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In this episode I talk about what high school students and young adults should know about a career in civil engineering. This episode is intended to be a resource that you can share with high school students and their parents to inform them about the profession of civil engineering. You can also view this episode on our YouTube channel.
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In this episode, we focus on a topic that is on everyone’s minds — the coronavirus and how it should be a wake-up call to civil engineers. And we’re discussing this with Michael Paddock, PE, PS, a licensed civil engineer and surveyor. Twenty years ago, Mike was told he had three to six months to live and since then, through Engineers Without Borders (EWB), he’s helped to grow communities around the world. He also talks about his work managing mega civil engineering projects, and the one thing you must be able to handle to do so.
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In this episode, I talk with Áine O’Dwyer, PE, Principal and CEO at Enovate Engineering, about various civil engineering career topics including the challenges she faced when working in the construction industry, starting a new firm, and how she achieved success despite these challenges at such a young age to become a civil engineering CEO.
[Read more…] about TCEP 134: A Young Female Civil Engineering CEO Shares Her Story
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In episode 130 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, our fifth episode in our Women in Civil Engineering series, we’re taking you with us to Hawaii to visit Coffman Engineers. There we talk to Jami Hirota PE, LEED AP, a civil engineer and experienced project manager that manages a quickly growing civil engineering department. Jamie will discuss the impact that major career decisions and transitions as a civil engineer can have on your career and tell us about a very difficult career decision she had to make around leaving the family engineering business and how it has impacted her civil engineering career and her personal life.
[Read more…] about TCEP 130: Dealing with Major Career Decisions and Transitions as a Civil Engineer
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In episode 122 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I provide some strategies for working faster but also working smarter as a civil engineering professional. In today’s fast paced world, engineers need to work faster to get everything on their plates accomplished. Working fast often leads to making many mistakes which can be catastrophic in the civil engineering world, but what if you could work faster, but also smarter? If you can do this, you will be setting yourself up for major success.
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In episode 120 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, you are going to hear interviews from my recent visit to the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) Structures Congress. The interviews will cover both technical and professional development topics related to civil and structural engineering as well as personal development including effective communication skills for engineers.
This is the second of a two part series. The first part can be found here on our new sister podcast The Structural Engineering Channel which you can find in iTunes here.
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In episode 119 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I visit with John M. Keller PE, PMP, who serves as the Executive Director of The New Jersey Turnpike Authority. We talk about the differences between working in the public sector versus private sector and John provides some very specific examples, which may help you if you are deciding between these two career paths.
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In episode 113 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk with Gina Rock who is the Program Delivery Manager at Jacobs. We talk about her career journey from the circus to Disney’s longest flying Tinker Bell (yes she was Tinker Bell) and then into the world of engineering. What I love about this episode is it really emphasizes how it’s never too late to make changes in your career path.
[Read more…] about TCEP 113: How I Went from Tinker Bell into Disaster Recovery
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In episode 111 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I am going to give you five reasons why ALL civil engineers should get field experience on project sites as early on as possible in their careers. The purpose of this episode is to reinforce the importance of on-site experience for civil engineering professionals.
I started out in high school doing land surveying (see photo above) over the summers and it really changed my career. Because of my field experience, I was able to make my designs more practical and create better details for the contractors who had to construct the projects I worked on.
A lot of civil engineers start designing projects immediately, without seeing the project sites, however the problem with this is if you didn’t see the site, there may be a condition out there that you are not aware of. When you are forced to think in reverse and you’ve seen projects built before and then you start to do your design work, those construction issues comes to the forefront of your mind, which forces you to think with the end in mind first.
Civil Engineering to me is about people. We work on project teams, we work with architects, contractors, developers, real estate developers and other engineers constantly. If we are not focused on improving our people skills 100%, we are going to battle to be great civil engineers.
Field experience helps you to learn how to talk to other civil engineering professionals effectively. It improves your overall confidence as an engineer and makes you stand out from the crowd.
Civil engineering managers typically send younger engineers into the field to do inspections, reports etc. While you are young and you have the chance, you should grab the opportunity with both hands as this will have an incredibly positive impact on your engineering career.
Engineering Management Accelerator Workshop (Online) | 5 PDHs
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Engineer to Manager: On-demand
Engineering Management Institute YouTube Channel
ASCE Careers and Leadership Column
EQUATION: The Engineering Management Skills Trilogy Plus the Theory of Constraints Equals Effective Engineering Managers
This episode is brought to you by PPI, the leader of civil engineering FE or PE exam preparations. Visit ppi2pass.com to find essential licensure exam prep books, digital review, and helpful tips and advice.
Please leave your comments or questions in the section below on gaining field experience in your career.
To your success,
Anthony Fasano, PE, LEED AP
Engineering Management Institute
Author of Engineer Your Own Success
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In episode 109 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk with Nils Gransberg, MS on topics related to Construction Engineering. Nils also tells us about the research he is conducting into negotiated bid contracts, and about his military background and experience.
[Read more…] about TCEP 109: Construction Engineering – Communication in Negotiated Bid Contracts
