"I have always liked to do puzzles, solve puzzle games, communicate with
people [and] present things," says Tina Adams. She's a civil engineer in Salem,
Oregon.
"I'm a very social person," Adams adds. "And I think what I like most about
civil engineering is that not only do I get to kind of solve a problem at
hand, [such as] widen a road... but then I also get to tell people about it,
I get to drive it at the end of the job, and show it to my kids and say, 'Look,
I had something to do with this.'
"So there's always something very tangible at the end that is a benefit
to society. That's something I really enjoy about the job."
Adams had done well in math and science in high school, and eventually
decided to major in structural engineering in college. Her decision turned
out well.
"I found when I went to college that I really enjoyed the classes, I excelled,
I found them challenging, and I was able to get a job afterwards that I...
really liked."
Adams' degree is in structural engineering, but she mostly does civil and
transportation engineering. That's where most of the jobs were when she got
out of college.
Whatever type of work a civil engineer ends up doing, there are certain
qualities that you should have.
"I think that you have to be willing to be a hard worker, and you have
to be able to multitask, because you'll often be working on more than one
project at the same time," says Adams. "And you have to be willing to work
for multiple people, because you'll have different clients, or you might be
working with different project managers, so it's not always just one boss,
one project."
Civil engineers need to deal with many different people and projects. Some
thrive in that kind of environment, while others find it challenging.
"You've got to be open to doing many different things, which I always
find interesting, but some people don't work well with that," says Adams.
"And I find that you have to be open to listening to other people's ideas
to solve the same problem, because there's a lot of different ways to approach
something."
Like Adams, Erin Dvorak was strong in math and science in high school.
"I definitely have an interest in math and I did fairly well in science,
so that sort of encouraged me to keep going into this field," says Dvorak.
"My dad was in drafting," Dvorak adds. "He was more on the oil and gas,
mechanical side, but I had always been interested in art and architecture,
and I always kind of imagined myself as either a builder of buildings or bridges,
so that's kind of what drew me to this field.
"Originally I thought that I would go into architecture, and then I found
that it's probably more practical to do civil engineering because there was
a lot of school involved in architecture," Dvorak says. "And the civil engineering
seemed a lot more technical, so maybe it was better for getting a job down
the road."
Dvorak is now a structural engineer with a focus on bridges and structures.
Her projects include light-rail transit stations and pedestrian bridges.
"I'm pretty lucky because I have a pretty good mix of computer work and
then I do often go out to the field to do field inspections," says Dvorak.
"So, for me, I get to have the best of both worlds, where I get to do
computer work and be out in the field." Dvorak says she has certain qualities
that are common among engineers.
"I'm pretty organized and I like to plan things," says Dvorak. "I like
to problem-solve and be analytical and sort of, you know, go through different
steps and write lists for myself. I think a lot of engineers tend to be that
way, where we're pretty organized, we like to check things off our list, we
like to do things in a sort of a step-by-step fashion."
It probably doesn't surprise you to hear that engineers tend to be methodical.
But there are other sides to most engineers.
"I think that people think that we're not people-people -- that we're kind
of nerds that sit in an office and crunch numbers," says Dvorak. "Actually,
I find that I have to work a lot on my relationships with people and communicating
with people because, when you're doing project management, it's a lot about
following up on why things haven't been done... and maybe talking to people
to try and problem-solve a solution."
Civil engineer Vic Perry says his interest in civil engineering has its
roots in his childhood.
"When I was really young my father bought an old house and started doing
major renovations, and of course here's a little five-year-old kid running
around picking up scraps of two-by-fours and lumber," says Perry. "I got some
nails, a hammer, and saw and started building some furniture and the next
thing you know I was building tree forts, then I was building bridges between
the trees, and so I think I knew at a very early age that I should be an engineer."
Perry adds: "If you like building things, then engineering is a good profession."