calif.:
Jossey-Bass.