What is your favorite part of your job?

Creating computer models of flood events to help evaluate people's risk of flooding. Also the water & earth science behind it!

What is your least favorite part?

The ebb & flow of consulting work - sometimes things are slow and then we have 18 project deadlines hit at the same time and are scrambling to get it all done. Civil engineering in general is still also a white man-dominated field so that can sometimes be stressful (but my office in particular actually is about 50% women engineers)

What is your average workday like?

Working on the computer using specialized computer programs for flood modeling and geospatial (mapping) analysis as well as calculations/data organization using spreadsheets and sometimes minor programming. Meetings a few times a week & talking with individual coworkers about projects most but not every day. Occasionally going out into the field to collect data!

How social is your job?

There is definitely collaboration and teamwork involved but a lot of the actual work is pretty solo for entry/mid-level engineers

How did you end up in your field

A very roundabout way! I was the "artsy" kid growing up, was not super into math, and had no idea there were types of engineering that don't involve building physical things. I knew that I wanted to do something related to water and the environment but didn't know what and after a pretty rough first few years of college (in the Chinese Language and Culture department) I realized one day that there must be engineers/scientists who study rivers and flooding and I could solve problems for a living while hopefully making the world a better place. The school I was at didn't have an engineering department so I switched my major to math to pick up some pre-reqs and eventually transferred to another school with a civil and environmental engineering department with a really strong engineering and water resources track. It's possible to get an entry level civil engineering job with just a bachelor's in civil engineering but I went on to also get my MS in environmental and water resources engineering because I knew I wanted to specialize more.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your work life balance?

5

What traits make a person successful in your field?

Willingness to learn & an interest in how things work! Attention to detail and quality. Being able to communicate about technical concepts. Confidence in math doesn't hurt but we're not doing calculus by hand or anything. My coworkers who went to different civil engineering programs all have slightly different backgrounds when it comes to science & computers so you learn a ton of what you need to know on the job.

On a scale of 1-10, how happy are you in your career?

9