Career By Design

It is my understanding that a lot of construction projects tend to pick up during the warmer months, and thus I would not be surprised to hear that many people in that field feel much busier than during the winter. That led me to wonder what else might change for people employed in other types of engineering work as well.

I was wondering if anyone else would be willing to provide a brief explanation on how their day-to-day might change with the seasons (if at all).

Are things slower or faster in the summer? Do vacations pick up or is it harder to get in contact with people in your own company or other companies? Does this impact your work?

For my part, I find that my deadlines at work become slightly longer in the summer. I think this is due to the number of people who take time off and causes the whole chain of communication on certain tasks to slow down. Otherwise, there is no project-related reason for things to slow down on my end.

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Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer
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Great discussion! 

In residential, people tend to move around the summer, real estate sales and rental all pickup around the time, so the time to market is usually around then. Winter vacation causes most people to be less active from November to January. 

For collaboration work, amazingly I think our steady pace and office job influences our work habits to shift slightly. Is it because most people travel in the summer so we allocate longer schedule, or do we have longer schedule before the winter, so we take time off. 

Building departments do get more busy in the summer, and the permitting process gets mixed with the residential work as well. 

Taxes and investment ROIs is how the world of investors operate. There may be a tendency to approve and start projects on a cadence, but I'm exactly sure how that works. 

Hope others shed their experiences as well!

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Charles Ou-Yang S.M.ASCE
Yorba Linda CA
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