Work From Home Hurts Young Engineers

For two years, work from home alternatives, have hurt the skill level of young engineers. If you have less than 5 years of experience your development was significantly impacted. Here’s how:

1. You didn’t get the benefit of learning directly from your experienced coworkers. Be realistic, virtual meetings are not a substitute for over the shoulder or face to face learning.
2. You didn’t build good work habits. Why? Because you were watching tv or laying on the couch while trying to work. Now, you don’t even know how to concentrate.
3. You didn’t see all the ancillary skills needed to become a skilled professional. Now, you’re significantly behind on technical skills *and* you still need all the other pieces of the career puzzle.
4. People who were slightly ahead of you in skill got a head start. Now, you’re demoralized because catching up is going to be that much tougher. Your earnings will grow at a slower pace over the next few years.
5. We’re in a talent grab right now, which won’t last forever. When layoffs begin (and they will, it’s already happening in other industries) you’ll have no cover because you’ll realize people were putting up with you and your value was inflated by market forces rather than your skills.

These are tough realizations to face but the right time to do an assessment of your position and make a correction is today.

If you’re a young engineer and you’re experiencing things like lack of work when there's clearly work available or task leaders not coming back to you for more you’re probably not in a great spot skill-wise. You need to correct course ASAP. At the very least get back in the office and be a sponge for knowledge.