List of Contributions

Mr. Mitchell M Winkler, P.E., R.Eng, M.ASCE

Contact Details

Contact information, job title, education, and license are populated by the ASCE Membership database. You can edit your account here. Please allow 12 hours for the changes to appear in ASCE Collaborate. 

Mr. Mitchell Winkler, P.E., R.Eng, M.ASCE


My Content

1 to 20 of 38 total

RE: Mid-Level AppliCANT or CAN?

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 01-27-2023 10:19 AM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
A great resource is the ASCE Guidelines for Engineering Grades. See https://www.asce.org/career-growth/early-career-engineers/asce-guidelines-for-engineering-grades. This resource provides sense of what progressive responsibility entails in measurable terms. While not perfect – nothing ever is – it provides ...

RE: ChatGPT - its value and concerns within the industry

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 01-23-2023 08:02 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
I learned about this from some friends back in December and have gotten on the https://chat.openai.com/chat platform a couple of times out of curiosity. Prompted by your post I entered the following query "how do you find and retain change makers in an organization" that some might recognize as a question ...

RE: Ubiquitous Use of the Word "Engineer"

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 06-28-2022 01:32 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
Thanks for sharing you research. I knew implicitly that 'Ing' at the end of someone's name (predominately Europe) designated that they were an an engineer but never stopped to ask why. Shame on me. ------------------------------ Mitch Winkler P.E., M.ASCE Houston, TX -------------------------- ...

RE: Tips for a vacation being a vacation

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 05-11-2022 05:39 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
Two information security tips while you are out of the office. The first is to not put your email address or phone number - or those for others - in your automatic out of office reply. The approach I followed was to identify an individual who was to be contacted in my absence if the need arose and to ...

RE: Daylight Savings Deliberations - Personal and Professional

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 03-28-2022 10:12 AM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
I have mixed feelings about the subject. The 'longer' days in during the winter months would be a definite plus; however, the downside is the house feeling like a cave when one wakes up and a dark commute (or in my case having to pack my car to go cycling while it's still dark). I have not done a scientific ...

RE: Why Don't You Respond? (Building Online Confidence)

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 12-03-2021 09:42 AM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
Taking a positive slant on this topic If you are are seasoned civil engineer, Collaborate is a low-cost way of giving back to the profession and being leaders. It can be as simple as lending your support where you see a good idea or best practice discussed or providing expert perspective on a topic.  ...

RE: As a civil engineer, what's the one civil engineering tool that you use every day?

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 10-14-2021 02:07 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
Good communication is essential. On top of this, the number one tool I use is mindset that asks 1) where are we now, 2) where do we want to go and 3) how do we get there. This approach has never let me down for helping bring a group or discussion from chaos to clarity. From my personal experience, just ...

RE: Workflow (in)efficiencies

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 10-01-2021 02:03 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
Stu: Great article and approach. I would expand written guidance to include process maps. These could show workflow steps at a proscriptive or performance based level depending upon task and skill and experience of those performing the work. The normal sequence of a project follows a process (e.g., assessment, ...

RE: Personal observations ("ground-truthing") after major events

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 09-07-2021 05:48 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
Being respectful of the human and material tragedies associated with major events such as Ida, I think there's huge value for practicing civil engineers – regardless of specialty - to take stock of what happened and ask questions including why did it happen and could it have been prevented.  This includes ...

RE: The Impact of Performance Reviews

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 09-02-2021 09:05 AM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
To add to the conservation: A leader in one of my former organizations use to say "feedback is a gift". This was usually targeted at the receiver, to soften a possibly difficult message.  Feedback is also a git that leaders can deliver as a means of developing staff and bringing out the best in individuals ...

RE: The Impact of Performance Reviews

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 08-30-2021 08:30 AM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
This is a great question and has prompted the following observations. 1. A performance review is a lagging indicator. 2. In an ideal world, performance is directly linked to delivering results and delivering on promises.  3. Progression generally requires looking ahead to the next career rung and ...

RE: Interruptions/tangent ideas during presentations and meetings

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 08-04-2021 10:06 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
Your post brings back a lot of bad memories: of meetings having gone off the rails, meetings turning into 'talk shops' and meetings getting hijacked. As a pre-emptive step, always make sure you have a clear set of of objectives and end in mind going into the meeting and it's been well-communicated. When ...

RE: Free Company Swag

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 07-12-2021 08:57 AM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
I have mixed feelings on company swag. A lot of stuff I received - I'm sure all given with good intentions - fell into the category of stuff I really did not need. Also, a lot of was junk. Like Chris's pen comment, no multitool is better than a cheap knock off.   I think swag is best when it's thoughtful, ...

RE: Looking for ideas for a summer project

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 06-27-2021 02:00 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
Hi Charles, Here are a few suggestions. The book suggestions are not about engineering, but you will soon see the parallels and connections. Learn about the role cognitive biases play in human behavior. Three fun books: Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Thinking Fast and Slow ...

RE: ASCE Landmarks - Share your Photos & Stories!

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 06-27-2021 02:00 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
Growing up I spent countless weekends with my Father and sometimes Mother and siblings exploring the remnants of the Middlesex Canal. The canal, opened in 1803, connected textile mills in Lowell MA to Boston Harbor. It operated for about 50 years before being replaced by rail. It's been recognized by ...

RE: Civil Engineering and Design Thinking

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 06-21-2021 05:30 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
I read the interview with Oliver Broadbent and watched the interview with Brent Darnell. They both articulate the need for ideation to solve the problems of today and tomorrow and cite the role that cognitive biases play in disabling new ideas. I thought Darnell provided a compelling list of attributes ...

RE: What do you think of social media?

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 06-02-2021 02:19 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
This is a great question and I hope will spark some good discussion and insight. I think social media has many virtues - an example for me is staying in touch with far flung friends and acquaintances - but like anything, needs to be used carefully and intentionally. To this latter point, social media ...

RE: Professional Development - Your Experience

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 05-12-2021 10:04 AM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
Greg, I think your response should be a must read for all practicing engineers. You also, in your last paragraph, expressed what I have always felt in far more professional terms than I might have used. Your characterization of the PDHs as prompt also resonates with me. While I find the annual ethics ...

RE: How to Crack Company Culture

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 04-30-2021 09:48 AM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
I like Heidi's advice on following up on leads and connections. As for asking questions during an interview, a strategy that avoids putting people on the spot with an open ended question is to ask more directed questions that don't require a value judgment. A general approach would be to identify what's ...

RE: Cultural Expectations for Infrastructure

Posted By Mitchell Winkler 04-13-2021 04:17 PM
Found In Egroup: Career By Design \ view thread
I agree this is a fun topic and insightful as well. I had the privilege of living in the Netherlands for four years.  A feature I found surprising was the amount of green space. This was despite the high population density of the country. I have no doubt this was a result of strict land control laws ...