Bragging rights

Engineers must communicate their success. Fortunately, Consulting-Specifying Engineer offers several outlets to share your technical article or project profile.

By Amara Rozgus, Consulting-Specifying Engineer February 10, 2014

Everyone likes to brag. They brag about grandkids, their favorite sports team’s win, a new job, a fabulous vacation. Engineers are no different—they want to sell their firm’s engineering skills, tell about their latest project success, toot their own horn, and brag about their up-and-coming young professionals. Self-promotion is one of the easiest ways to share your success.

Business development professionals certainly know the benefits of bragging. More business is the obvious result. Being seen as a thought leader or expert can also elevate a consulting firm’s status. Third-party recognition is a resume-builder for both an individual and a company. According to an article in Psychology Today, “The best way to brag about yourself to others is probably not to brag at all. Let other people do the bragging for you.”

For the first time, we’re indicating which technical articles are brag-worthy. With our new “peer reviewed” logo, you’ll know exactly which items went through our stringent peer-review process. In this issue, six articles were reviewed by members of our editorial advisory board, and passed muster on technical aspects including codes and standards, equations or formulas, practical engineering information, comprehensive coverage, and general usefulness. While this peer-review process isn’t new—Consulting-Specifying Engineer has been doing it for several years—the “stamp” of approval is. 

This isn’t the only type of content stringently reviewed. Each of our editorial-driven webcasts is reviewed and accredited by the American Institute of Architects Continuing Education System, and offers learning units to anyone who watches the webcast and passes the exam. Several webcasts are scheduled for 2014; register for any of them at www.csemag.com/webcast.

I’d like to offer you the opportunity to author a technical article and achieve our coveted approval. Send me your exclusive idea, including an abstract and details about how you’ll illustrate it, and I and the advisory board will determine if it’s appropriate for publication.

There are opportunities to brag about specific engineering projects as well. For the first time, we’re publishing a series of targeted project profiles that will become exclusive Web items. This gives you the ability to describe your project in many different ways: text, images, videos, or a combination of all three. Visit www.csemag.com/how-to-submit and enter an already-written exclusive case study, or use the template to tell your story. Our audience would love to hear about your successes and learn from your expertise.

If you have questions about the 2014 topics we’re covering or want to suggest an idea, please contact me. Our team will help you and your firm earn bragging rights.