Engineering Management Institute

UPCOMING TRAINING

TCEP 178: Growing Your Civil Engineering Firm: Being Proactive, Not Reactive

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Growing Your Civil Engineering FirmIn this episode, the seventh in our Civil Engineering Entrepreneurs (CEE) series, I talk to Bonnie Moss, P.E., President at MBCO Engineering, LLC, as part of our Civil Engineering Entrepreneurs series about growing your civil engineering firm and why being proactive offers a business a lot of advantages.

Engineering Quotes:


Growing Your Civil Engineering Firm

Here Are Some of the Questions I Ask Bonnie Moss, P.E.:

  • How has the experience of working for a public agency helped you in growing your (private consulting) company?
  • Do you have a process for identifying who needs training or development to ensure you are consistently developing your people?
  • Do you have specific metrics, measurables, or numbers that you are looking at regularly to monitor the health of your company?
  • Trickling down to the people who work in the company, are they held accountable through key performance indicators?
  • Does your company emphasize capturing core processes that can be practiced consistently throughout the company?
  • How often do you have meetings in your company, and what do those meetings look like?

Here Are Some Key Points Discussed in This Episode About Growing Your Civil Engineering Firm: 

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The Challenges of Achieving Work-Life Balance as a Maintenance Engineer

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This is a guest blog by Bryan Christiansen

Finding an equilibrium between our professional and personal lives is a vital ingredient for boosting productivity and improving our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Behind the elegant facilities and seamless production processes are maintenance engineers who guarantee the reliable and safe operation of equipment. They perform their duties under strict regulations and deadlines.

I ask myself: Are maintenance engineers happy? How do they balance the high levels of stress, frequent burnouts, and personal satisfaction? Here are some of the things that affect the work-life equilibrium and practical solutions to them.

1.  Highly Demanding Responsibilities

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7 Mistakes to Avoid As an Engineering Mentor

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This is a guest blog by Lauren Groff

The mentor/mentee relationship is one that needs to be defined early on to ensure that engineers get what they need out of it. Most of the time it goes great, and everyone is happy. Sometimes though, things go wrong and that’s how relationships get damaged. Because of this, you need to ensure you’re not making the following mistakes as an engineering mentor. Review the mistakes listed below to ensure everyone is on the same page.  

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TGEP 27: Large Diameter Foundations in Geotechnical Engineering

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Large Diameter FoundationsIn this episode, I talk to Kathryn Petek, Ph.D., P.E., a senior associate and geotechnical engineer at Shannon & Wilson, Inc. in Seattle with nearly 20 years of experience in design, construction, and research about large diameter foundations.

Engineering Quotes:

large diameter foundations

large diameter foundations

Here Are Some of the Questions We Ask Kathryn:

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TCEP 177: Civil Engineering Education and Ph.D. Programs in Civil Engineering

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In this episode, that is part of our Women in Civil Engineering (WICE) series, I talk to Eva Lantsoght, Ph.D., a Full Professor at San Francisco de Quito & Assistant Professor at the Delft University of Technology.  We talk about civil engineering education and how it differs throughout several countries. Eva also touches on the impact of COVID-19 on education and provides some advice for engineers considering pursuing their studies and a Ph.D. later in their careers.

Engineering Quotes:

Civil Engineering Education

Civil Engineering Education

Here Are Some of the Questions I Ask Eva:

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What to Learn and When in Your Engineering Career?

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This is a guest blog by Fernando A. Ceballos, P.E.

What does getting ready for graduation, starting a new job, preparing to take your FE/PE, or picking a new hobby have in common? They all require some type of game plan to make progress and include direction of where you want things to go.

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there, and sometimes that road ends up in a place you don’t want to be at.

What Is Relevant Right Now?

Don’t get lost in wanting to learn everything there is to know about everything in your career. Focus on becoming proficient at what you do now, then, as you find time, learn the next skill. There is a balance that must be found between getting ready for the next promotion and not failing to do a good job at your current role.

learn

As an engineer, you may want to eventually take management path and therefore lose focus on the design aspect of your current role. You might fall into the trap of wanting to work on your business development skills, budget/schedule management, etc., and forget that you must learn the design fundamentals of the work you will one day manage. You might fail to realize that without a solid technical foundation, you will struggle to train your future staff.

Developing Your Game Plan

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How to Get a Group of Engineers to Actually Make Decisions

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This is a guest blog by Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA, PMP, CSEP

Engineering, much like other kinds of knowledge work, is fundamentally about making decisions. While factories produce physical devices, engineering teams produce decisions — decisions on how products and services will be designed, implemented, maintained, and retired. Decision-making is at the very core of what we do.

It’s surprising, then, that we have so much trouble actually making decisions within engineering teams. We’ve all been part of meetings where problems were discussed, positions were defended, and at the end, no real decision was made. For many (myself included), it can be one of the most frustrating parts of working in engineering.

In this post, I’ll offer some concrete strategies on how to bring a group of engineers together and actually make decisions.

Make Sure Everyone Knows That a Decision Needs To Be Made Beforehand

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TSEC 54: Timber Structural Systems (in Modern Digital Workflows)

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Timber Structural SystemsIn this episode, we talk to Eli Gould, U.S. Representative at Wood Construction Group, about timber structural systems in modern digital workflows. He talks about some of the challenges in modern timber systems and discusses some of the emerging standards used for data and descriptions in timber structural systems.

Engineering Quotes:

timber structural systems

timber structural systems

timber structural systems

Here Are Some of the Questions We Ask Eli Gould:

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TCEP 176: Working in a Multi-Disciplined Civil Engineering Project Design Team

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civil engineering projectToday is International Women in Engineering Day, and to celebrate the amazing work that women engineers around the world do, we talk to Natalie Carmen, P.E., as part of our Women in Civil Engineering Series. Natalie is a civil engineering project manager with the design, engineering, and planning firm Stewart, and talks about her experience of working in a multi-disciplined civil engineering project design team, and more specifically, about her involvement in the Riverfront Park project, a new, seven-acre destination park on the Wilmington, NC, riverfront.

Engineering Quotes:

project design

project design

Here Are Some of the Questions I Ask Natalie Carmen, P.E.:

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Cost vs Benefit of Getting Your Master’s in Engineering

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This is a guest blog by Drew Allen

Master’s in Engineering'In today’s competitive job market, the more experience and education you have, the better. However, if you’re an engineer and wondering whether furthering your education is the right choice, there are a few things you need to consider. Below, we’ll review both the cost and benefit of earning your master’s degree in engineering. As with any major decision, it’s always better to weigh the pros and cons. And when it comes to getting your master’s in engineering, you want to know you’re making the right decision because there is a significant amount of time, not to mention costs, invested that are associated with taking on this higher education level.

Master’s in Engineering

Pro: More Opportunities

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