3 Tips to Future-Proof Your Career

Honeywell Building Technologies Chief Commercial Officer Patrick Hogan has three pieces of advice for educators, students, and anyone else seeks a career in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Hogan shared that advice as part of the STEM Teacher Leadership Program (STLP), conducted annually by Georgia Tech and sponsored by Honeywell. That program gives Atlanta-area middle school teachers the skills and tools they need to teach STEM subjects.

Here are the three tips Hogan shared for those who want to pursue STEM careers:

1. Lead by influence

Hogan’s first tip for the leaders of tomorrow? Learn to lead, even if you’re not in a formal leadership position.

Those who lead by example empower those around them to be their best.

“People who act and take ownership of a complex problem to solve, generate momentum around them, even if they’re not the most senior person in the room,” Hogan said.

2. Be data-driven

Data and analytics are important career skills today, and they will only get more crucial in the future – and not just in STEM fields.

“The ability to make data-driven decisions is foundational to any function,” Hogan said.

Data is a key component of a wide variety of common business functions, including sales, human resources, supply chain operations and finance.

3. Embrace technology

Having great ideas isn’t enough. The ideas and concepts that shape the future must be paired with the infrastructure and technology needed to make them a reality.

Hogan identified robotics, materials science and user experience design as keys to bringing future technologies to life.

“Especially as retiring workers begin to take their skills and experience with them, we have to encourage new talent and introduce new ways of machine learning into these areas,” Hogan said.

Want to learn more about STLP? Check out these award-winning student projects from last year’s STEM Challenge.

In the image at the top of the page, a senior division team from Chamblee Charter High School in Chamblee, Georgia demonstrates their flood protection system project, which uses a sensor network to identify roadways threatened by flood waters.