Posts filed under 'Civil Engineering Issues'
Whose billable time is it, anyway?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
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What is your time worth? To you, your company, clients and end users of your products and services?
When does the value that you perceive you bring to your company become less-than-valuable?
There is a fine art in bringing projects in on-time and at or under budget. And in this economy, that fine line is becoming razor sharp. Delighting customers and exceeding expectations may result from the economics of the project rather than cutting edge design that carries a high price tag and unappreciative end users.
This week, some project engineers and I were discussing how to tell when a project is complete. They related how they are continually striving to make the project outcome better, add more enhancements, ask more questions of the client, constantly refine the design and contents of the project…. until their managers start breathing down their necks wondering why the project hasn’t been completed.
Let’s face it. It’s the nature of the engineering discipline. Analysis, design, improvement, redesign. Plan-Do- Check-Act. To infinity and beyond. Except, very few clients hire engineers and technical specialists simply to think….and think….and think. If that were true, we could all go to the mailbox each day and receive a huge check for all the great thoughts we had during the week before. I don’t think so.
Billable time. You know what that is. And you know the rate that you or your company bills out your time. The question becomes whether or not your company recovers that cost in terms of profit on your project.
Civil Engineers enjoy challenges and are tremendous analytical thinkers. They do, however, sometimes confuse discussing a potential project with being engaged in business development (aka, “sales”). For you civil engineers who have been thrust into a sales role without understanding the dynamics of a sales conversation, beware. Engineers are notorious at spinning out ramifications of a design, constantly asking “what if?” of themselves and other engineers. And thinking they are “selling.”
How many times has an engineer from one company called up an engineer from your company (you, perhaps?) to kick things around… on a project that is neither approved nor funded? An hour later, on your company’s dime, you/ your engineer has provided lots of consultative design insights to the other engineer. And your company never is awarded the project, if they are even asked to bid on it. And for those companies who have been forced to rely on the bid process on public projects, your profit margins are being squeezed to bare minimum.
While this scenario has been more common in the manufacturing arena, it may become more prevalent as less staff attempts to provide more functionality within civil engineering firms.
While I’m not suggesting that you dumb-down your project design and/or management efforts, I am asking you to consider how many of your projects are brought in on-time and at- or under-budget? Do you hold things up or move things forward? Do you understand when you have arrived at the best solution, although it may not be the optimal one?
Ask yourself what the gross and net profit of these projects are to your company. What was your billable time and at what rate? What is your salary?
Now you can begin to calculate what your time is worth and the value that you bring to your company. Working in a vacuum outside the context of the bigger picture surrounding your role is not a viable strategy in any economy. Especially this one.
Think about it.
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Add comment March 1, 2010
Career Goals: Don’t Sell Yourself Short!
Featured Guest Blogger: Anthony Fasano, P.E., CPC, LEED AP
Maser Consulting
Associate Civil Engineer and Professional Career & Leadership Development Coach
Click to Connect With Anthony on Linkedin and Facebook
Anthony is the author of a soon to be launched FREE service for engineers called A Daily Boost from Your Professional Partner. Click here to read about this service.
I have said in the past that it is extremely important to have career goals, which act as a destination for where you are taking your career. It is important when setting your goals, to take the time to figure out exactly what you want, nothing more, and nothing less.
Clearly defining your goal is extremely important. Use an analogy of driving to a destination. Is it easier to get somewhere if you only know the city or state or if you know the exact street address? Your goals act as that street address that constantly tells you where you are going.
In setting these clearly defined goals, you really need to figure out what you want. Many people will water down their goals during this process because they believe they are too lofty. By doing this, you are giving up on your goal before you even attempt to achieve it. Why? You have the ability to achieve absolutely anything you want to in your career. When you are setting your goals, just think about your current situation as scenario “A” and the goal you are seeking as scenario “B” AND DO NOT TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET FROM A TO B AT THIS POINT. When people think about the route they will have to take, that is when they often start the “watering-down” process. You can worry about action plans and steps you may take later, but when you are setting your goals focus on your desires, regardless of how unattainable you may think they are.
For example, let’s say you have a clearly defined goal of being promoted to Project Manager in the next 18 months. Attached to this goal is a rule that you set for yourself to work no more than 45 hours per week so that you can maintain your work-family balance. In reviewing that goal, you might say to yourself, there is no way I can get that promotion if I only work 45 hours per week, so you change it to 50. You have now altered your true goal and compromised your values by giving up your work-family balance. This decision was based on a LIMITING BELIEF.
In coaching, we help people with limited beliefs on a regular basis. A limiting belief is exactly what it sounds like; it’s a belief that you hold, that limits you in some way, shape or form. Limiting beliefs typically stem from your past. They may have developed from interaction with someone specific or a certain situation that deeply influenced you. In the above example, the limiting belief is that you cannot become a project manager by working 45 hours per week. Why not? Couldn’t you work more efficiently and delegate more? Limiting beliefs often prevent us from not only achieving our goals, but from setting true goals. When you run into a limiting belief, the best way to beat it is to question it!
Where does that belief come from?
How can I let go of that belief?
Now that you are aware of limiting beliefs start to identify, question and overcome yours today. Doing this will help you tremendously in achieving your lofty career goals!
What limiting beliefs are currently holding you back from achieving your career goals as a civil engineering professional?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Add comment February 16, 2010
The National Infrastructure Bank
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
Leaders of “Building America’s Future” in their letter to President Obama commended him for his efforts and wrote in part:
“We write to ask for your continued leadership on the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank, which will help rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, including our transportation, water and wastewater, broadband, power grid and other critical assets. As you know, the American Society of Civil Engineers identified more than $2.2 trillion in outstanding infrastructure needs. We cannot improve our infrastructure through the annual appropriations process alone.
We must renew our commitment to a National Infrastructure Bank that can help leverage public and private dollars, address regional and national needs and spur a rebirth in how our country invests in infrastructure. Building America’s Future, along with many other organizations, has educated the public about the outstanding needs throughout our country. Cities and states are struggling to find enough resources on their own.”
Critics are pontificating on the reasons why this will not work. One of their concern centers on the shortfall of the initial investment. Their thought is that we can’t find enough money to fully fund a trillion dollar need, so why fund with a “paltry” $60 billion? Secondly, critics are hung up on the term “bank.” Banks need to lend money and generate revenue, and therefore make investments that repay themselves. Since all infrastructure projects will not return large financial investment, then critics want the bank funding investment portfolio modified. Finally, the critics regard any federal organization as ineffective.
We cannot afford another eight years of inactivity and political battles.
These infrastructure repairs are desperately needed. This is our industry’s future and we support this initiative.
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Add comment February 9, 2010
World’s Tallest Building Opens -How Tall Is Too Tall?
By Carol A. Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC and
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
The Burj Dubai – Arabic for Dubai Tower – opens today, January 4, at a supposed height of 2,717 feet. Construction began on September 21, 2004, with the exterior of the structure completed on October 1, 2009.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP (Chicago) are listed as the architect and engineer of record. Bill Baker, the Chief Structural Engineer for the project, invented the buttressed core structural system in order to enable the tower to achieve such heights economically. Adrian Smith, who worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) until 2006, was the Design Partner on the project. Turner Construction Company was selected as the construction project manager. Under UAE law, the Contractor and the Engineer of Record are jointly and severally liable for the performance of Burj Dubai. Therefore, by adoption of SOM’s design and by being appointed as Architect and Engineer of Record, Hyder Consulting is legally the Design Consultant for the tower.
The total budget for the Burj Khalifa project is about US $1.5 billion; and for the entire new “Downtown Dubai”, US $20 billion. The metal-and-glass spire is touted as a “vertical city” of luxury apartments and offices. It boasts four swimming pools, a private library and a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani.
According to the Burj’s developers, they are “confident in the safety of the tower, which is more than twice the height of New York’s Empire State Building’s roof. Greg Sang, Emaar’s director of projects, said the Burj has ‘refuge floors’ at 25 to 30 story intervals that are more fire resistant and have separate air supplies in case of emergency. And its reinforced concrete structure, he said, makes it stronger than steel-frame skyscrapers.”
Engineer Baker reported that the Burj developer continued to push the design higher even after construction began, eventually putting it about 984 feet taller than its nearest competitor. This push came from Dubai’s determination to “reshape itself into a cosmopolitan urban giant packed with skyscrapers.”
How tall is too tall for a building? How complicated is too complicated for a bridge? What do you think?
AP photo/Kamran Jebreili
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
7 comments January 4, 2010
The Key to Success Starts With Listening not Answering
Featured Guest Blogger: Anthony Fasano, P.E., CPC, LEED AP
Maser Consulting
Associate Civil Engineer and Certified Professional Career Development Coach
Click to Connect With Anthony on Linkedin and Facebook
Read The Career Development Blog – A Newly Created Support Forum for Civil Engineers
Ernest Hemingway one said, “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” I believe this quote to be so very true. Until I attended coaching school and learned how to listen, I was often guilty of selective hearing. I believe this was in large part due to my engineering background. Engineers as well as other technical professionals are always geared towards problem solving. Therefore when we listen, we listen for “answers” needed to solve problems. Once we have these “answers” we tend to tune out the rest of the conversation as we are already solving the problem in our heads or we start looking for the next problem to solve!
Why don’t people listen? People like to hear themselves talk. Admit it, we all do! We have a lot of thoughts and experiences on our mind and we want to share them. Sharing your thoughts is great but engaging and listening to those we are speaking with is important to your relationships both personally and professionally. Do you find yourself cutting people off before they finish their sentences? We are all anxious to keep moving forward, so much so, that we sometimes don’t hear important messages that people are trying to tell us including managers, co-workers, clients, friends, spouses, children, etc.
There is a very valuable skill called Acknowledging. Acknowledging is when you repeat back to someone the words they just told you. For example, a client may say to you, “This is our largest project and it means a lot to us.” You would acknowledge the client by saying, “Bob, we understand that this is your largest project and that it means the world to you and that is why we have our best civil engineers working on the project non-stop!” This shows the client that you are listening to them and as trivial as acknowledging may sound, it can be extremely powerful in building relationships.
How many times have you heard someone attribute a problem in the workplace to “mis-communication?” Do they mean “mis-communication” or do they mean someone wasn’t listening and missed out on what they were supposed to do? I believe many times it is the latter. Communication is a two way street, it has to be! If someone tells you something and you don’t listen, what’s the point?
Over the next few weeks, make it a point to listen. Even during the holidays with your family, try acknowledging them, you’ll be surprised at the response you get. Companies lose money, projects and employees when people repeatedly don’t listen. By improving your listening skills you will set yourself apart from other professionals and your professional and personal life will be much more rewarding!
Remember the key to success starts with listening not answering!
Happy Holidays!
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
7 comments December 15, 2009
One More Blog About Form vs. Function
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
Stop salivating. I’m not going to be discussing the eternal dialectic between architects and engineers. I know the engineers take what architects design and somehow make it function. I know architects take what engineers design and make it aesthetically pleasing.
I’m talking about what form you take to make yourself functional. In any context.
How would you characterize your form? Are you a shape shifter? Do you constantly morph? Are you the same form regardless of situation? Does anyone know what – or whom – to expect when you interface with them? Do you take your form on and off like a suit of clothes? Are you play-acting? Are you authentic…Ever?
How does the form you take impact your function – and your value – to your organization? Are you the loose cannon no one wants to deal with because they never get the same “you” twice? Do you hide behind your engineering degree and your technical jargon so that you are impenetrable except to your peers – and therefore difficult to communicate with? Are you constantly striving to earn style points (literally) by putting yourself on an artistic pedestal and making your clients feel uncomfortable – even though they are the ones writing the checks for your services? Are you confused about what folks are expecting of you, and therefore inconsistent in actions and, consequently, performance?
We are at the time of the year – and this year particularly – when we need to take stock of ourselves. This is a thought process we should always be engaging in an ongoing basis. You know, continuous self improvement? Why just confine it to your architectural, engineering and planning projects?
If you are so many different things to so many different people based on what you think they want, how do you keep all this functional role-playing straight? Why on earth do you feel that you wouldn’t meet yourself coming and going, eventually?
It’s easier to shape shift than taking some personal inventory and aligning yourself so your form and function are fluid, continuous and authentic time after time. No surprises for anyone anymore. Although this new “you” may surprise you, yourself. Have you ever thought how it would be to effortlessly answer a question from a unified form-function position without thinking out a scripted response aligned with whatever politics you feel you need to support at that time?
So you guys think you don’t have time for this stuff. Too busy hustling new business or completing projects by year end? Compartmentalizing your professional form with function again?
Guess again. There’s no better time than now to figure out how to create steady-state dynamics between your form and function. Unfortunately they didn’t teach you – or any of us – about this in engineering school. The real world throws continuous curve balls at us. Most of us spend our lives dodging them or avoiding them rather than anticipating them and incorporating them. The big secret is that compartmentalization of the personal from the professional side of things doesn’t work.
Look around you and figure out how many shape-shifters are in your workplace. Is shape shifting encouraged? Does it result from a management style that leaves everyone in the dark…. Perhaps on purpose? Is this type of atmosphere toxic to your career and personal development? Are you ignoring this situation and hoping things resolve? How functional is all this shape shifting?
OK. I’ve made my point. I also encourage you to follow a similar discussion titled: “Are You Impeccable With Your Word?” on my blog at Sales Aerobics for Engineers. You see, I couldn’t compartmentalize this week, writing one distinct blog for my readers and another for the Civil Engineering Central audience. The two blogs are both parts of a whole. They invite dialogue.
Your thoughts?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
5 comments November 30, 2009
Are You Delaying Taking the P.E. Test or Getting Another Certification….Why?
Featured Guest Blogger: Anthony Fasano, P.E., CPC, LEED AP
Maser Consulting
Associate Civil Engineer and Certified Professional Career Development Coach
Click to Connect With Anthony on Linkedin and Facebook
Read The Career Development Blog – A Newly Created Support Forum for Civil Engineers
This down economy is providing many of us with some down time due to lack of work. Whether there is some down time at the office or you are currently unemployed. What are you doing with that down time? Why not spend it pursuing a license or certification that will add value to your credentials?
I know many engineers that have the work experience required to take the P.E. test, and have even passed part one of the exam (the F.E.), however they just won’t fill out the application and sit for the exam. People make all kinds of excuses like, the application is difficult, no time to study, I don’t really need the license because my boss signs the plans, etc. The same goes for other certifications like the LEED AP. I hear people saying that the LEED exam takes too much memorization and they don’t have time for that.
In the coaching world, we call these excuses “blocks” because they are blocking you from achieving a goal. There are two kinds of blocks, interior and exterior blocks. Interior blocks are things like self-doubt and fear. For example many people won’t sign up for the test for fear of failure. They think about what would happen if they failed, what would people think, etc. On the other hand, people may have fear of passing, yes that’s right passing. They fear additional responsibilities or attention that they would rather avoid. So how do you overcome these blocks without a coach? You can do some self-coaching by asking yourself the following questions:
- What is holding me back from taking the next step to achieving this goal?
- What can I do today to help me overcome that challenge?
- What would my career look like if I passed the test?
- How would it affect my salary, my job standing, my family?
- What will my career look like in 5 years if I pass the test? If I don’t pass the test?
Write out the answers and be very descriptive and specific. Then re-read the answers. Many times seeing the value of the certification in these terms will help to eliminate these inner blocks.
Exterior blocks would be things like time and money. To overcome exterior blocks you will most likely have to put an action plan together. For example if you say you don’t have enough time to study, set up a detailed study schedule. Maybe you study a half an hour each day before or after work or dedicate lunch a few times a week for studying. If you establish a plan and stick with it, you will eliminate the exterior blocks.
I hope this article was helpful in moving you closer to your certifications, now go sign up for that test!
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
8 comments November 18, 2009
Are You Doing The Heavy Lifting?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
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
2 comments 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
8 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
9 comments October 14, 2009
