The simplest habit in this episode is the one you'll wish you'd started sooner.Sixteen years ago, in his first job, Josh was told to keep a notepad. He still does over 25 of them now, filled with notes from across his career. When it came to becoming a chartered engineer, those notebooks were the record he built his whole submission from.This episode is about starting yours. Not a tidy diary, a working log. Josh walks through the rhythm he'd tell any engineering student or graduate to build now, before the new academic yearWhy writing it down matters more than where. Why keeping the record is the thing, not the tool.Why this one habit sits underneath everything that comes later, your applications, your interviews, your chartership years down the line.Recorded at the University of Strathclyde.Part of a four-episode series for the new academic year: Reflect (60) · Recognise (61) · Record (62) · Apply (63).—Follow Engineer a Career on LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok, and come along to our events across Scotland this academic year.

Josh is back with more steps to build your way to a career in engineering.

This one's about the skills you already have and aren't talking about. You go to university or college, you get the degree but the part-time job, the society, the volunteering, the side project are all building capabilities employers want.

Most students undersell them, or forget they count at all.

Josh breaks down where these skills come from, the bar job, the Formula Student team, running a society's finances, managing a golf team, the AI side project and why they belong in your CV, your applications, and your interviews.

The message is simple: what you're doing right now is valuable.

Tell your story before someone tells it for you.

Follow the podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, Instagram and TikTok and come along to an Engineer a Career event this academic year.

Follow Engineer a Career -LinkedIn: @engineeracareerInstagram: @engineeracareerTikTok: @engineer.a.careerYouTube: @engineeracareerWebsite: www.engineeracareer.co.uk

Episode 60 of the Engineer a Career Podcast, with Josh going solo at the start of a new academic year to reflect on his own engineering degree what he got right, and what he would do differently.Josh started his degree at Glasgow Caledonian University in 2010 and has since gone on to become a chartered engineer, a project manager, and a business owner. He walks through the decisions that shaped that path: joining the Institution of Mechanical Engineers within his first six months, helping revive the university engineering society, taking on the class representative role and finding himself sitting on industrial advisory boards, and choosing the sandwich route that took him to a placement with Volvo in Sweden. The common thread is a continual pull towards industry, from society site visits through to industry-sponsored BEng and MEng projects.The second half is the more honest part. Josh reflects on the time he did not spend understanding his own capabilities or tracking how his skills were developing, the pressure he put on himself to have a career plan long before he needed one, and the applications he left too late with graduate schemes opening in September, he argues the job search deserves to be treated like a module rather than an afterthought. He also looks at the routes he never properly explored, including a PhD, and makes the case for seeing the degree as a stepping stone rather than a destination.A useful listen for any engineering student heading into a new year, and a reminder that the value of a degree is decided as much by what you do around it as what you study in it.Follow Engineer a Career -LinkedIn: @engineeracareerInstagram: @engineeracareerTikTok: @engineer.a.careerYouTube: @engineeracareerWebsite: www.engineeracareer.co.uk