Ten Career Lessons for Young Engineers: My Talk at the WAIMM Event at UENR

In late February 2025, I delivered a talk at a career guidance seminar organised by the West African Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (WAIMM) at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR). The audience was made up mainly of engineering students preparing to enter the profession.

I spoke alongside Isaac Duffour and Evelyn Ofori Atta, senior professionals in the industry, who shared their own career breakthroughs and the passion and discipline that have carried them forward.

Watch the full speech

The ten lessons

My talk was built around ten lessons that are rarely stated plainly to students, but that I believe every ambitious young engineer should take seriously.

1. Talent is overrated; leverage adaptability. Natural ability helps, but the ability to adjust to new tools, roles and circumstances is what keeps a career moving.
2. Knowledge alone will not save you; execution will. What you know matters only when you apply it and deliver results.
3. Your network is not your net worth; your value to the network is. Connections are useful only when you bring something of value to the people in them.
4. No one cares about your struggles; they care about your solutions. Employers and partners respond to the problems you can solve, not to the difficulties you describe.
5. Obsession is a superpower; mastery requires extremes. Real mastery of a field demands sustained, focused and deliberate effort.
6. Visibility trumps ability. If no one knows you exist, your ability creates no opportunities, so make your work known.
7. Comfort is the enemy; seek controlled chaos. Growth comes from deliberately taking on challenges that stretch you, while keeping the risk managed.
8. Mentorship is overrated; build value and mentors will seek you. Rather than waiting for a mentor, focus on becoming someone experienced people want to invest in.
9. Resilience is more important than intelligence. Setbacks are certain, and the ability to recover and keep going matters more than raw intellect.
10. Money follows ownership; own something. Long-term financial progress comes from owning something, whether assets, ideas or ventures, not only from earning a salary.

The common thread

The message that tied these lessons together was that breakthroughs rarely come from hard work alone or from waiting for opportunities to appear. They come from relentless execution, strategic positioning and taking ownership.

Acknowledgements

I thank WAIMM and UENR for the invitation, and my co-speakers Isaac Duffour and Evelyn Ofori Atta, whose accounts of their own careers were an inspiration to me as well as to the students.