Here's how you can acquire new skills as an engineering manager using online learning platforms.

First, think about what skills you lack or want to improve. Are you struggling with certain tasks at work, or do you aspire to take on more leadership roles? Consider feedback from colleagues or any areas highlighted in performance reviews. Once you've identified your weak spots or desired improvements, look for online courses that specifically target those skills. This targeted approach ensures you're investing your time and energy where it matters most for your career advancement.

About half way through my design career, I identified that as an analog designer my logic design skills needed considerable improvement. I could have got the company to sponsor me to do a class on digital design. However this would be a huge time commitment and a long term resolution. I settled to look up the basics and then set myself the task of designing a set of digital basics. From the gates to the higher level circuits. This consumed my lunch times for many months, and I subtly added some of these circuits for review by my then logic expert boss. This process ended up with a new type of ADC and a new high performance compact DAC, this ended up in many new products.

é importante você saber identificar as necessidades de novos aprendizados levando em considera??o o seu trabalho. Existem muitos cursos de curta dura??o que podem lhe trazer conhecimento a curto prazo e permitir na resolu??o de problemas. Antes de investir nesses cursos é importante saber quais conhecimentos práticos você irá adquirir ao final e se esse curso irá agregar ao seu trabalho ou irá permitir você come?ar uma nova atividade.

In the yearly evaluation process, most times there is a slot for personal improvement goals. This helps the employee and the management, and sometimes that means putting money in the pot for training. Neglecting this is a disservice to your subordinate and the company. If they are not growing and improving they are stagnating and that is a sure way to lose staff. Take the pain with the commitment to allow time in the schedule for training and corses.

Get involved in discussions, complete exercises, and apply what you learn in real-life situations. This practical approach helps reinforce your understanding and lets you bring immediate benefits to your team. Plus, interacting with fellow learners opens doors to networking and offers valuable insights into how others are using their skills in your field.

Personal development is critical. Creating active side projects to work on in down time, after hours and in breaks can create opportunities to grow, and potentially benefit the company. Sometimes the project demands a solution that we need to learn new stuff, embrace this. Recently working though a design on a lower cost node, left performance lacking due to poor offsets, and trim was just not hacking it. I took up the mantle and leaned how to effectively incorporate a new solution into my design. I honed the solution to be not only cost effective but a significant performance improvement. I then set up a teaching presentation to pass that on to the design community within the company.

Make it a habit to reflect on your learning journey often. Think about what's going smoothly and where you could use some improvement. Are there other resources or techniques you could try alongside your online courses? And how are the skills you're learning affecting your work? Reflecting helps you refine your learning approach, so it stays effective. It also ensures you keep growing in step with the changing needs of the engineering management field.

Periodic reflection ensures that your learning remains relevant and effective. Set aside time monthly to review your progress and the impact of your new skills on your work. Ask yourself: Are you meeting your learning goals? How have your new skills improved your team’s performance? Consider adjusting your learning strategies based on this reflection. Engage with mentors or peers for feedback and incorporate their insights to refine your learning path, ensuring it aligns with both personal growth and organizational objectives.

As a Manager it is easy to think that we need to know everything, but the great managers know how to surround themselves with the people that do. As an analog design manager I never leaned RTL, I could have, but some of my designers knew it well, so I would let them do their job, and pass on the output to me. It is important that we often acknowledge those contributors that help us, do our job better. However I was not a great manager, since I held on to too much. I eventually found a route to get back to design and let others do the management. Most of my patents came from this return to design, and freed from the weight of management I could do my best designs.