Posts filed under 'Civil Engineering Issues'
Are You Doing The Heavy Lifting?
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At the 2008 Pack Expo, after a successful presentation, one of my colleagues complemented me and told me I really knew how to do the heavy lifting on a project. I had never heard the phrase before (yes, sometimes it’s like I live under a rock). It’s just the way I do things, and the way the folks I respect go about their business. After he explained the phrase to me, I thanked him and thought to myself : “Is there any other way to do things?”
I got curious. And being an observer, I started paying attention to Random Episodes Of Heavy Lifting throughout 2009.
I found out there weren’t any. Random acts, that is.
Heavy Lifting is a conscious decision. You Heavy Lifters out there, you know who you are. Some of you own your own companies. Others of you have incredible working relationships across departments within your organization. You may not even be the top dog or the top salesperson or the top achiever. You may not even be a world leader or the captain of the team. You are, however, known as being The Person To Go To: the individual who brings excellence and perspective to the task at hand.
Heavy Lifters are not the same folks as the Hard Workers. Nor are they the same folks as the Savvy Employees. This isn’t about churning and burning or game playing. It pretty much encompasses your code of personal ethics, which you carry into your work ethics. You either do the work, and do it thoroughly and most excellently, or you don’t do it at all. And you encourage others to join you in doing excellent work. You bring out the best in your collaborators. And you inspire. Because ultimately, when you present, you evangelize because you believe in what you and your team are doing. You plant Possibilities in the minds of others.
Heavy Lifters do not Go Through The Motions. They are not Smiling Joes. Heavy Lifters do not survive because of thin veneers or changing agendas. There is no recipe for Heavy Lifting. You learn by doing. You do so because it’s part of who you are. And you are not afraid of falling flat on your face, trying.
So who are the Heavy Lifters in your organization? Are they recognized? Are you in a position to recognize them? Do I need to suggest that you recognize them? And incorporate them into your team, if you haven’t already done so?
I’ve had so many extraordinary client discussions in the past few weeks with Owners who are entrepreneurial yet fiscally rooted. They have done the due diligence and heavy lifting to move their organizations out of the economic mire, in a forward direction.
I’m having some wonderful LinkedIn discussions with engineers who have done the heavy lifting necessary to implement change management into their organizations, resulting in new product or service capabilities. And the potential for creating new revenue streams.
These are the Heavy Lifters. They end up moving mountains, but not alone. They are ordinary folks who become extraordinary simply because they don’t back down in their belief in what they bring to the table on behalf of their organization. And they have vision – which means they always have their eye NOT on the prize…. but on the horizon.
We are in the midst of creating a new economic business paradigm shift. And perhaps we are making it up, winging it, as we go along. Aren’t most paradigm shifts achieved in this manner?
What can you bring to your organization by shifting your focus to the horizon? Or taking a 50,000 foot eagle’s eye view of your organization? Are you capable of heavy lifting? It shouldn’t be something to shy away from. It’s probably always been your forte. Perhaps you have dumbed it down for various reasons.
Wouldn’t it be so much more comfortable to do what you do naturally?
Are you a Heavy Lifter?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
1 comment November 4, 2009
Unlicensed Civil Engineers Posing as PEs
By Carol Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
Amanda Kolson Hurley, Executive Editor at ARCHITECT Magazine, wrote a great article: Trust Me. I’m An (Unlicensed) Architect. The subheader reads “If you don’t have an architectural license, it’s illegal to call yourself an architect or perform architectural services—but people still do. Who are they, who’s policing them, and can they be stopped?” This well written article sites enforcement actions taken by states. It got me thinking, who is policing the civil engineering community?
As I Googled “civil engineers license violation” I found myself at the California Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. They state that while they have some criminal prosecutions…Citations are an alternative to criminal prosecutions which the Board can use to enforce the laws prohibiting unlicensed practice of engineering or land surveying. When a fine is levied with a citation, payment of the fine represents satisfactory resolution of the matter. The State’s criminal and citation listings have not been updated since 2007.
In 2003, NSPE approved their guidelines for NSPE State Chapters in addressing unlicensed practice of engineering. The report, now 6 years old, reported the finding that the most frequent violation cited by State Boards was that of unlicensed practice. Has this been updated? Are there new numbers tracking violations? I hope to have some answers in a future BLOG. In speaking with several officers of state chapters of NSPE, I found that policing has become increasingly difficult for the states. Self-policing by the state chapters, as opposed to relying on the individual state licensing boards is taking on a life of it’s own. Models for programs to give more support to State Licensing Boards are being developed.
With so many civil engineers still looking for work, some licensed and many not, I wonder if desperation will breed fraud? The majority of civil engineering firms now run their own employment background checks including license verification. But, what about the average individual consumer, looking to hire, for example, a structural engineer for inspection? How many check with the local licensing boards? One would hope everyone! Realistically…probably not that many.
What do you think and what do you know?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
4 comments October 28, 2009
Sky City: City in the Sky or Pie in the Sky?
By Matt Barcus
President, Precision Executive Search, Inc.
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC, home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
So. Tired of dealing with traffic congestion, long commutes, urban sprawl and air pollution? Interested in Sustainability? Interested in Urban Redevelopment? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you need to check out Tokyo’s Sky City.
Tokyo, Japan’s Sky City is in essence, a true city within a city. In the planning stages for many years now, the Sky City project is geared towards freeing up congestion and providing some “oh-so needed” green space in downtown Tokyo. The largest metropolitan region in the world with over 35M people (according to Wikipedia), Tokyo is jam packed to say the least and the urban sprawl is ri-dic-u-lous.
Aerial Photo of Tokyo, Japan
The average commute is two hours, many streets and roads are inaccessible and unnavigable for many emergency vehicles, and the civil engineering infrastructure is over capacity. Many Japanese citizens believe the answer to these problems is to build vertically, like Sky City. Sky City would reach two-thirds of a mile straight up into the sky and would accommodate 35,000 residents and 100,000 workers with apartments, offices, commercial facilities, movie theaters, a stadium, schools, hospitals, a monorail, etc. The reality is that one could live, work and play in Sky City without ever having to leave…ever.
Check out the first segment of video as seen on The Discovery Channel’s “Extreme Engineering”:
The remaining four segments you can find on YouTube as they get much deeper into all the cool research and engineering that is required to accomplish such a feat.
Segment 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vOtSFWqnp8
Segment 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODgvqtiRLng
Segment 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdykY41VEvk
Segment 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arM_TBadGd8
What an amazing concept; key word here being “concept.” Do you believe this concept will become reality? Can these types of vertical cities really be as structurally sound as they need to be? Would you live in a place like this? If this works in Tokyo could we one day see this “metropolis of the future” in New York City?
If this is really what the future holds, and if these types of projects will one day become common place as our population continues to soar, then how can one NOT be excited about a career in civil engineering?
What’s your take on Sky City?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
8 comments October 14, 2009
When “It’s Not My Problem” Becomes Your Problem
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Sales Aerobics for Engineers
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Unfortunately, in the real world, project team members are working for civil engineering companies which are now extremely lean and mean. Perhaps even desperate for business. With less staff doing more work and wearing multiple hats, project management sometimes resembles a game of “hot potato.” Which can create quality problems as well. Perhaps the production and engineering department is part of a fiefdom. Regardless of the size of your company, and its organization, the result is the same. The individuals fulfilling functional obligations perceive their job as “piece work” for handoff to the other members of the project team for implementation. These individuals perceive that once they’ve fulfilled their engineering (or other) function on the team, they are off duty. They’ve completed their work. It’s no longer their problem. They can go back to their cubicle and work on the next project.
Guess again.
All of us have projects where we put the final dot on an “I” and cross the final “t” and can’t wait to get that project off our desk. However, we’ve taught ourselves we don’t operate in silos. But we certainly know folks within our organization who do. And like the kids on the playground who don’t get selected first, or even second, for that pickup game of dodge ball at recess, they don’t get it. Project management is a team sport.
In this challenging economy, there is even less of a place within an organization for individuals who don’t understand the dynamics of the sales process and how difficult it is to win the business in the first place. They may not understand the business cycle or have a complete grasp of the multiple disciplines and roles required to move a project towards a successful outcome. These individuals may not grasp the difficulty involved in customer retention. When these types of project team members finish their work, in their mind, they have done their job and that portion of the project ceases to become their responsibility. It’s not their problem anymore. And I’m not just talking about junior staffers, either.
Project outcomes are always everyone’s responsibility. So everyone owns the problems. And the rewards. I’m sure there are quite a few of you out there who have participated in at least one highly successful project team that had a marvelous project outcome. These types of project outcomes and the teams that achieve them are truly unforgettable – and rare- as though the stars were aligned from the beginning. Highly successful project outcomes and teams don’t happen by accident or serendipity. Many highly successful project outcomes are a result of ordinary folks – not your corporation’s rock stars – assuming responsibility and stretching themselves beyond what was required of them, resulting in a robust and innovative outcome. Successful project outcomes happen because all of the project team members are truly engaged in understanding each other’s functional roles . They incorporate that mutual respect into what they bring to their own individual area of responsibility. No silos. Just synergy.
For those of you who interact with project teams that are not necessarily characterized by “synergy” or “mutual respect,” the tendency is to complete your portion of the project and hand it off. Or be less than communicative over the duration of that project, over multiple project team meetings. Your siloed approach shortchanges everyone, including you. If someone falls down in their functional role it’s far costlier to compensate for the error in rework than have anticipated the probability of the error in the first place. The nature of the error may be lack of time, interest or less than brilliant execution. A travel schedule that creates gaps in project meeting attendance. Team meeting notes that are not circulated in a timely manner or are not as detailed as they should be. Lack of communication or follow through in between project team meetings. Telephone conversations with the client and changes to the project that need to be immediately communicated to the project team. It’s those little things, the details that you feel aren’t your problem, that ultimately become your problem down the road.
Hybridizing the engineering approach you bring to the project team is going to be critical to not only your career, but the longevity of your company in the consulting civil engineering marketplace. There’s a lot of talk going on these days about innovation, which I’ll be addressing in a future guest blog on this site. However, the assumption by most folks is that innovation is best left up to, well, the innovators: the braniacs. Actually, innovation is a matter of self-discipline and the ability of incorporating the perspectives of everyone seated around your table into what you bring to the table. Just do a little something differently than you’ve done before. That’s innovation.
So the next time you are assigned to a project team, take a different approach. An innovative approach. Find out what everyone does on your team. No matter how well you think you know them. No matter how many times you’ve worked with them in the past. Even if you are part of their sand volleyball team on Wednesdays. Take a few minutes out of your workweek to talk to them about the project – outside of team meetings. And then start your functional project work as though you are the entire team. It’s hard to take a siloed approach with this hybridized perspective, isn’t it?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
2 comments September 30, 2009
High Speed Rail Can’t Get Here Fast Enough
By Matt Barcus
President, Precision Executive Search, Inc.
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC, home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
The Obama Administration recently laid out their plan for investment in a national network of High Speed Rail lines across the United States. This investment includes $8B to be generated from the $787B stimulus plan along with a proposed $5B coming from his proposed 2010 fiscal budget. On the grand scheme of things this is a drop in the bucket, and seemingly light years away from China’s initiative, but I guess you need to start somewhere, right?
According to a recent article in the China Daily, China is “poised to become the world’s High Speed Rail leader.” They are set to build 42 new high speed lines spanning a total of 13,000 km over the next three years. And while our current administration is contemplating how to spend $13B in high speed rail, China is investing $300B in their high speed rail initiative by the year 2020. If a country as smart and as talented as China is blazing this trail, shouldn’t we be more aggressively following their lead?
The way I see it, the positive impacts of building out High Speed Rail lines are good & plenty, here are just a few:
- **A reduction in highway traffic
- **A decreased dependency on oil
- **Minimized pollution
- **Increased employment options for commuters who would not normally drive to certain locations
- **Newly created jobs for planning, design and construction professionals, among MANY others
- **A reduction of air traffic
- **Increased property value for those outlying areas that would otherwise have limited options in getting to “the city.”
And these are just a few. I recently listened to a debate on the High Speed Rail topic between Richard Harnish, Executive Director-Midwest High Speed Rail Association and Randall O’Toole, Sr. Fellow with the CATO Institute. Grab a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun…or two…and take a listen:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/09/03/midmorning1/
The information available on this topic is endless. I believe High Speed Rail to be a great and necessary alternative, but like everything else, it boils down to money and acceptance. The proposed $13B investment is a nice start, but where will we get the funds to finish? And once these High Speed Rail lines are up and running, will there be enough funds from rider revenue, taxes, and government subsidies to keep up with the cost of operations and maintenance?
I believe that one day High Speed Rail will be a mainstay in our country, it’s just a matter of when. What do you think?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Add comment September 23, 2009
Digital Cable But No Clean Water?
By Carol Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
Perhaps you may have read last Sunday’s New York Times lead article by Charles Duhigg: Toxic Waters: Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering. For those who did not, the article focused on the human anguish that results from pollutants in our waters. The abuse is caused by direct violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Keep in mind, the article did not focus on third world countries, but here in the US. Senior Banking Accountant, West Virginia resident Jennifer Hall-Massey’s family is profiled:
“Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.
‘How can we get digital cable and Internet in our homes, but not clean water?’ said Mrs. Hall-Massey, a senior accountant at one of the state’s largest banks.
She and her husband, Charles, do not live in some remote corner of Appalachia. Charleston, the state capital, is less than 17 miles from her home.”
Ryan Massey, 7, shows his caps. Dentists near Charleston, W.Va., say pollutants in drinking water have damaged residents’ teeth. Nationwide, polluters have violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times. Photo taken by Damon Winter of the New York Times.
The article continues to disclose violation records obtained from not only the EPA but from State records. A multitude of violations were compiled into a fascinating and frightening national water pollution database. I encourage you to visit the database link, put in your zip code and hold on to your seats!
The blatant lack of fines or punishment to violators is unconscionable. This past January I wrote a BLOG about outgoing President Bush’s midnight environmental legislation. Specifically stated, President Bush made sure that the coal industry had no problems depositing their waste from mountaintop mining into streams and valleys. Also, he circumvented the Clean Water Act and dismissed EPA leaders dissents. While it would be almost too easy to blame his administration and outgoing policies for today’s environmental misery, the New York Times article clearly distributes the blame to state agencies as well. Federal and State agencies need to step up.
As Duhigg writes: research shows that an estimated 1 in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways.
Someone needs to be held accountable. Remember this next time you take a drink of water.
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
7 comments September 16, 2009
Herbert Hoover’s Engineer
By Matt Barcus
President, Precision Executive Search, Inc.
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC, home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
A couple of weeks ago I posed the following question on the Civil Engineering Central Group on Linkedin:
“Why did you become a civil engineer?”
We had a number of great responses, but one gentleman posted the following excerpt that is worth sharing to the masses:
Herbert Hoover’s Engineer
It is a great profession. There is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerges through the aid of science to plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comfort of life. That is the engineer’s high privilege.
The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all can see them. His acts, step by step, are in hard substance. He cannot like the architect cover his failures with trees and vines. He cannot like the politician screen his shortcomings by blaming his opponents and hope the people will forget. The engineer simply cannot deny he did it. If his works do not work he is dammed.
On the other hand, unlike the doctor his is not a life among the weak. Unlike the soldier, destruction is not his purpose. Unlike the lawyer, quarrels are not his daily bread. To the engineer falls the job of clothing the bare bones of science with life, comfort and hope. No doubt as years go by the people forget which engineer did it, even if they ever knew. Or some politician put his name on it. Or they credit it to some promoter who used other people’s money….
But the engineer himself looks back at the unending stream of goodness which flows from his success with satisfaction that few professions may know. And the verdict of his fellow professionals is all the accolade he wants.
Did Herbert Hoover miss anything here? Do you believe his statement still holds true today?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
7 comments September 9, 2009
Communicating Your Value to Your Organization
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
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Are you comfortable providing solutions that impact your company both upstream and downstream from where you have a functional position?
Let’s face it. We are moving towards a new business and economic paradigm. Civil engineers providing the greatest value to their organizations may no longer be those engineers having expertise in only one area. Rather, the new business paradigm may place more value on engineers who understand how to translate their engineering expertise into the business language and perspective of audiences residing upstream and downstream in their organization.
How do you gain this ability? How effectively do you translate your body of knowledge to others in your organization? And no, this is not a glorified version of “sucking up” to your top brass or engaging in any form of Machiavellian politics. Who has time to play games and engage in office melodramas fueled by inauthentic, self-serving actions?
This guest post for the CivilEngineeringCentral.com blog provides a list of areas you may want to develop and incorporate into your skill set so folks in your organization better understand “how you do what you do.” As you grow your personal style, knowledge base and ability to communicate, you just may find some new doors opening up for you.
Understand the national and global economic environment into which your engineering solution is being placed. Read newspapers online. Use RSS feeds to do industry- related searches. Read blogs on engineering topics.
What are the local, state, regional and national conditions impacting your project, your expertise and that of your company? What are the competitive conditions impacting your company’s ability to win the work? Where’s the money coming from to fund these projects? What trends are being reported?
Look at Sam Richter’s website, which is based on his great book Take The Cold Out of Cold Calling. Sam provides recommendations for online resources for business and industry reporting. Work towards building a more well-rounded perspective about business development, economic trends and your area of expertise. Operating inside a vacuum is not an option.
Understand the mindset of the folks up and down the corporate food chain. Depending on where we sit around the table, we see the same things differently. Work towards developing an understanding of everyone’s mindset – not only in your own organization but also in your clients’ organizations. Rule of thumb: the higher up the food chain, the more focus on the bottom line. The lower down the food chain, the more silo-ed the thinking, the more loyal and risk-averse the individual.
Don’t get hung up trying to change mindsets or make folks “see things your way.” Rather, work towards communicating your messages using their perspectives, not yours. They will “get” what you are saying a lot more easily than you think. Develop a communication style that correlates your project outcome to the bottom line – from everyone’s perspective. Let those silo-ed individuals understand how your solutions may help them do their jobs better. You may start to become more of an asset to your organization than you already are.
Selling to VITO, a sales book by Anthony Parinello, focuses on the importance of understanding the mindset of everyone at every level in an organization. He succinctly breaks down each functional position’s mindset in terms of being a risk taker or risk averse, as well as being a decision maker or a gatekeeper. Incorporate some of these principles into your next project team meeting to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of decision making.
Develop the skills to confidently communicate your information during meetings with internal customers (your colleagues) as well as current and potential customers. This is the hard part, because so many engineers feel like they are “acting” or speaking a foreign language at this point.
Understand that the best way of communicating information is by LISTENING and asking good questions. Round out your perspective and understand how the language of business varies from the language and mindset of engineering. In this global economy, treat each conversation you have with your colleagues as though you were speaking a foreign language – even if you both speak American!
I recommend reading Jill Konrath’s book, blog and website, all called Selling To Big Companies. Jill takes a no-nonsense approach to asking provocative and insightful questions that have upstream and downstream potential.
Take advantage of educational opportunities to bulk up your cross-functional skillset. HR at your organization can tell you about educational opportunities available if you are a displaced civil engineering professional. If you are an engineering student, take business courses on marketing and finance. You may end up starting your own business! There are continuing education courses and plenty of free webinars and seminars being offered via online and local networking communities. Many of these opportunities are free of charge or are offered at minimal cost. Online webinars and online courses often can be downloaded and accessed when it’s convenient for your schedule.
Whether you are a student, current employee, business owner or displaced civil engineering professional, review the value of what you bring to the table: past, present and future. Take an honest look at where gaps exist . Work towards developing the tools and techniques that can assist you in more effectively communicating what you bring to the table to upstream and downstream audiences. Your ability to build a more cross-functional, well-rounded perspective can assist you in career development and business development.
What are you waiting for?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion board
3 comments September 2, 2009
Marketing Opportunities After A Disaster
By Carol Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
Hurricane season is upon us. While homeowners in hurricane-prone areas prepare for the worst and hope for the best, FEMA contractors also update their teams. Disaster relief opportunities abound following devastation from natural disasters. Historically, non profit agencies jump in to help the injured and sick. The US Military Disaster Response Team deploys to work side by side with local officials. The combined efforts of civilian and military operations have become common. According to the FEMA website: Mitigation Assessment Teams (MATs) are made up of representatives of FEMA Headquarters and of FEMA Regional Offices, state and local officials, and public and private sector experts in technical disciplines such as structural and civil engineering, architecture, building construction, natural hazards research, and code development and enforcement. Since the market downturn, many firms have traveled cross country and overseas to find a way to “get listed” as an approved FEMA contractor or a subcontractor.
The Heritage Foundation’s Dennis R. Shrader lectured on FEMAUnfinished Business and asked: ”How do we nationally collaborate and allocate resources to effectively and efficiently prepare ourselves in order to prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from catastrophic incidents?” It is an interesting lecture and I encourage you to read. With that in mind, I would ask you almost the same question. How do you, as those involved in the civil engineering community, collaborate to effectively and efficiently prepare yourselves in order to respond to catastrophic incidents, to help our communities rebuild?
Profiting from disasters can be seen as ”distasteful.” Kerry Harding, President, The Talent Bank, responds “through FEMA, the nation has a planned, measured response to disaster mitigation with pre-approved vendors with pre-approved fee structures in place that they rely on in times of emergency. There is NOTHING unprofessional or “sleazy” about fulfilling the terms of a previously negotiated contract. When disaster strikes, it’s too late for firms who haven’t been thoroughly vetted to try and jump on the bandwagon. At that point, the stakes are too high.”
Are you and your firm ready to respond? Are your “ducks in a row?”
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion board
3 comments August 26, 2009
10 Ways Social Networking Can Impact Your Business & Career As A Civil Engineering Professional
By Matt Barcus
President, Precision Executive Search, Inc.
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC, home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
Remember when musings of the Internet was just a fad? Remember when the compass and slide rule were irreplaceable? Remember when the Post Office was relevant? Well, as it turns out, the Internet is here to stay; if you have a compass and slide rule you just might get your 15 minutes of fame on PBS’ Antiques Road Show; and I can’t recall the last time I paid bill or sent a hand written letter via snail mail. 
That said, consider yourself forewarned in regards to the utilization of Social Networking sites LinkedIn (44M+ users), Facebook (250M+users) and Twitter (4.5M+ users), among others – don’t be a naysayer, or you will be left in the dust. Chances are, if you are reading this, you are familiar with, and hopefully active on, one or more of these technologies. The key is – how can you make sure your company stays relevant by using them effectively?
10 WAYS SOCIAL NETWORKING CAN IMPACT YOUR BUSINESS & CAREER AS A CIVIL ENGINEERING PROFESSIONAL
1. Recruiting Professionals - Did you see the user statistics in the above paragraph? And those are only the three most popular sites among hundreds. And guess what? I suspect there are likely hundreds of thousands of members of the civil engineering community who utilize these tools and share information. They have put themselves “out there.” By joining these networks yourself and “working the network,” you will find many outstanding professional candidates, both passive and active. This topic of recruiting on social networks is quite a robust topic and information can easily be found online, in books or through various seminars. There are plenty of experts in this area so invest a little bit of time and money to catch you and your firm up to speed.
2. Industry News - Facebook, Twitter & Linkedin all have users and user 
groups who will be of interest to you. You will find that ENR, ASCE, Society of Hispanic Engineers, SMPS, etc all have active users and groups on these sites where news bites and press releases are shared regularly. Also, by connecting with other friends and colleagues within the industry you will often read status updates or tweets in regards to local infrastructure news.
3. Relationship Building – Learn what your colleagues, clients, and potential clients are doing; learn their interests; follow their tweets; make logical and profound comments in response to theirs. You can get a real sense of their personality, interests, etc that will certainly assist during face-to-face marketing efforts.
4. Marketing/Branding – Develop a Facebook Fan/Group page with blog entries, promotions, press releases, wins, job postings, awards, charity events, etc.; tweet these same items; develop a compelling corporate profile on LinkedIn and make sure your employees do as well.
5. Recruiting College Students-This is a “no brainer”. If you want to reach out to the next generation of civil engineers you need to have a strong corporate brand on Facebook and MySpace for sure. 
When visiting college campuses for recruiting trips have a couple laptops up and running at your table exhibiting these pages and invite them to join your pages or groups on line. Come prepared with business cards that provide the URL’s of your corporate social networking sites. College students want to work for firms that understand and are avid users of the web 2.0 technology that they utilize. 85% of college students are active on Facebook, 65% are active on MySpace. Again, a “no brainer.”
6. Recruiting Boomerangs – How often have you had employees of your firm fly the coup, only to return because the grass was not greener on the other side? By staying in touch with well respected ex-employees by 
inviting them to join a group where they will be exposed to all the great news that is occurring with your firm, you are giving yourself a nice advantage above other firms when the time comes that he or she begins to look for a new job. Firms like URS & Toll Brothers, among others, each have “Alumni” groups on Linkedin.
7. RFP’s – It’s only a matter of time before builders, agencies and architects will be tweeting RFP’s.
8. Professional Growth – By joining Facebook or LinkedIn groups, or by following specific associations or trainers or presenters on Twitter, you can remain well informed of all of the conferences, seminars, blogs, articles and publications being offered that you find relevant in your career.
9.
10. Ignorance is Bliss. Do not fall into this trap. These networks are no longer the wave of the future, they are a mainstay. As a civil engineering professional, by not jumping on board you will become a relic – and this label is not something you or your firm will want to be labeled as as the demand for talent begins to hit the upswing.
As you can see, I intentionally left a blank space after #9 – what might you suggest to fill in that blank?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
8 comments August 12, 2009
