Blogs

Advice and wisdom from a mentor who knows

By Steven Rienks posted 01-30-2024
Steven M. Rienks, P.E., PMP, M.ASCE, is director of engineering for American Surveying and Engineering in Chicago. He’s also been active in ASCE’s Mentor Match program , sharing his experience and wisdom with younger engineers. And in this Career by Design Member Voice article, to celebrate January being National Mentoring Month, Rienks shares some of that same experience and wisdom with readers. Did you end up on the path in civil engineering that you originally thought you would? I started out as an electrical engineer major. So, the answer to this question: No, I was not on the civil engineering path. Through many trials and/or ...

Maximizing your conference experience

By Nicolai Oliden posted 08-22-2022
I haven’t attended an in-person conference since 2019. Covid really put a hold on most in-person events, especially large conferences. I am excited to attend two conferences over the next two months and thought I’d share some of my top conference tips with you. If you do anything that isn’t listed, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. 1-Research who is going Once I register for a conference, I message some work friends and past connections to see if they will be there. This gives you a chance to gameplan who you want to say hi to or take out for a meal. 2-Research the dress code Dress codes vary depending on region or purpose of the conference. ...

Inflation squeezing your salary?

By Nicolai Oliden posted 05-19-2022
It is no secret that the cost of goods has increased dramatically over the past couple of years. Inflation has put a squeeze on my income and if you’re still breathing, I assume it has for you too. I paid $75 to fill up my little car with gas this week. I was very used to that costing $40 or less. My family of five used to spend about $700 each month on groceries to eat comfortably. This month we will spend $1,400 on groceries and our eating habits have not changed. Inflation has significantly impacted what and how much I can buy. I graduated in 2008. Since then, I’ve experienced many things beyond our control that impacted our financial situation. We can’t ...

How do I make the most of a career fair?

By Heidi Wallace posted 03-07-2022
How do I make the most of a career fair? This question is a common one among those who are in college and seeking summer internships or full-time positions after graduation. I want to take a few minutes to share my suggestions as someone who has both attended and recruited at university career fairs. Where do you start? Determine what you are seeking – summer internship, co-op, full-time employment. Include what you are seeking near the top of your updated resume. (For more resume tips check out ASCE’s Crafting a Civil Engineering Resume ) Research the companies that are going to attend the fair, and take notes on which booths you are ...

Tips for Mentees: to Work it Out or “Break Up” with My Mentor?

By Silky Wong posted 01-26-2022
A functional mentorship experience is exceptionally rewarding, as both the mentors and the mentees can appreciate their own professional growth due to mutually agreed interactions. At times, however, an agreed-upon mentorship might not work out as expected. Common reasons that lead to an unsatisfactory mentor-mentee relationship are lack of effective communication in the relationship, flawed guidance from the mentor, lack of understanding of the mentee’s needs, changed mentoring goals by the mentee such that the mentor can longer provide support, insufficient time spent in nurturing the mentorship, lack of feedback, and periodic reviews of the mentorship. ...

How volunteering can make you a better gift-giver

By Luis Duque posted 12-20-2021
Engineering is one the most fulfilling careers (I may be a little biased), as we work fully to serve the public. Our work is used by millions of people every single day. Additionally, most of us enjoy volunteering and giving out our time to serve others in need. There are many reasons volunteering makes us better engineers overall, but today I want to write about why it also makes us better at gift-giving. Volunteering is all about caring for others The main purpose of volunteering is to serve others. This makes us more thoughtful and open to think about what the other person may be looking for in a gift. Giving thoughtful gifts is more than simply ...

My pathway to academia

By Katie Bowman posted 11-22-2021
In high school, all I ever wanted to do was to leave my hometown and attend a four-year university. With this goal in mind, I attended one of the first universities that had accepted me: California State University, Fresno. My main objective while attending the university was to graduate as quickly as possible and earn my own salary. And I did. I graduated high school at the age of 17 and graduated with my bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at 21. I immediately started working at Stantec, a land development firm in Santa Barbara, California, and stayed there for about three and a half years. I decided I needed a change. Not knowing what that change ...

Résumé tips for government job seekers

By Tirza Austin posted 10-29-2021
In preparation for November's ASCE Resume Workshop that will provide a dedicated thread for public sector resumes to be reviewed, we've collected resume tips from government job seekers. I hope you find these helpful! Sue Hann, P.E., M.ASCE, Assistant Superintendent Facilities Services, Brevard County Public Schools – Florida Research the agency and their current issues before your interview. Hiring managers like to see that you have enough interest in the position to have done some research. For local government positions – Attend/watch at least one Council/Commission meeting before your interview. Review recent Council/Commission ...

The basics of navigating USAJobs

By Ashley Rose-Nalin posted 10-29-2021
USAJobs can be an extremely helpful website for civil engineers looking for work in the public sector. However, in order to maximize the available opportunities, civil engineers must develop specific skills and approaches as they navigate the site and apply for jobs. In today's Member Voice article Mike Pniewski, P.E., P.S., F.ASCE, the Lucas County Engineer in Toledo, Ohio, and I (Ashley Rose-Nalin, P.E., L.S., M.ASCE, Simplified Acquisition of Base Engineering Requirements (SABER) program manager at Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee) share stories, tips, and lessons learned from their careers that might help their fellow civil engineers find success ...

Tips for finding (and getting) a public sector civil engineering job

By Elizabeth Bialek posted 10-25-2021
Public sector engineering jobs can provide fulfilling careers. Public employment offers great benefits, competitive salaries, support of career development, and licensure, all while offering a wide range of technical, policy, and leadership opportunities. That said, sometimes it’s hard to know where to start or how to get your foot in the door. I am a professional civil engineer with 30 years of experience in both the public and private sector. A lot has changed over my career but many of the principles are the same, and I want to share some tips to help you be successful in pursuing your career in public service. First of all, public employers usually ...

Supporting small-town and rural communities with public works

By John Fleming posted 10-08-2021
Small and rural communities across America often struggle to provide service to their constituents. This means not only aging water and wastewater infrastructure but also maintaining road, drainage, and even trash and recycling services on very limited (and sometimes) combined budgets. However, water and wastewater are often at the bottom of the list to maintain. Frequently the public does not think about what they cannot see. The pothole on Main Street in any small town generates plenty of phone calls to political leadership, and in turn to the public works department. Yes, the pothole is important to address, but so is the deferred maintenance on 50-plus-year-old ...

The perks of working in a small community

By Tor Anderzen posted 09-24-2021
“Take an offer from a large company, you are wasting your talents at a small company like X.” That was the advice I received from fellow students when I proudly told them I had accepted an offer to work for a small Michigan firm with an office that I passed going to campus every day. “You will never get to work on large, exciting projects” was their concern. Our small family had grown while I attended college, and when I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in civil engineering we had three young children. After strategy sessions with my wife, we decided that accepting the offer to work in our small community would be best for our family: We would ...

Asking the questions that will maximize mentored experience

By Andrew Mock posted 09-07-2021
For the early-career civil engineer, one of the daily challenges can be managing a simple task: asking questions. The civil engineer’s primary pathways of development include formal education, mentored experience, and self-development. Asking questions of our supervisors, organization leaders, and other industry mentors is fundamental to obtaining the mentored experience component. There is an opportunity to maximize the value of those interactions, and I believe the key is finding the balance of what questions to ask, when to ask them, and how to ask them. A recommended approach to asking questions One of my early-career mentors recommended ...

Three strategies for ‘cross-office’ working during the pandemic

By Taygra Longstaff posted 08-30-2021
Working for a global company, I've had the privilege to work with colleagues across our offices around the world on multiple projects and initiatives. Through these opportunities I have been able to build my network within my company and establish diversity in the project work I was involved in. However, working across offices is not without its challenges, and those experiences proved incredibly useful during the COVID-19 pandemic when most of us in the AEC industry moved to one-person offices during quarantine. Reflecting back, there are a few strategies that I've found to be most useful for cross-office work, and though they’re by no means groundbreaking ...

My Mindfulness Journey

By Elyssa Dixon posted 08-18-2021
I just thought I was a stressed person: that always feeling a little stressed was normal; that taking multiple sick weeks a year due to burnout was to be expected when you were high-achieving and driven; and that letting go of my standards would mean I was letting go of myself and ultimately failing. It wasn’t until 2018 that I started therapy. My heightened stress was impacting me both physically and mentally and was something I could work on. She talks about her journey here on ASCE Plot Points . You also writes about finding her best self here . I studied environmental engineering for the reasons many people go into engineering. I liked math and ...

From Engineering Intern to Manager (and the Lost Year Between)

By Maxx Taga posted 08-02-2021
“I am sorry, but we are not actually looking to hire anyone at the moment.” If you were a recent graduate, and/or let go from a job during this pandemic, this might be a phrase you have gotten used to. None of us were truly invulnerable to this; but I thought I was. I was in this sort of position before, in another industry, when I lost my Canadian work visa and had to start over. I hated that feeling. So I did everything in my power to never be in that position ever again. I even wrote an article about it ( Member Voices - careerbydesign (asce.org) ). But it still wasn’t enough. Below is just a snapshot of my journey through the pandemic: December ...

Road-mapping your career as a construction engineer

By Ira Braverman posted 07-12-2021
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. – from “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost, recited by President John F. Kennedy at his inauguration, January 1961 It starts on that day, the day every young civil engineer aspiring to the wonderful world of construction can see ahead: Your professional education starts the day you graduate . Fifty years ago, when I was starting out as a young engineer in New York City, the owner of a construction company explained that it takes 10 years for someone to learn their craft after they graduate. So the first question I ask every mentee ...

Engineer Your Future: Graduate Certifications and their Benefits

By Assunta Daprano posted 07-06-2021
From 2018 to 2020, I had the opportunity to attend the University of Delaware and obtain a graduate certificate in railroad engineering. But what is a graduate certificate? A graduate certificate is a credential, historically provided by a university, for the completion of specialized classes and/or training. Obtaining a graduate certificate indicates that you have mastered a specific subject within a short course of study. These programs are designed for working professionals, have a simpler application process, and do not require a GRE. While graduate certificate programs do not qualify for federal financial aid, your employer may cover the tuition. ...

Speak Up for What is Right

By Jayvon Garth posted 06-25-2021
At a previous job, I remember I stayed late in the office one evening, when, as I was walking to take a break, I overhear words and laughter coming from a conference room. There were more than half my coworkers laughing about two jokes that I unfortunately overheard as well – one perpetuating a racist and dehumanizing stereotype about Black men, the other was antisemitic. “Wait… what did you just say?” quickly came from my mouth with a look of genuine confusion and disgust. After a bogus explanation of how it’s all “fun and games,”, I said “Ok” and walked off with that same disgust and confused look as I stored it in my memory, not to speak of it again because ...

Why I Include My Pronouns in a Professional Setting

By Danielle Schroeder McCaskey posted 06-07-2021
“Hi, my name is Dani Schroeder and my pronouns are she/her.” For the last two years or so, this is how I have been introducing myself when I am meeting new people. When I attended ERYMC 2020 earlier last year, I added my pronouns to my name tag. While some may not understand why I do this, this small action is one way to be an ally to support people with gender expansive identities. As a cisgender person (my gender identity is in alignment with the sex I was assigned at birth) I have never questioned the pronouns that people use for me. By stating my pronouns, I communicate that a person’s identity is very important, while also making this practice a social ...