Engineering Management Institute

Steve Soldati

How to Approach Mentorship in Your Engineering Career

By

 

This is a guest blog by Steve Soldati, P.E. 

MentorshipWhat do you want out of your career? What are your aspirations? What are your short- and long-term goals? Are you on the right track or are you veering off? These are the questions that many engineers have either thought about or even dug deeper to answer, and then are some who might not have even sat down to think about where they are going. They are just living day-by-day, clocking in, and keeping afloat.

For the record, there is no right answer nor one answer on how any particular person handles their career, job, or contribution to this industry. However, what happens all too often is an engineer can identify their goals, have an idea of where they want to go in their career, but just don’t know where to start or HOW to get there.

This is a scenario that I found myself in many years ago when I was a younger engineer trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my career. Especially in civil engineering, which is a broad industry that has a lot to offer for different career paths. The solution to this dilemma is mentorship. But it’s not quite as formal as you might think it is. You’ll read below about how you can approach a mentorship to tailor to your career and the resources available.

[Read more…] about How to Approach Mentorship in Your Engineering Career

The World of Trenchless Infrastructure Rehabilitation

By

 

This is a guest blog by Steve Soldati, P.E. 

Pipelines that carry flows under pressure represent a special set of challenges for water and sewer rehabilitation. Historically, most pressurized pipelines were rehabilitated using open cut construction. Part of the reason for that choice was a lack of trenchless rehabilitation technologies appropriate for pressurized pipelines. A lack of investment in the aging pressure pipe infrastructure, coupled with increasing congestion both above and below ground, has accelerated development in the trenchless rehabilitation industry.

But there are several trenchless rehabilitation technologies available, so how do you choose between the different technologies? Where do you start? What factors about the project make one rehab solution better than the other? Who are the key players who need to be involved? What questions need to be answered to make an educated decision? There are multiple rehabilitation methods that are feasible, but each one has its own set of pros and cons.

[Read more…] about The World of Trenchless Infrastructure Rehabilitation

Would You Want to Work With You?

By

This is a guest blog by Steve Soldati, P.E.

Work WithPicture this: It’s 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, you’re thinking about where to go for lunch, but you are still waiting for a response from your project team member. You had requested this information via email three weeks ago and every few days you get a, “You should have it soon.” You sent an email earlier that morning asking for an update on the project designs and calculations to incorporate into your plan set, which is due in just one week, but still no word. You go off to lunch, steaming and upset about the lack of urgency and communication of your colleagues.

When you arrive back at the office, you open your inbox to see an email from your team member with the requested design and calculations. “Yes, finally!” you shout out loud. But when you open the email, the design is incomplete, and your team member has additional questions that should have been asked much earlier. You storm over to their desk to chew them out and tell them how poorly they performed. You tell them they need to communicate better, learn to design properly, and take responsibility for their work. Then you head back to your desk to rework the design, spending many additional hours to get it ready for the upcoming deadline. And you grow even more frustrated and stressed because there is still so much on your plate that needs to be done, but you are now worried that won’t happen. This causes you to become even more uneasy, cranky, and unpleasant to be around.

[Read more…] about Would You Want to Work With You?

TCEP 074: How to Communicate Effectively on Civil Engineering Projects

By

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

How to Communicate Effectively on Civil Engineering Projects

Civil Engineering Projects

In episode 074 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk with Steve Soldati, PE about how to communicate effectively on civil engineering projects.

Here are some of the questions I ask Steve about communicating effectively on civil engineering projects :

  • Why is communication important for engineering professionals?
  • What are some things you have done to improve your skills?
  • Are there any tools that you use or recommend to improve/streamline communications?
  • Can you give examples of positive/negative communication instances in your career?
  • Talk about team communication early in project development.
  • Tell us about conflict resolution within a team.

Engineering Quotes:

Civil Engineering Projects

Civil Engineering Projects

Here are some key points discussed in this episode:

[Read more…] about TCEP 074: How to Communicate Effectively on Civil Engineering Projects