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A (work) day in the life of You

  • 1.  A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-18-2021 06:22 PM

    I was wondering if people wanted to discuss a little bit of detail about the life inside of the title they call "their job", or their "work week". I bet there are some things that will feel similar between people, and others that will feel very different. I'll go first.

    For me, my job is pretty much 100% in the office (or home now), and not in the field. When I am in the office, I take the train from NJ to Philadelphia, as the office I work in is in Center City, Philadelphia. My commute is about 45 minutes.

    I work on a fairly high-end computer (multiple physical cores, lots of RAM) and I have 3 monitors. Working on a laptop (as I sometimes have to do remotely) feels very cramped by comparison, and once you work on x +1 monitors, there is no going back to x monitors again. I have many tasks focused on QAing many sources of data used in hydrologic models. In this role, it is helpful to have multiple documents open at the same time, such as a given database, my notes on what I need to do to it, and another program such as GIS or R Studio. The larger the monitor, (or monitors) the better. The majority of my work is done in Excel, GIS, R, and on the more interesting days, SWMM. I typically like to listen to music while I work, especially if I am home alone and not in the office around the rest of my team. On days when I feel less busy, I like to try to learn to write more in R in order to create scripts to automate some of the more mundane parts of my job.  I am still very much a novice, but we have a few other people on our staff who've managed to make some very useful tools for our team.

    I probably average 1-2 meetings per day over the course of any given week. Some of these are staff update meetings, and some are client meetings or working meetings for a particular task or issue. Occasionally, other people on the team call me (or in the office, talk in person) to confirm some detail about a particular dataset, and I frequently spend time teaching our junior staff more about these data sources, and checking their work.

    In the office during non-pandemic times, I worked in an open group containing about 12 people. It has many of the pros and cons of working in an open environment, but ultimately I prefer it to the lonely and isolated cubicle life. 

    I tend to eat lunch on the later end of the afternoon. My hours are pretty standard, but have some flexibility when needed. (8-5, 9-6)

    After work, I usually try to make dinner, work out, and get one or two more little tasks finished. Ideally there is still some time left for me to do something to relax before I go to bed. (I am very much a night owl at this point in my life).

    What does an average work day look like for you?



    ------------------------------
    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-19-2021 12:45 PM
    Good to see another R user around here. Way to go Chris!

    I usually try to exercise (running or jogging) about 20-30 mins in the morning, have breakfast then start my work day.
    I am a water modeler so I would spend a lot of time developing hydrological and hydraulic models. I also use a few hours a day to write R and Python scripts for pre- and post-processing model inputs and outputs. Recently, I've fell in love with R Shiny and started using it to create interactive dashboards to make it easier to communicate the results within the team as well as to the clients. The rest of the time, I would either organize activities for our local employee network (OneWorld) which focuses on promoting inclusion and diversity or join our firm's world wide monthly communities of practice calls which discuss variety of topics from flood modeling and planning, watershed management to climate change and resilience.
    After logging off around 6, I spend a little bit of time taking care of our little garden then head to the park with my family.

    ------------------------------
    Tung Nguyen, PhD
    Water Resources Engineer
    Sacramento, CA
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-19-2021 03:04 PM
    Thanks Tung!

    I remember that we were both working in water resources, so I guess it makes sense that we both need to know a little bit (or in your case a good deal) of R for pre- and post-processing. I have a few co-workers who have developed some R Shiny dashboards as well and its made sharing data with other groups a lot easier than it was in the past. 

    Your activity organization and networking sound very interesting as well. Does it take up a lot of your hours in a week to keep up with it? Keeping those communication lines open sounds valuable, especially in a large company like yours. Working in a small company, I am always curious as to how other engineers feel about the responsibility and experience there. 

    Daily park days with the family sound very special too! Thanks again for sharing.

    ------------------------------
    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-21-2021 09:41 AM

    Hello everyone!

    Great discussion topic, Chris.

    My day up until now also happens at home for most of the time. I wake up at about 6:30 AM and start working at 7:30 AM. Pre-pandemic I used to wake up at 5:00 am to swim, although some pools are still closed so that's not happening anymore. I highly recommend except using before starting your day. 


    Once I log in, there's usually some emails already to check. As someone working on the construction industry, contractors and other team members to start their day even before 7:30 AM. Once I knock off those emails, which usually doesn't take too long, I look at the rest of the things I have to do in the day, make a list, prioritize them, and start tackling one by one. 


    The day for us finishes usually between 4:30 and 5:30, although now working from home it is easier to remain online even after hours in case an urgent email or task comes in. Either way, I work out after I log off for about 40 mins to 1 hour, then come back home and get ready for d



    ------------------------------
    Salvador Bentolila P.E., ENV SP, M.ASCE
    AECOM
    New York NY
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-21-2021 11:52 AM
    Thanks @Salvador Bentolila!

    A fellow swimmer! Thanks for joining the discussion! I respect your dedication to morning practice sessions. I don't miss those, and pre-pandemic, would easily choose going to swim as late as 10 pm after work and dinner and everything else over going at 5 AM like you! My gym is open again and has been for a few months, so really all I need is one good kick to get back in the pool and get back to it. I would usually swim 2-3 times a week, trying to leave other days open to lift and run. It looks like you manage to cram both activities into each side of your work day, which is really amazing. 

    I am willing to bet that you feel energized and ready to tackle your work day when you get home from practice.  Usually for me, a morning swim made me want to get back in bed. I also have no idea how you work out before you make dinner. I'm usually starving by the time the work day is over. Maybe I need to start eating more during the day.

    Since you work in the construction sector, do you find yourself going into the field often? Or are you able to handle all of your work from the office/home office?​

    ------------------------------
    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-21-2021 12:41 PM
    Hello Chris!

    I do admit that sometimes I get sleepy when working out in the morning, but the feeling of it throughout the day beats it all. I also aimed for 2-3 swims per week, and doing that in the summer is definitely easier than in the cold winter mornings (I'm based in NY). As far as eating, I usually have  a very small snack after work hours, I also get hungry so that helps me hang until dinner and energize for whatever workouts I do in the PM.

    Our project is in between procurement/construction phase, so definitely have been going out the field a lot more often than when the project was in Design. Construction is expected to start very soon and from that point out I will probably transition to full time on the field.

    Great connecting with you!
    Let me know if I can help with anything else.

    Salvador

    ------------------------------
    Salvador Bentolila P.E., ENV SP, M.ASCE
    AECOM
    New York NY
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-22-2021 05:07 PM
    I work for the DOT in the state I live in, and I primarily work on preservation and rehabilitation of bridges.

    A typical day would be to wake up at 6AM so I can get to he office before rush hour starts (my office is about 45 minutes from my house) and to be able to miss most of rush hour traffic in the afternoon. I will get dressed and eat a quick breakfast before heading to the office.

    Once I get to the office, I dedicate the first hour of the day to going through emails and planning out the tasks I need to work on for that day. The tasks are always changing. Right now, I am working on writing a policy manual for my department in regards to bridge preservation. This is to document how and why my agency does things for bridge preservation projects, so there is more consistency between projects designed in-house, and projects designed by consultant firms. 

    I almost always have some bridge preservation project that my team is involved with. For the bridge preservation projects, my team and I need to develop plans of the bridge using CADD (we recently switched over to using Bentley OpenBridge Designer), go out in the field and do a field scoping, which is very similar to a bridge inspection except that we develop repair quantities and scope of work while out in the field), design any non-standard repairs (like steel plate details for steel girders that have section loss, or bearing restraints that can fit in tight geometry on the substructure), update the plans to show the designed repairs and quantities, perform cost, equipment, labor, and time estimates for the project, and develop any special provisions that may be needed so the Contractor has all the information needed to accurately bid and perform the work. This typically means that at least once or twice a month I am out in the field doing bridge inspections. Depending on the bridge, the inspection can take a single day, or for larger more complex bridges, they can take a few weeks, which requires overnight trips.

    Outside of the bridge preservation projects, my team and I are responsible for creating, updating, and maintaining all of the special provisions for contracts that are related to bridge preservation, creating different standards and libraries on our CADD platform so users can quickly and accurately add bridge preservation details to their plans, reviewing and approving all new products that are related to bridges, and attending numerous conferences, seminars, meetings and webinars on the latest bridge practices. 

    When deadlines allow, I try to end the day by going over emails and reading a few engineering articles, to stay current on the latest trends and practices.

    I will go over the plan I made in the morning to see if there are any outstanding items that I need to address the following day. Making this plan helps me prioritize my work and stay on track with my deadlines, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks.

    Depending on the day and the weather, I will usually either go directly to a rock climbing gym and do some rock climbing with my wife, or head straight home and do some yard work (or if there is a upcoming race I am planning on attending, I will do some running to train, but that hasn't happened in over a year now...).

    After that I either make dinner or clean dishes (my wife and I have a good system of doing one or the other, but never both) and watch some TV with my wife before taking a shower and doing all over again.

    I really like the work I do, as its something I am passionate about, and I rarely repeat the same tasks over and over. But I do like order and plans, so at times I can feel overwhelmed when things didn't follow my plan for the day. That's when things outside of work (like rock climbing, running, or yard work) can really help relieve stress and get work out of my head for the rest of the evening.

    ------------------------------
    Doug Cantrell P.E., M.ASCE
    Professional Engineer
    Durham NC
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-24-2021 11:30 AM
    Thanks Doug! I have a good number of friends from undergrad who work at the NJ DOT, so its nice to get a better idea of what you guys work on! Pretty cool that you get to meet your wife for rock climbing after work too!

    ------------------------------
    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-24-2021 01:37 PM
    Edited by Tirza Austin 07-05-2021 10:29 AM
    I'm currently working on a part-time hourly basis while I am living abroad for grad school, so I'll give a description based on when I'm full-time instead.

    I live about 10 minutes from our office in Tulsa, OK. I usually get to work between 8 and 9 in the morning. About 3 days a week my dog comes along. (When I lived a 5 minute walk from our office when I first started full-time he would come up to the office with me after hours if I was working late. After a while people asked if he could come earlier in the day so he'd come some afternoons. After a bunch of my coworkers fell in love with him, I got permission for him to come more often.)

    We sit in an open office space with about 8 people per area. The areas are separated by walls that are around 4 feet tall. I enjoy the ease of collaboration allowed by our environment.

    I typically have multiple projects at a time at various stages of completion, so I try to prioritize based on upcoming deadlines. I usually have anywhere from a couple meetings a week to a couple meetings a day depending on the client(s) and project stages. I do occasional site visits, but a majority of my job is site design, permitting, and project management. I also write a lot of our standards and training documents for our group because it is something I enjoy doing.

    I usually go out to eat about once a week with a group of friends from the office. Other than that I bring my lunch most days. Sometimes when we work late we'll order food and the office reimburses us for it. When we aren't being slammed by deadlines, I'm usually home between 6:30 and 7:30 in the evening depending on what time I got to the office.

    ------------------------------
    Heidi C. Wallace, P.E., M.ASCE
    Tulsa, OK
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-29-2021 12:01 PM
    You are the first team I've heard of to have an office dog and I am both excited and jealous. Your environment sounds like a good mix of work hard, play hard!

    ------------------------------
    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 07-05-2021 10:25 AM
    "Work hard, play hard" is probably the most used phrase by the guy I sit next to, so you're probably right!

    ------------------------------
    Heidi C. Wallace, P.E., M.ASCE
    Tulsa, OK
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-26-2021 11:07 PM
    Edited by Shubhneet Singh 06-28-2021 04:25 PM

    Hello Everyone,

    Thank you, Christopher, for starting this interesting thread.

    I am working as a Hydraulic Engineer at DHI; it's a Danish water and environmental consultancy. I develop 1D-2D Hydrologic and Hydraulic Models for flood mitigation and forecasting.

    My average day starts at 6 with some resistance training (2-3 times a week), and 2 eggs with sunny-side-up, Avacado, and some berries. My office is in metropolitan Denver, a 5-minute walk away from my apartment. After reaching the office I get myself a cup of coffee like a ritual and catch up with the peers I run into.

    We have open cubicles for junior engineers in the bullpen and offices for seniors. My workstation has 2 screens, which we hook up with our ThinkPads, and the standing desks are awesome!

    The workday starts with checking the emails, and the meetings of the day, planning the to-dos for the day and reading NYT, checking the stock market.

    A lot of my hydraulic modeling workflows require automation in python, R, ArcGIS, and the model development is done in MIKE software developed by DHI.

    We have a ping-pong table in the office, so once in a while, I would get an invite for a match from my peers, and we'd take a short break to the rec room and try our new serves and chops! Lately, I and a few of my colleagues have gotten hooked to chess, so we like to have a match over lunch, weather permitting, mostly in a park outside our office.

    The workday wraps up at around 6. I head home and cook dinner if I haven't already meal prepped for the week on the weekend. Sit out on the balcony, listen to music or call family (they live outside the US). I also like to read before going to bed. Currently, I'm reading Extreme ownership, which's written by a US Navy Seal. I meditate for a while and then venture into the dreamland.

    I look forward to having a peek at a day in your life too!

    Cheers,
    Shubhneet







    ------------------------------
    Shubhneet Singh A.M.ASCE
    Hydraulic Engineer
    DHI, Lakewood CO
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-29-2021 12:01 PM
    Hi Shubhneet! Thank you for sharing! You make your workday and office environment sound like an absolute blast, although I could be biased since I am also working in the field of H&H modeling. I've had the pleasure of coming out to Lakewood, CO a few years ago and thought it was a really nice area! Thanks again!

    ------------------------------
    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 14.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-29-2021 05:58 PM

    It's nice to come across a fellow H&H modeler!πŸ™Œ

    What company do you work for?

    That's cool that you have visited Lakewood before! Colorado is an amazing place for exploring the outdoors; If you visit again,  it'll be nice to meet in person.



    ------------------------------
    Shubhneet Singh A.M.ASCE
    Graduate Research Assistant
    Lakewood CO
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 15.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 07-01-2021 10:49 AM
    I work for a small company called Sci-Tek Consultants. The company has a few offices scattered around Pennsylvania, but unfortunately none in Colorado! I would absolutely love to meet you the next time I am out there to hike or ski!

    ------------------------------
    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 16.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 06-30-2021 11:33 AM
    Your post reminded me of my time in Philly doing H&H modeling, but it was a bit different.  Back then, the PWD was under a consent decree to develop the LTCP for its CSO system.  As consultants, we were moved into PWD offices to develop the CSO model for the department with a ridiculously short timeline.  A few of us lived in company apartments in the city.   My day typically consisted of walking to work about 8:00 in the morning and walking home around 10:00 or 11:00 pm.   The non-work highlight of the day was going to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch πŸ˜€.  They were crazy long hours, but it was exciting because we were developing such a large model from scratch.   Back in 1995, GIS and the internet were just getting introduced, so it was amazing to be able to use these new technologies, and how they were changing our ability to model H&H systems.

    ------------------------------
    Timothy Murphy P.E., M.ASCE
    Professor
    Trine University
    Angola IN
    ------------------------------



  • 17.  RE: A (work) day in the life of You

    Posted 07-01-2021 10:17 AM
    Hi Timothy! I would sincerely love to talk to you more about your time spent consulting at PWD. I'm pretty sure that I've spent the past 6 years of my career contributing to the work that you and your original team started. The PWD office probably hasn't changed at all since you were last there.

    ------------------------------
    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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