For many jobs that you apply for, the first thing that a potential employer will see is your resume and cover letter.  Here are a few tips for your resume.  I’ve posted a layout that has worked well for me in the past. Sample Resume.

Keep it simple and easy to read

Hiring managers don’t have a lot of time to try and figure out what you’re saying.  Us an easy to read layout like the sample I posted.  1 inch margins, clear sections, bullet points in each section.

But not to simple

Make sure you don’t sell yourself short.  Include enough important facts about yourself to show the potential employer how great you are.

Be relevant

Look at the company’s website and at any job adds the company may have out.  Make sure you tailor your resume to show your skills that are important to that company.  Listing things about yourself that would appeal to that employer.

When I worked retail I got a resume from a kid.  On the resume he said that he could hold a hissing cockroach without flinching.  We thought that was great, but it didn’t help us any.  He didn’t get an interview.  We had limited time and other people talked about relevant skills.

Be specific

List specific accomplishments.  Being specific shows the potential employer what you have accomplished and what you might be able to do for them.  Specifics work much better than generic phrases like: I’m a go getter, or I’m responsible.  Say it with specifics.

Target your resume

Don’t use the same resume for every company that you apply to.  Make adjustments to your resume so that you highlight the things about you that are most important to that particular company.

Don’t lie

Integrity is very important in the engineering profession.  You will hear about engineering ethics a lot. When you get caught, and you will, it will be known.  It can hurt your career.

No work experience? Talk about school.

If you’re still in school, employers know that you won’t have a lot of experience.  List the engineering classes that you’ve taken.  Talk about any scholarships or awards that you’ve won.  List some projects that you’ve done.

Those are some of the tips I’ve followed when working on my resumes.  For those of you that have been down this road before, what are your recommendations?

With the new semester starting up soon it’s time to get into learning mode.  Most people remember to sign up for the right classes to get there degree, but a lot of people don’t know about, or don’t go after one of the most important learning tools you can get as a student; an internship.  Over the coming days I’m going to post some articles on how to find internships, how to prepare your resume, what to expect at an interview, first day on the job, and other things along those lines.  But today I’m going to talk about why an internship is important.  Here’s a list of why every civil engineering student should get an internship.  In no particular order.

You get paid

Most internships pay.  Civil engineering interns get paid pretty well compared to most jobs you can get while in college.

Learn how it works in the real world

You learn a lot of great theory and background in school.  But frequently you never really see how that works out in the real world.  In an internship you get to see first hand how the process works in your field.

You get to work on real projects

This is perhaps the best part.  You get to actually use what you’ve been learning and learn new stuff that can help you in school.  Sometimes the projects that you work on in your internship can go more in depth in a week than you will get in a semester in one of your classes.  Plus they are all things you can put on your resume for when you graduate.

Your bosses understand

If you have a civil engineering internship chances are you’ll be working for someone with a civil engineering degree.  They’ve been where you are.  They know what it takes to get and engineering degree.  They are willing to help out.

Credit at school

Many schools will give you credit for internships.  The school I went to would let you get up to three credits and could count it as one of your electives.  Get with your adviser before the semester starts to find out what your school can do.

You get paid more after you graduate

People with experience get paid more than people without experience.  Having an internship on your resume shows that you know what you are getting into and that you know how to do things.  That will make you instantly more marketable than people with no experience.  That could mean not only more money in a job offer, but also more job offers.

Easier to get a job after you graduate

An internship does two main things to help you get a job after you graduate.  It gets your foot in the door for any companies that you work for.  It also gives you specific experience and accomplishments that you can put on your resume.

Find out what you like and what you don’t

I had a friend in college that every summer he worked for a different firm that did a different kind of engineering.  He definitely had the chance to try it all out and find what he liked.

An internship is worth more than a 4.00

While I was in school, and since then, I’ve talked to a lot of engineers that hire for their companies.  It’s been pretty consistent.  They say they’d rather see an internship on a resume than a 4.00 GPA.

A side note on this.  If you look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics data for civil engineers http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm you’ll see that starting salaries for a bachelors degree is higher than a masters degree.  From what I’ve see, that’s pretty consistent for several different places that collect that data.  Based on the people I knew in college I think it’s because most of the people that have a bachelors degree also had an internship.  Most of the people that I know that went straight for their masters after getting a bachelors degree, did not get an internship.  Internships and the experience you get is very valuable.  I’m not telling you not to go after a masters degree, just make sure that you get some real world experience also.

Those are some of the main reasons that I came up with to get an internship.  What are some of your reasons?  What have you gained from your internship?  Any reasons why you think someone shouldn’t get an internship?

It’s always important to tryout new technology. But keep in mind the benefits of old technology. And never underestimate the ability of someone to not do the right thing. Here’s an article about how LED signals at a signalized intersection may have been a contributing factor in a collision.

Did Oswego driver die due to LED signals?

What happened is that the city replaced the old style bulbs in the traffic signals with LEDs. On a snowy day in April the signal was completely covered in snow. Traffic on the main street continued to go because they couldn’t see that the light turned red. Traffic on the side road went when their light turned green. They were hit by the main street traffic.

According to the article, since regular bulbs get hot they melt the snow. LEDs don’t get very warm so the snow didn’t melt. Because of situations like this, us engineers will be asked to develop solutions so that it doesn’t happen again.

I, like most of you probably did, learned that if a traffic signal is out, then you should treat it like a four way stop. Whether you believe the accident is the fault of the city for not making the signal clear or the fault of the driver for driving through without being able to see a green light, this is one example of why we design the way we do.

What do you think? Whose fault is it? What could we, as engineers, do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

I’m going to make a couple of points today. First of all, when you are new to civil engineering and first learning to calculate things like concrete columns and roadway curves, it can seem like everything that is in the real world is over designed. There are many rules and regulations that must be followed in your designs. My second point is about engineering ethics. All of the rules can’t cover everything.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Every civil engineering student gets to see the one of the videos of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse. I was shown this video in three or four different classes in school. If you haven’t seen the video here’s one I found on YouTube. This one is in color and has some additional information.

As far as I’ve been able to find out, the engineers followed the standard rules of the day. By their calculations the bridge should have been fine. But it wasn’t. It collapsed four months after being finished. The engineers fail to account for wind. In a lot of ways, because of this bridge, we have to take into account aerodynamics when designing virtually any structure. Not just aerodynamics, though, we as engineers need to take into account every potential source of forces that may affect our structures.

I 35W Bridge

Here’s a video of the I 35W bridge collapse in Minnesota. This bridge had held well for many years. The initial design could handle the current expected loads. However, later engineers didn’t fully account for additional loads from improvements to the bridge. Specifically, it appears that the gusset plates didn’t have a large enough safety factor. More information on the cause can be found in this article about the University of Minnesota’s Independent Study. According to the study, in addition to the gussets and later improvements, temperature changes played a large role in the collapse. These kinds of things should be considered in an original design. They also need to be double checked when making improvements.

Cypress Street Viaduct
This third video has two parts. One is about the Cypress Street Viaduct and the other about a dam at a coal mine. The Cypress Street Viaduct is another bridge that collapsed due to greater than expected forces. In this case an earthquake. The bridge was designed to easily handle the vertical loads, however they didn’t account for the lateral loads caused by an earthquake. They really only considered enough lateral load to handle wind.

All three of these videos show reasons that we have some of the design standards that we do. We have to include all of the forces that will act on the structure. Not only the everyday forces, but also expected maximum forces. Then we add a safety factor on top of that to take into account anything we didn’t think of.

The second half of that last video adds something else to this. The dam collapsed even though engineers at the time knew how to construct a safe dam. At the time, however, there were no regulations on this type of dam. To save money no engineering was actually done, and no standard maintenance or construction standards were followed. This resulted in the dam collapsing. What this means to us as engineers is that even if there isn’t a law saying that we have to do something a certain way, we should still do it the right way.

Engineering ethics is extremely important to civil engineers. This is one of the few industries where people can get seriously hurt or killed if we don’t do things the right way. Because of that, follow the law and approved standards. If they don’t provide enough guidance then use your engineering judgment and the experience of experts to do the right thing.

Have you had any experience where the standards didn’t meet the needs of you project? What kinds of things have you seen?

Here’s an old logic puzzle.  The solution is available online, but if you haven’t seen this puzzle before, then give it a try before looking up the solution.  I’ll post my solution next Saturday.

On a train, Smith, Robinson, and Jones are the fireman, brakeman, and the engineer, but NOT respectively.  Also aboard the train are three businessmen who have the same names: a Mr. Smith, a Mr. Robinson, and a Mr. Jones.

1. Mr. Robinson lives in Detroit.

2. The brakeman lives exactly halfway between Chicago and Detroit.

3. Mr. Jones earns exactly $20,000 per year.

4. The brakeman’s nearest neighbor, one of the passengers, earns exactly three times as much as the brakeman.

5. Smith beats the fireman in billiards.

6. The passenger whose name is the same as the brakeman’s lives in Chicago.

Who is the Engineer?

By the way, I found this puzzle at http://www.misronet.com/puzzles01.htm.  You can check your answer at the site.  You can also find more puzzles there.

Feel free to post your solution.

Here is the solution that I have for Puzzle Number 2

if x=1 and y=1

(1+1)=1

Step 5 is where the mathematicians scream.  After all, can you really put x-y in the denominator if you know from step 1 that x=y?  Most math puzzle like this and 2+2=5 use a mathematical side step like that.  What do you think?  Can we get away with that?

I’m no fashion expert.  Far from it.  As far as I’m concerned, Jeans and a t-shirt will work for most occasions.  Work is one of the occasions when jeans and a t-shirt are generally not recommended.  Even on casual Friday.  When you’re new to the office environment, figuring out what you should wear can be a bit confusing.  This is especially the case when you’re given vague terms like casual Friday or business casual.  I may touch on other situations later, but since today is Friday and I’m getting ready for casual Friday myself right now, I’ll just go over that.

One Step Down

The general rule for casual Friday is to dress one step down from what you normally wear.  For example, if you generally wear slacks and a button up shirt, then casual Friday could be jeans that are in good shape and a polo shirt.  Generally you would still wear dressier shoes, not tennis shoes.  For the different firms that I’ve worked for and with, that seems to be the most common situation in the civil engineering consulting industry.  That also seems to be fairly common with the municipal clients.

Following the one step down rule, if you generally wear a tie to work, then casual Friday may simply mean that you don’t have to wear a tie.

The same concept works for both men and women.  The whole point is to be a little more relaxed, while still looking professional.

This is a general rule.  The details vary from one company to the next.  They also vary between different parts of the country and within different industries.  When in doubt, ask your boss.  They know us new engineers have a lot to learn.

How does your company do this sort of thing?

In this economy everyone is looking to save money.  That means not only us, but the companies that we work for as well.  Being able to save your company some money while still getting everything done properly, shows that you care about more than just yourself.  It also shows that you have an interest in helping the company.  That makes you more valuable in your boss’s eyes.

Here are two things that I’ve done recently that helped my company save money.

Rent a car for business trips.

Civil engineers sometimes have to travel for projects.  We can’t always work on projects just down the street.  One place I have to travel to occasionally takes about 4 hours to drive to.  Because of time at the airport, flight time, luggage, car rental, etc. it takes about 4 hours to fly there as well.

The company reimburses me for those costs.  So to drive the company spends about $250 in mileage.  A little more than that to fly with the plane ticket and rental car.  However, I’ve learned that if I rent a car and drive the rental instead of my own car, then the company pays for the rental and gas instead of mileage.  That comes to about half the price of me driving my own car.

Granted, I don’t get that $250 mileage reimbursement, but the company still pays for the gas and I don’t put hundreds of extra miles on my own car.  It saves money for both of us in the long run.

Become a member.

Civil engineers have to constantly take classes.  We have to keep up with the latest laws, technologies, and standards, not to mention learning new areas of civil engineering.  Most companies see the value of taking these classes and are willing to pay for them.

If the class is offered by an association, the association will usually give a discount to its members.  Frequently, the discount is more than the price of membership.  This is especially true if you take more than one class.  Your company may be willing to pay for the membership if you can show them how much it will save them in the long run.

These membership can also connect you with other professionals to help you network.  The organizations also provide a lot of resources to its member that you wouldn’t have otherwise.  Those are side benefits that can help both you personally and your company.

Has anybody else used these methods?  What are some ways that you have saved money at work?  Both for you or your company?

I’ve updated the acronyms list quite a bit.  About 100 on the list now.  I’ll slowly flesh it out with additional acronyms and abbreviations.  I’ll also add in relevant links such as those for organizations.  Send me any acronyms that you think I should add to the list.

Right of Way is something that civil engineers work with a lot.  It’s on virtually all of the surveys that we use.  It’s a key point that must be known if you’re working on a project where private property meets public property.  This is especially important when working on transportation projects for local governments.  There are a lot of aspects to Right of Way and Right of Way Acquisition.  I’m going to talk about it mainly from the transportation side.

What is Right of Way

Here’s an example of what Right of Way (ROW) is.  A city owns a public street that goes through a residential neighborhood.  They also own a few feet past the pavement on both sides of the street.  If a residential street is 30-36 feet wide the city may own a total of 46-50+ feet wide area.  So, yes they own part of your front yard.  Virtually all public streets are like this, from local residential streets on up to interstate highways which may have ROWs that are hundreds of feet wide.

Why Right of Way

The government holds a right of way wider than the actual street for several reasons.  They use the extra land for things like public sidewalks, utilities, or to widen the road in the future.  Also, street lights, traffic signals and street parking are all in the ROW.

Right of Way is something that we have to know where is, but civil engineers don’t typically worry about why it’s where it is or how to get more.  That sort of thing is typically handled by the government agency itself.  Or was figured out when the property was first developed.  Civil engineers don’t generally get more once an area is already developed.

However, I’ve had the privilege recently to work on a ROW acquisition project recently.  That’s a service that our company offers, and my background in roadway design helped get me involved in a roadway ROW project.

The project

Here are the basics of the project.  A two lane county road needed to be widened because of all of the development nearby.  Plans were drawn up and the road was designed, but the county didn’t actually own enough land to make the road wider.  That’s where we came in on the project.  The county hired us to acquire the land for them.

What you have to do

There are several steps involved in ROW acquisition.  I’m going to go over the broad steps.  Perhaps at a later date I’ll write a more detailed article, or ask our resident expert to put one together for me.

Survey

It seems that everything in civil engineering begins with a survey.  The same applies here.  With the survey and the plans we can see exactly how much land is needed from each land owner.  The surveyor provides documents showing exactly how much land is needed.  They generally will also mark the area with flags or other markers.

Initial Letter

An initial letter is sent to the current land owner to let them know about the surveyors and appraisers coming onto their property.  The letter also lets the owner know what’s going on with the project; the whys, the whos, etc.

Appraisals

Next the appraisers go to work.  They appraise each plot of land that the government needs to buy.  The appraisers generally will take into account mailboxes, fences, trees and anything else that may be in the proposed right of way area that current land owner would have to move or lose value if it’s removed.

Title Search

Just like when you buy any piece of property, you do a title search to find out who actually owns the land.  This will also tell you about any liens on the property such as a mortgage, tax lien or unpaid debt.  Any lien will affect the sale.

Offer Letters

Send the initial offer letter.  Basically the offer is for what the appraiser valued the land at.

Negotiation

This can be real long or real short depending on what the land owner wants.  I’ve seen some just sign the paperwork and send it back.  Some think their land is worth more, some will want fences or custom mailboxes replaced, trees paid for, or many other things.  Some just flat out refuse to sell.  In most cases something can be worked out to the benefit of both the land owner and the municipality.

Partial Release of Lien

We do have to deal with any liens that are on the property.  If there is a mortgage, for example, we have to get a partial release of lien.  Basically the bank has to give up that part of the land on their deed.  Lien holders may have the right to the money first.  That varies some by location.  Banks sometimes require a percentage of the money based on a percentage of the property sold.

Acceptance or Condemnation

Eventually, after the negotiations, the land owner accepts or they don’t.  If they accept, then the paperwork is signed, they get their money and the government gets the land.  If they are unwilling to sign, then it goes to condemnation.  That means that it goes before a third party to decide the case.  Generally when this happens the government gets the land and the land owner gets fair market value for their property.  Because of the expense it really doesn’t do anybody any good to go to condemnation.  As long as we follow the laws and our engineering ethics guidelines we are fine.

There is a lot more to it, but that covers the basic process.  It is certainly a good thing to know, even if you never do ROW acquisition yourself.  Having the knowledge gives you a better understanding of the process and what the municipality has to do on some projects.  However, having the expertise can give your company another product to offer municipal clients.