Featured Guest Blogger: William Merunka
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Career development is something that is never completed.  It is like an uncharted road trip with friends.  You start out with one objective, and when you think you have accomplished it and it’s time to go home, a new objective comes to life and the trip continues.   Along the road there will be good times and bad times, fun times and serious times, and relationships can be strengthened or broken on these adventures.  One thing for sure is that there will always be distractions.   Sometimes the distractions will be valuable and other times it will just have a negative impact on your objective.

A good distraction is one where you are taken off course, but in the end brought back on course, or even advanced further than you expected.  An example is going out to dinner with an old friend or colleague and being presented with an opportunity to move up within your company, or take a higher management position in another company.  An example of a bad distraction would be going out bar hopping with your friends and getting trashed the night before a big presentation or client meeting.  Today, I will talk about some ways to control some of the most common negative distractions that you are likely to be faced with on your road to success.

1. You’re too tired after work and will put it off until the following night.  This is something that is really easy to give in to.  The problems with giving in is that more than likely the following night you will also feel too tired, or have something else to do.  Eventually this would turn into an easy excuse for you not to do something on a daily basis.  The best way to overcome this distraction is to try and do the tasks at a different time.  If possible, wake up an hour earlier and work on these tasks before you go to work.  Another option would be to work on them at lunch time.  It is important to realize that when trying to advance your career or leadership skills, you need to give it your full attention.  If you only put in 20%, you are only going to accomplish 20%.
2. People telling you that you can’t do something or that you are wasting your time doing something. Every individual has their own objectives and interests.  What somebody may see as useless, can be a treasure to your career.  The biggest thing to remember is that it is your career, and ultimately it is up to you to decide what is good for you.  You can ask for guidance, but you shouldn’t do something just because somebody tells you too.  Consider their advice and evaluate how it coincides with your goals.
3. Family. Family has got to be one of the most encountered experiences as well as one of the most critical distractions.  Family is very important and you should always make it a point to enjoy family time and do things together.  While you do not want to push your family away, you also don’t want your family to become your sole purpose for living.   It will be hard, but sometimes you have to say no.  Explain to your family why your career and what you are working to accomplish is important and they will understand.  Besides yourself, they will be your number one fan, and will be there through the good and the bad.  They will be the first ones to help you up if you stumble.  However, if you do not let them know what you are working on, they will never know when you stumble, and it may be too late for them to help you out if you have already hit rock bottom.
4. Social Life. With the stresses of work and life in general, quality time with some friends is a great way to blow off steam and bring you back to normal.  While friends are great to relax and enjoy life, they also make it easy to forget about those tasks that are causing the stress.  While friends can be a good short time solution, or emergency bailout, you need to focus on stopping the stress at the source.  One of the things that make this distraction even more difficult is that wide range of friends that you might have.  If you are an engineer, some of your friends may be teachers, or salesman, travel agents, or still in school.  This can result in them having more free time and wanting to do more things than fit in your schedule.  IT will be hard, but there will be times when you need to tell them no to work on your own goals and agenda.  One way around this is to set up routine events with your friends, so that you don’t drive them away.  For example, maybe you meet up at a local pub once a week to catch a sports game, or join a bowling league together.  This way you still get to go out with your friends while having time to work on your goals.

While you can work to minimize the negative effect that distractions has on your career, it is important to realize that no matter how hard you may try, you will never avoid all of them.  This is just a part of life, and something that we need to deal with as it arises.  Unlike in a laboratory or a movie, we cannot control every single aspect of life.  The best that we can do is learn how to deal with the situations as we encounter them, and work to avoid them from happening again in the future.

What are some major negative distractions that you encounter?  How do you deal with them?

July 4th is celebrated in the United States of America as a day of independence, in remembrance of that day in 1776 when the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence announcing that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire.  These colonies were free from the empire and were given the ability to make their own decisions.

This is how we should look at our careers.  Yes, you may work for a company or government agency, but you still have the right and responsibility to make your own career decisions.  Your company certainly may support you in your career but they are not going to tell you what direction or what path you should take, you must decide that.  If they do try to tell you what path to take, remember, you are not part of any empire, you are an independent professional.

How many of you reading this article are small business owners?  I would make an argument that every person reading this article is a small business owner and your business is YOU!  In today’s economy, no company is necessarily stable, no job is safe, no paycheck is guaranteed, and therefore we are all working and making decisions for ourselves.

The second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, which has been called “one of the best-known sentences in the English language,” reads:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

So always remember that along your path of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, continually advance your career wherever and whenever you can, because no matter where you go professionally your career always comes with you!

Anthony Fasano, P.E., LEED AP, CPESC, CPSWQ, CPC

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This is an article I wrote for Phil Richards blog about building relationships through LinkedIn.  I hope this is helpful to you in your career advancement efforts!

Read full article.

Anthony Fasano, P.E., LEED AP, CPESC, CPSWQ, CPC

www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyjfasano
www.facebook.com/anthony.j.fasano
www.twitter.com/anthonyjfasano
Join my Linkedin Engineering Career Development Group

Featured Guest Blogger: Robert Mote

Motagg’s Blog by Robert Mote

Let’s connect on LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/robertmote

This can attack at any time in your professional life. It is a cultural disease and fairly contagious without treatment. Even if it is successfully treated it there is a chance of relapse. It is not just the peril of students life.

The symptoms are identifiable:

• Boredom

• Stressed

• Impatience

• Agreeing without checking

• Cutting corners

• Not asking questions

• Working alone

• Repetitive work, turning the wheel

• On cruise control

• Lacking challenge

The treatment usually requires one or more of the following therapy:

• Set a goal for the future

• Go the extra mile

• Exercise

• Share the issues with a buddy

• Focus on what interests you

• Identify the crux of the problem

• Specialize your passion

• Socialize

• Ask curious questions

• Develop a parallel personal project

• Use a diary, record your days, hopes and dreams

We are all affected by our environment, colleagues, relationships and responsibilities. They consume our awareness totally leaving little room for little else. My old buddy aptly described apathy as “sigh…tired of moving forward.” The greatest antidote to apathy is a dream, a belief in the future. So regardless of the daily demands on our mental resources and physical stamina, keep a candle burning brightly, to hope. Affirm it daily. Even so, I believe apathy precedes a period of great change and I have the experience of that, more than once.

Even after more than twenty years in the business, I know well, apathy can strike hard. Today, my brain is shutting down and I don’t know what to blog about. The site job is going very well but I am going through a quiet patch, we are settling into summer mode as the holiday season approaches and I find myself falling asleep during the day. Should I see a doctor? I haven’t felt this way for years! When, I return to camp and my room, I am bored. I don’t know what to do with myself. And still I am tired. This is unheard of in my usually busy schedule but I know I have fallen into apathy.

I remember the last time I felt this way too well. It was nine years ago and I was in limbo land, between projects and not knowing which way to turn. I was waiting for something to happen. Jobs were hard to find and there was no ‘freedom’ to leave the company; my wife pregnant with twins on the way and the mortgage on the new house were compelling reasons to stay. That was Holland at the time of 9/11. The politics of the terrorist strike in New York had an immediate domino effect on the workload in Holland. Project after projects, based in the Middle East were shelved, delayed or suspended, overnight. For a period of nine months, there was a sense of not knowing what to do and I was trapped by responsibilities so I became apathetic, frozen in the headlight glare of the future. I had spent the last few years developing electronic-style calculations and developing technical expertise in dynamic structures but now we were waiting for something to happen, twiddling thumbs. I wanted to stay so as not to rock the boat of my current obligations but I was ready to move on and didn’t know how to.

After nine months and five remarkable years, the company had to let me go so I had to find the tools for change. This was a start of an incredible period of my professional career. I was looking for new challenges in the UK nuclear field and about to sign up until I was encouraged to continue in the Oil and Gas field, on my terms. Some of my terms were that my civil/structural team would do electronic-style calculations, engineers would get computer training in Microsoft Office and I would get to lead a project.

We relocated to the UK and I was now lead engineer on a lump-sum joint-venture project with South Koreans in Kuwait. I applied everything I knew and the project completed under budget and on schedule. I traveled to Los Angeles, Seoul, Kuwait, Rome and had a small team aligned and performing to my standards. After the project completion and finishing a fantastic parallel study into an innovative pipeline anchorage design for a Kazakhstan project (saved for another post), I resettled to Calgary and got involved in workshare coordination.

Against a wall of cynicism and apathy in the Canadian office, I applied again all the tricks of the trade regards Microsoft Office and taught the workshare team in New Delhi. We achieved the impossible deadline. I traveled to New Delhi and showed them what I was looking for and how to do it. After six months, we completed the project goals. I was delighted by the success. This was the time I thought to write my books about electronic-style calculations.

Another project beckoned and I agreed to take on bigger workshare teams based in Edmonton, Charleston and Mumbai. I repeated the same process. On a megaproject, we had completed the calculations and checked them within budget and prior to approved drawings. The success of the main piperack design with the Mumbai team (over 300 modules) had no rework or revisions. All piperack stick-built steel and modules were installed as per schedule. I got my confirmation, it wasn’t a “one-trick”  pony.

Now, I work on site mopping up the details and I see the huge gaps between design and reality. To tackle the apathy spiral, I have created a parallel study that is gaining a lot of interest. My latest idea is building the awareness of how quality engineering work can make a fundamental impact on project execution, costs and schedules.

I have survived an Alberta Oilsands megaproject from concept to turnover. I have seen every step of the way from the blank paper to field erection. I have followed a line on the drawing through fabrication, to the module yard, through transportation to field installation. I have interacted with every single participant at every level. We listened, optimized and improved their productivity and incorporated it into the design. I have seen what contractors actually do in the field and the engineer in the design office doesn’t know it. I have seen how the roles of the construction and project managements created a unique culture in the Oilsands; so different to the rest of the world. It has been one helluva ride!

It is more than ‘Lessons Learned’. It is more than a list of two hundred issues and 500 photos. It is a team-building alignment session so that the next structural team does not sleep through the next design but become active participants in the quest for improved designs that will impact project performance. It is knowledge that can profoundly affect the way engineers can work in Alberta. The engineering profession, the engineering houses, the clients and Alberta reputation for innovation can benefit. The knowledge reaches far beyond the current project, it is applicable to every megaproject in Alberta.

Unfortunately, Alberta has the greatest propensity for apathy within the engineering profession. The ‘iron ring’ culture cannot fix it. The engineering profession has found itself in a backseat, subordinate role to construction and project management teams. I am wrestling with those issues. The truth is I am apathetic now. The luxury to say it is not trivial but critical to the treatment. It has a vicious downward spiral most people would recognise.

I have been on the same project five years now and feel compelled to take what I have learned to the next level. But the apathy of my colleagues and managers is overwhelming me. Where the idea of “ignorance is bliss” served me well nine years ago, I cannot say that now. Does anybody believe me, really? I could disappear tomorrow and it won’t make a blind bit of difference to my employers. Oh dear, that is not positive thinking! It is a pity that they do not understand my message. I am an engineer, they are managers. Is that a touch of inferiority complex? The cultural rush of the last decade to put project management in pole position and engineering in support role needs to change. Engineering must win back the crown and we can do that by collaboration.

The financial crisis of 2009 forced many clients in the Oilsands to consider Lump-sum contract approaches. Returning to the lump-sum culture will be positive for engineers and enable them the opportunity to reclaim the role of construction coordinators and managers. The ascendancy of “project” management of the last twenty years has peaked and they have not performed too well, against a century and a half of engineering. Management is about global, speed and profit and driving for the lowest denominator. Sadly, engineers are begging to become project engineers losing the opportunity to develop their technical expertise.

At the heart of it, I know the civil/structural engineering profession can have a profound effect in addressing the staggering cost overruns of megaprojects in Alberta but we have to step up to the plate. A contracts manger explained to me about the cost multipliers. He said if the design change is done at the time of engineering design then it is 1 dollar. A design change during fabrication is 4 dollars, during module assembly is seven dollars or on site is 10 dollars. I spent three years during design phase being told not to waste time and pass the problems to site, site will sort it out. Now I see the consequences every day on site. The design is so cheap now but the site costs have other hidden and horrendous multipliers due to scaffolding, delay in information, inexperience and poor alignment.

Many people said my ideas about electronic-style calculations would never catch on but I persisted and I know now that it will happen. This idea of quality in calculations and professional responsibility was my ‘baby’ nine years ago and I can let it go now. I broke the apathy spiral. Along the way I got involved with how engineers could become “dynamic” and break the “transactional” culture of the last fifteen years. I want my next mission to stand and deliver in Alberta to a wider audience, prove that civil/structural engineering holds the key to innovation, project performance and excellence.

I will light the candle to my biggest hope yet.

I missed one from the list, kill the apathy with a holiday! Enjoy yours.

The engineering curriculum at many colleges is among the most tedious and time consuming of all majors.  While students in other majors can spend a portion of junior year and most of senior year “enjoying” their college lives, engineers are often up late at night in the labs and libraries working on design projects and research papers.  Isn’t it a great feeling to finally get that engineering degree on graduation day?  The question then becomes, where do I go now?

Guest blogger William Merunka touched on some similar points in his inspirational article last week, however I have had so many inquiries from graduates about their current situations that I felt this topic warranted another post.

The bottom line is that the economy is still in rough shape and most engineering companies are still not hiring, but that doesn’t mean you should give up at all.  There is a great quote by an unknown person that goes, “When you want your goal badly enough, feel the intensity of it, let it fuel your waking thoughts and actions, let it influence you in all ways possible and let nothing get in the way of achieving it.”  I keep that quote taped to my monitor and refer to it regularly for inspiration and motivation, and it works very well.

I understand that being a graduate and having “nowhere to turn” with respect to a career in your field can be extremely frustrating, but it also might provide an opportunity for other things.  There have been several discussions on LinkedIn and other sites about what to do while unemployed.  Here are a few that I would like to offer.  Please note some of these may or not be financially affordable at the time, but I am throwing out everything I have:

• Use some of this time to travel to places you have always wanted to go or visit family or friends,
• Spend some extra time with your children because you never know when a job may come along and how demanding it will be,
• Spend some time in the local libraries reading career advancement and personal development books to get ahead, or read books that you have always wanted to read purely for enjoyment,
• Look for career advancement courses at your local library (these are usually FREE),
• Stay up to date on your industry through websites, blogs, magazines, etc.,
• Attend networking events wherever and whenever you can.  There are usually fairly low cost events through the local chamber of commerce.
• Improve upon your public speaking and presenting skills through taking a course, joining a Toastmasters chapter or reading books on those topics.  These skills are so critical to career advancement and will help during the interviewing process.
• Spend time thinking of skills that set you apart from others, that you can discuss in your interviews.
• If you do take a temporary job outside of your industry (absolutely nothing wrong with doing this), look to improve skills on the job that will apply to a job in your industry, i.e. people skills.
• Improve your writing skills in any way possible as writing is so important in our world yet so underrated.  Some of the e-mails I have seen go out…..ughhhh!

Whatever you do, don’t give up and don’t compromise your true passions.  The job you want is out there and you are on the path to finding it.  The path isn’t always flat and straight, but no matter what path you have stumbled upon, there is opportunity in it somewhere, you just have to find it.

All of that hard work in college will pay off.

Happy Trails!

Please feel free to comment and leave any other helpful tips for those looking to find a job right now.

Anthony Fasano, P.E., LEED AP, CPESC, CPSWQ, CPC

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Featured Guest Blogger: William Merunka

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This time of the year is one that I hold very close to my heart.  Four years ago my name was called and I walked across the stage and grabbed that piece of paper that I and so many other people have worked so hard for.  That piece of paper was my College Diploma, and the feeling that filled me up when it touched my hand was incredible.  It was not the piece of paper that I was excited for, it was the end of a challenging journey, which was symbolized by the piece of paper.  I was ready to enter the real world and help solve the world’s problems while being an active member of the Civil Engineering industry.  While the past 4 years have not gone as I had imagined they would as I walked across that stage, I have learned a lot of valuable lessons and would not trade the experience in for anything.

If you asked me 4 years ago what I would be doing in 2010, I would have said “working towards my PE license and making a difference in the world.”  One of the major lessons I learned after graduation, is that things do not always go the way you envision them to go.  While this may be disappointing at first, when you look at the big picture, it’s not so bad.  Just because we may stray from the paved road, it does not mean we are a failure.  Each of us needs to go out there and create our own paths, some may be on mapped roads, and some may be in the open country.

While the economy is not the best right now, and jobs are hard to come by, the one thing that you can never forget is that ultimately you have control of your career, how far you get and where it takes you.  In today’s current market, it is important to keep an open mind.  Just because something doesn’t go the way you think it should, or it’s not done the way you were taught in college does not automatically make it wrong.  Whatever position you are in, always look for the positive side and think about what you can learn from it.  How can this unwanted position or task help you reach your ultimate goals?  For example, my goal is to become a great engineer, who people rely on and call on to solve challenging problems.  I also want to mentor younger engineers, which from my experience, there seems to be a disconnection from older engineers, and the younger engineers trying to get in the field.  In my current position, I am not working for an engineering company, and my work consists mainly on project approvals from property management companies and dealing with client warranty issues.  In this position, I have learned to work with a myriad of coworkers and clients, and have also learned how to better manage my time to get everything done.  At first, it may appear that my position has nothing to do with my goal, but it does.  The client and management interaction skills, coupled with my time management skills will help me greatly once I’m in the engineering field working directly with clients.  I will be able to effectively communicate with the clients as well as municipal officials, while also finding a solution to the problem at hand. 

At times, you will not be able to see how your current situation will help your career.  It is at these moments that you need to step back and look at the situation as an outsider.  Often times we have so much going on that we seem to only focus on the now.  We need to keep our minds open and look at the bigger picture, and see how all parts of your life combine to finish the puzzle.
The other thing that you need to remember is that it is your career and ultimately your actions and decisions will make or break it.  Don’t do things just because somebody tells you that you should do it.  Take control of your career and believe in yourself.  I would like to finish by saying congratulations to the Class of 2010 and welcome to the real world.  I look forward to working alongside you and reading about the wonderful things that you accomplish on a professional and personal level.

Based on what I have seen in the engineering industry, it seems that well rounded engineers, advance much more rapidly than others.  This statement is not as obvious as it may sound when first reading it.  Wouldn’t you think that an engineer who is a design superstar that can crank out top notch design after top notch design would quickly climb the ranks?  Wouldn’t an engineer with profound managerial skills, ride those skills to the top?

It seems like what ends up happening is that the design superstar is so good at designing that they don’t end up doing anything else.  They design so efficiently and they enjoy it so much that they don’t really bother learning other skills and the company is enjoying their productivity so they go along with it.  The super manager can certainly manage people but when it comes time to get his or her hands dirty and jump into a technical situation to solve a problem, their weakness shows and it detracts from their overall managerial value.

I think that it is certainly the responsibility of the engineer to take the initiative and better themselves in all aspects of their career development, assuming they want to advance.  Some engineers may just want to design forever, and if that’s their choice, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  I also think that colleges and engineering companies should consider more training with regards to soft skills and managerial skills to assist engineers in this process.  Here are some of my thoughts on facilitating more well rounded engineers in today’s society:

Engineers:  Take advantage of any training or mentoring available to you, especially with respect to soft skills including networking, communication, management, sales, etc.  If training isn’t available, seriously consider teaching yourself.  How?  Attend low cost non-credit or community school courses to learn these skills.  Read or listen to books on these various topics on your lunch break or during your commute each day.  All of these things are helping develop your career, and even if you change companies, all of these skills come with you.

Colleges:  Please consider implementing some type of career development course into your curriculum to prepare engineers for the non-technical part of their career.  Most schools don’t teach engineers how to communicate, how to network, how to take advantage of professional associations, how to manage, etc.  A simple course could be implemented to teach engineers some of these skills, and in my opinion, give them a real jump start on their career!

Companies:  Consider investing in some type of training or coaching program that teaches these soft skills through one-on-one or small group sessions.  While there is an expense associated with this, the overall value it can bring to your organization may be priceless.  While I think that you can learn some really great things at a one or two day seminar, I think that a consistent long term program will help to really develop these skills on a permanent basis.

I hope this article inspires you to start considering ways that you can develop new skills to compliment your existing skill set and help you to advance your career further!

What are some things that you have done throughout your career to further develop yourself and be as well rounded as possible?

Anthony Fasano, P.E., LEED AP, CPESC, CPSWQ, CPC

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This week I was a guest blogger for civilengineeringcentral.com.  Check out my post “Engineers Do Great Things, Whether People Realize It or Not.”

Click Here for Article!

Anthony Fasano, P.E., LEED AP, CPESC, CPSWQ, CPC

www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyjfasano
www.facebook.com/anthony.j.fasano
www.twitter.com/anthonyjfasano
Join my Linkedin Engineering Career Development Group

Featured Guest Blogger: Robert Mote

Motagg’s Blog by Robert Mote

Let’s connect on LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/robertmote

One of the interesting habits I’ve seen along the way through my career is the abnormal attachment some structural engineers have for MathCAD. I understand some of the reasons, it may be something learned at university and the interest kept alive. It might be that it adds value intrinsically to the experience, the engineers enjoys using it because it is supported by many examples. The MathCAD software library is loaded with engineering examples so it seems a natural extension of oneself as an engineer.

As an engineer, I have used MathCAD in pursuit of research, calculating free-convective heat transfer properties or the Boussinesq Bulb of Pressure. I must admit I would never use it to calculate the theoretical wind load to be applied to a piperack in StaadPro. If truth be told, in a profession where the only mathematical excitement may be an occasional square root; as a practicing engineer, I haven’t yet found a power use for MathCAD.

There’s two kinds of engineers, the scientist and the plumber. A scientist engineer focuses on accuracy, details, formulae and precision between reality and calculations. A plumber engineer approximates, uses experience, is practical and reasonable. When I see the calculation I want to see the numbers at play that reassures me more than seeing the formula. Seeing the numbers I can check the units, the order of magnitude, and the relevance of the parameters. That is only true if one knows how to use Excel to do just that; use the concatenate formula. A long word for something many engineers overlook but need to know in Excel!

I am the ‘plumber’ engineer. I do not need accuracy but sometimes I will revert to the scientist approach for the sticky bits, however I still prefer Excel over MathCAD any day. I can cut fourteen pages of MathCAD to one page in Excel. Checking MathCAD reports are dull and time-consuming and formulaic-driven. I see a term used in an equation and I cannot find its definition, or value, without flipping back through pages and searching……sigh….and I don’t know what the value is, is it critical I will ask? The engineer shrugs.

Using MathCAD, an engineer calculates the wind load on a beam is 0.854 kN/m and 0.923 kN/m on a column; I might just apply 1 kN/m everywhere, is that wrong? We have onerous load factors as well because we are so uncertain! I have seen engineers spend a few days developing the little routines to calculate the wind load precisely….when it can be figured in two minutes. These stories abound and always will but I believe MathCAD is a poor choice as a power tool for most plumber engineers. It is like using chainsaw to cut butter when a knife will do. In a culture that welcomes 3D and complex analyses, MathCAD can add to the pending confusion of the structural engineer’s role.

Excel is my recommendation, as a power tool for engineers. It is a pity that Microsoft did not work hard enough to make it ‘engineer’ friendly but I am working on it. With only 10 percent of Excel, it is incredible what is achievable in producing engineering standard calculations. MathCAD is highly ‘user-aware’ and that is a credit. In the drawing office though, nine times out of ten, the formula is basic A + B = C so using MathCAD like an abacus leaves me scratching my head.

The key is to understand the defaults, control the defaults, use visuals and show the numbers. If you can do that, many more engineers will be coming to your desk to ask you about your Excel experience, your spreadsheets and your opinions. Whatever side of the line you find yourself, ask yourself is this the best tool for you, the checker, the reader or the project. Look far into your future and ask yourself, does this help me? In using Excel though, there is a way to design an engineering standard spreadsheet/tool that will far exceed MathCAD, your reader’s expectations and improve the productivity on the project. Your future as an engineer is not in MathCAD, but is in accumulating your design experience, replicating it, in managing, leading and inspiring the team. Excel will give you those skill sets.

 You can try a 7-days free trial ebook and learn how to apply Excel to achieve engineering standard spreadsheets. see http://www.motagg.com/ebooks

Over the past few weeks I had the pleasure of speaking on career development to the ASCE Chapters in Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester, New York.  It was a great experience in which I met some very interesting, talented and motivated engineers and engineering students.  The seminar attendees included a combination of student members, younger member groups and local chapters.

Career Development in Syracuse

I started out in Syracuse at Syracuse University where we had a crowd of about 20 or so, mostly engineering students.  The attendees asked a lot of questions about the interviewing process.  We talked about how, during an interview, you should question the needs of the employer and then explain to them how you can satisfy those needs.  Don’t go in there and talk non-stop about yourself and all of your experience.  They only want to hear how you can help them!  There were also some excellent questions about internships.  One student asked if it was okay to leave an engineering internship if they didn’t enjoy it.  I recommended that they only leave the internship if they are taking another one where they would gain engineering experience.  If not, I recommended fighting through it for the summer and making the most out of the opportunity.  Develop some contacts and soak up as much knowledge as you can.

 On to Buffalo next, where I presented at Buffalo University.  We had a crowd of about 30 and this was more of a mix between students and practicing engineers.  The Buffalo crowd seemed to connect more with the Networking and Communication portions of the seminar.  There were some questions and discussions about communicating with clients and if you are ever really “off the clock.”  This issue can be very specific to the job description.  Some engineers are required to answer the phone at all hours if they are working on an active construction project, while others may be able to check their cell phone at the door when they get home at night.  Many of the student engineers were thankful for the networking portion of the seminar as they said they learn nothing about this in school.  Should classes on networking, communication and organizational skills be taught in school?

Buffalo ASCE Chapter Board Members

Buffalo ASCE Chapter Student Members

Career Development in Rochester

 Last but not least, Rochester, where I presented for the local chapter at the office of one of the local firms.  This was a smaller crowd, less than 10, however it consisted of only practicing engineers, no undergraduate students.  The crowd makeup always drives the length and interest of the different points that I speak about.  We spent the time discussing delegation and how important it is to your career advancement.  We also discussed the process of obtaining your P.E. and discussed the differences between licensing requirements in different states.  One of the attendees, Clement Chung who was recently appointed to the ASCE Committee of Younger Members (CYM), spent the early part of his career in London.  Clement talked about the difference in the licensing process between England in the United States.  In fact, he mentioned that in England, they don’t really get licensed, they become “charted” which really has no legal stature.  Do you have any opinions about the differences in the application process throughout the country?

 All in all it was a fun trip.  Growing up in southern New York, I have always wanted to see some of upstate New York and now I have!  I had a blast meeting you all and I look forward to seeing you at future seminars and conferences.  I sincerely thank the officers of each of the chapters that helped coordinate the trip.  Continue to Take Your Career Wherever You Want to Take It!

Anthony Fasano, P.E., LEED AP, CPESC, CPSWQ, CPC

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