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In this episode of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk to Ron Burg, P.E., the Executive Vice President of the American Concrete Institute, also known as ACI. Ron discusses some interesting trends in the world of concrete, but also provides some important strategies for career development for civil engineering professionals based on his long and successful career journey.
As I sit to write a blog about People Disappointment Management 101, I hear the song “God Is Great, Beer Is Good, and People Are Crazy” playing on the radio. At first, the song was nothing more than a typical country song about life with a country play on word humor. I heard this song many times, but it wasn’t until this time in my life, which is filled with an abundance of fear and unknowns, that I heard this song differently. I believe this song represents the best way to explain People Disappointment Management 101.
I believe that our disappointments lie within our expectations of an event or person. When our expectations are not met, we create a narrative that validates that we are “right” and the event/person is “wrong.”
I am an engineer who lives for data points. This model works great for me because I continuously find data to prove my disappointment as accurate. From an ego standpoint, this works very well because all the narratives that I’ve lived by or believed made me “right.” However, what I learned through my 20-plus years of living according to a spreadsheet is that many past relationships ended in my life with the other person walking away defeated. Hey, but I won — or did I?
There was a time in my life that I knew I needed to change the way that I lived — that it no longer served me and I was ready for a “Cool Change” (another great song!). I started on this journey into uncharted territory and found that there was a whole new way of living, and it could help me to create the life I was desperately searching for.
For me, it started with being able to manage my disappointments in people. There are three key standards specific to personal relationships that we choose to live our lives in, and they tie right back to “God Is Great, Beer Is Good, and People Are Crazy.”
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In episode 128 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, which is our third episode in our Women in Civil Engineering series, I visit with Michelle Briehof, P.E. who is a project manager at Maser Consulting.
Michelle talks about some of the non-technical aspects and actions you can take as a civil engineering professional to build confidence and equip yourself as a well rounded civil engineering professional. She walks us through her career journey, from the beginning of her career up to where she is now and the experiences that have helped her to attain her position. She also tells us about the Maser Women’s Organization and how it has helped all employees at Maser, men and women, to build confidence and get the necessary exposure needed to become well-rounded engineering professionals.
[Read more…] about TCEP 128: Becoming a Well Rounded Civil Engineering Professional
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In this episode, you’re going to listen in on a conversation between me and Fernando A. Ceballos, P.E. Fernando will share some strategies that he’s used to realize success in his career at such a young age. He will also talk about how being a member of our Engineering Management Institute has helped him in his career.
[Read more…] about TECC 183: Career Reflection: 5 Actions a Young Engineer Took to Realize Success
How to begin your speech planning and design is a guest post by Shoots Veis, P.E.
A long time ago in a conference room far, far away, speakers used to give their presentations using a slide projector. Before computers were easy to move around, the slide projector was the all-in-one machine used to put graphics on the screen during a presentation. You may have heard of the Kodak Slide Carousel. You may have even used one in a presentation or two. To use the carousel, the graphics the speaker wanted to show during the presentation were made into slides. Those slides were loaded into a wheel and as the wheel advanced, a new slide was projected on the screen.
[Read more…] about How to Begin your Speech Planning and Design
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In episode 077 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk with Christian Knutson, P.E., PMP, who has hosted several episodes of this podcast. Chris provided a framework that he has used to make many career transitions, and also talked about building the confidence needed to make engineering career transitions.
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In episode 76 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I interview two guests that work in the Civil Engineering world and have worked on very special projects that are helping our community and the world as a whole. They are Alan Lloyd, CIH, CSP, Associate Vice President and Corporate Health and Safety Officer from Pennoni, and Menzer Pehlivan, Ph.D., P.E., from CH2M who was one of the stars in the Dream Big Movie.
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In episode 073 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk with Shaun McGrath, P.E., CCM, a successful young division leader at a successful civil engineering company about career navigation through the early portions of your engineering career.
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In episode 72 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk with Kelly Dooley ASCE’s Director of the Raise the Bar initiative and Brad Aldrich from Aldrich + Elliott on ASCE’s Raise the Bar initiative which is focused on closing the education gap for future civil engineers. We will also be answering some questions from the ASCE LinkedIn group on the Raising the Bar initiative. [Read more…] about TCEP 072: Raise the Bar: Closing the Education Gap for the Future Civil Engineer
Public Speaking Opportunities is a guest post by Shoots Veis, P.E.
To get better at public speaking, you need to practice public speaking. It may not seem like it, but there are many public speaking opportunities out there. When you are not a seasoned public speaker, you should be looking for any chance to get out there and deliver a speech. Ask the people you work with about public speaking opportunities available to employees. Many companies encourage their employees to join Toastmasters and will provide the resources needed to participate.
[Read more…] about The Best Ways to Find Public Speaking Opportunities Around You
