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Skills That Matter: The

Reality and Importance
of Learning on the Job
SONIA SWIFT, P.E., M.ASCE;

MARY NODINE, P.E., M.ASCE

AND

ABSTRACT: Junior engineers often enter their careers thinking that they have learned
all the academic concepts they need to be successful in their field. However, once they
begin working, they are asked to perform tasks that they only vaguely remember
from class, to use computer programs that they have never heard of, and to perform
calculations that they have no idea how to begin. The truth is that undergraduate and
even graduate coursework provides engineers with only the basic structure for knowledge
that they will develop during the course of their careers. Well-rounded and successful
engineers need to approach their careers with an open mind and expect to learn new
skills on the job, often under the pressure of impending deadlines and demanding clients.
The willingness to learn, be flexible, and perform tasks that one is not familiar with is
invaluable in the workplace, and it can open doors that take a career in new and
exciting directions. The knowledge associated with experience and perseverance is far
greater than that gleaned from textbooks, although developing that knowledge requires
two characteristics that are not taught in engineering curriculum: patience and
flexibility.
INTRODUCTION
In a practical field such as engineering, education is
tailored to a students future occupation. Graduates
may therefore enter the workforce with the expectation that they have the technical skills they need and
that the time has come to execute those skills. These
young engineers may not fully understand how much
they still have to learn in their field, how different a
problem will seem when it occurs in the real world,
and the potential unexpected turns their career may
take as it develops. In this paper, we present our perspective and advice to young engineers regarding what
to expect as they enter their career, and we emphasize
the importance of maintaining a patient and flexible
mind-set as they encounter inevitable challenges.
We have each worked at GEI Consultants for nearly
seven years, but we focused our education choices on
Leadership and Management in Engineering

opposite ends of the civil engineering spectrum: Sonia

has a masters degree in structural engineering, and
Mary has a masters degree in geotechnical engineering. Today, we work on projects that include components of both specialties. Each of us has struggled
over the years to learn the concepts and develop the
skills we need to complete our work effectively. We
were reluctant at first to dive into tasks we were not
immediately confident performing, but learning on
the job has ultimately been critical to our success.
POWERAND LIMITATIONSOF ENGINEERING
EDUCATION
Earning an engineering degree is no small task. By the
time you obtain a diploma, you will have sat through
hundreds of hours of lectures and completed many
problem sets, exams, papers, and projects. Through

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all this hard work, you will have been introduced to

many concepts and practiced skills that you will use
throughout your career. You may have even had the
opportunity to visit project sites and interact with
practitioners. Upon graduating, with good reason,
you should feel prepared to step into a career in your
field.
A good education is crucial for success in an engineering career. Learning and practicing skills such as
analytical problem solving, mathematics, writing, and
research are perhaps the most obvious benefits. These
skills will be invaluable no matter what path you
follow. Undergraduate and graduate programs also
provide more specialized skills, such as proficiency
using computer software, which can make you more
marketable when you enter the workforce.
Often, college is where inspiration strikes; coursework and professors provide the first spark of direction
for a future career. Mary, for example, began college
with only a vague idea of what engineering entailed,
never mind the many subsets of civil engineering
among which she would eventually have to choose.
She chose civil engineering through a process of elimination and selected a geotechnical specialty thanks to
one particularly inspiring professor. After your eyes
are opened to possible career options, more specialized
courses give you a taste of the types of challenges you
might encounter in your field, through projects and
problem sets.
Both undergraduate and graduate engineering programs provide you with a wealth of example problems
and references that you may draw upon later in your
career. In the midst of pressure to memorize equations
for the sake of exam scores, it is easy to develop the
mind-set that a good engineer is one who can calculate
the factor of safety against bearing capacity to the
third decimal place without error, or use differential
equations to find the moment in an indeterminate
beam. Although these types of skills are useful, what
is most important about learning them is the exposure
to different types of problems and the knowledge of
what problem-solving methodologies are available.
Knowing where to look to obtain the information required to solve a problemwhether it be a textbook,
course notes, or the Internetis more important than
memorization or perfectionism in the long run. Had
Mary known this when she was in school, she might
have been a little easier on herself regarding the difficulty she had solving finite-element problems by
hand. She also might have saved the concrete-design
notes that she happily threw away upon completing
that course, thinking that because she was going to
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be a geotechnical engineer, she would never need

them again.
The people you meet in engineering school will be
even more important for your career than the references and textbooks that you will draw upon. Professors
act as mentors and may provide connections to engineering firms to aid you in your job search. Fellow
students will be your colleagues, clients, collaborators,
and competitors in the future. The connection to a
university in and of itself will provide name recognition and an alumni network that can help you
throughout your career.
When you step out of school and into the workforce, you should feel confident in your ability to attack any problem or task thrown your way. However,
you should not assume that because you have a degree
in the field you are about to enter, you will immediately be able to punch some numbers into your calculator and have the answer. Rather, you should enter
the workforce with a solid reference list, an open
mind, and the expectation that the learning has just
begun.
JOINING THE WORKFORCE
When you enter your new position as an engineer,
you will no doubt be eager to put some of the skills
you learned in school to good use, but you may be
surprised to find that industry is very different from
academia. The pace is faster, the clients are more
demanding than professors were, and budgets are
watched closely. A problem that you have the luxury
of contemplating over a week for a problem set may
need to be solved in an hour because the contractor is
waiting for an answer before continuing production.
You may work late into the evening, diligently trying
to finish a task for a deadline, only to come in the
following morning to find an e-mail from the client
about changed conditions that will require a complete
redesign. Problems may look similar to those you encountered in school, but it will often seem that some
of the pieces required to solve the real-world problems
are missing. Engineers make many assumptions, but
you may have no idea what assumptions are reasonable
for a given problem.
Developing good engineering judgment is challenging for every engineer, and there will certainly
be days when you feel overwhelmed and out of your
league. It takes time to get up to speed and learn what
is expected of you and when to ask for help. It is certainly daunting when everyone around you seems to
have a handle on things and an innate sense of what

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is right or wrong, but the most important thing you

can do in the first few years of your career is to absorb
everything you touch and are exposed to. The knowledge of how to approach a problem, when it is appropriate and acceptable to make assumptions, and when
you need to ask for help from a senior engineer comes
with experience. Experience takes years to acquire
and requires exposure to a variety of projects and
conditions.
As you stare blankly at your computer screen or
rifle through an old dusty textbook, we offer you
the following words of advice: Do not be discouraged.
Admit when you do not know something, but also
give the problem a shot. Show others that you care,
you want to learn how to do a variety of tasks, you
are eager, and you will work hard. Managers do not
expect you to know everything and may give you a
job they know you cannot complete on your own,
but how far you get and how you get there will speak
volumes about your abilities and your motivation.
When time is of the essence because of a quickapproaching deadline, ask questions and request examples and resources to make your job easier. When
there is no clear solution to the problem, take the opportunity to put your problem-solving skills to good
use. Consider tough situations a learning opportunity,
and do not be afraid to ask for help when you need it.
If you are assigned a problem and are not sure where
to start, there is a good chance someone in the office
has done it before. Ask around, get some help, and
then use the information provided to take a stab at
solving the problem all the way through. Make assumptions, provide some logic for what you did, and
then present your solution to someone and get their
input. Although it is difficult, trial by fire is often
an effective and necessary way to teach junior engineers, given the constraints of the working world.
It is daunting but results in self-sufficient and knowledgeable engineers who can make tough decisions
quickly and come up with efficient, practical solutions
to difficult problems under pressure.
At times, the realization that you did not learn
everything you needed to know in school can be unsettling. You may wonder, Why did I work so hard if I
need to relearn everything at work? For Sonia, this was
especially true because her undergraduate and graduate coursework focused heavily on structural engineering, a specialty she ultimately realized she had no
passion for. When it came time to join the working
world, she wanted to try something other than structural engineering, so she joined a firm focused on geotechnical engineering. At first, she was lost. She felt
Leadership and Management in Engineering

like she did not know anything about soil, she did not
have the basic understanding that her peers had, and
she needed too much help. In addition, she had to do
more fieldwork than she had anticipated, and she did
not immediately appreciate the knowledge she was
gaining through those field projects and her exposure
to different types of construction. She quickly became discouraged, as she was often working in the
cold, rain, or heat and returning home muddy and exhausted after long days spent arguing with drillers and
contractors. She felt as if all her hard work in college
was for naught. Still, she muddled through. She took
on tasks she did not want and did not have any idea
how to complete. She worked hard, worked late, and
never said no. She did not know where her career was
headed, and at times she had no idea whether she was
doing a good job or whether someone had to clean up
everything she didbut she kept trying. She also kept
records of things she had learned, so that she could
refer to them in the future, and made notes about mistakes she made and how to avoid them in the future.
Slowly, after much frustration and discouragement,
Sonia began to realize that even though it had taken a
while, she could now answer many questions without
struggling. She was starting to figure out the solutions
to problems on her own. She realized that geotechnical
engineering was founded on many of the same basic
principles she had learned in school and that she already knew how to think critically, solve a problem,
and work collaboratively to reach a goal. During
graduate school she had learned two skills that were,
and still are, critical to her development: admitting
when she did not know something and having confidence in her own abilities. Both skills are invaluable
at any point in a career. However, she found that she
had forgotten the importance of having confidence in
her own abilities during her first few years as an engineer. Development of confidence is often a turning
point in a young engineers career because confidence
is obvious to others. The more you respect yourself,
the easier it is for others to respect you too.
REAPING THE BENEFITS
When you demonstrate patience and flexibility early
in your career, you will reap the benefits in your technical skills and in your professional development.
Concepts learned in a practical setting rather than late
at night cramming for an exam are much easier to recall the next time they will be useful. Learning in context also teaches you not only what is correct and
works on paper, but what is practical. It did not take

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Mary too many calls from a contractor midconstruction to learn to draw concrete details clearly and to
learn that varying both the rebar size and spacing
within the same slab is a bad idea.
Experiencing the direct consequences of your actions will also put you well on your way to developing
engineering judgment. Determining a factor of safety
for a homework problem will not give you the ability
to estimate the stability of a slope knowing only its
soil properties and angle of repose. Only after contemplating, analyzing, and designing one slope after another will you develop a sense of the answer before
picking up a pencil or a calculator. Good judgment
not only helps you to make an educated guess at the
answer to a problem, but perhaps more important,
it helps you to know whether a carefully calculated
answer is in the ballpark or completely off base.
Apart from the direct technical benefits, entering
your field with a great willingness to learn will make
you extremely valuable to your colleagues. Managers
are more likely to delegate tasks to you if you are interested in taking them on, regardless of your experience, rather than if you are hesitant and limit yourself
to what you are already comfortable with. The enthusiasm to learn new things is a self-fulfilling prophesy,
because as you gain a reputation as a willing and able
engineer regardless of the task, the more skills and
concepts you learn and the more valuable you will be
in the workplace. Becoming a go-to person also helps
you to build a network of colleagues who become excellent resources in the quest for continued learning
and development.
Being open-minded as a young engineer can also
have the benefit of opening doors to unexpected experiences, which can ultimately take your career in a new
direction. Learning on the job is different from learning in a classroom, and you may find that types of
projects and specialties you thought you wouldnt be
interested in are more intriguing in real lifeand vice
versa. When Mary completed her undergraduate degree, she swore off structural engineering. Based on
her problem sets, she felt that the field was dry and
had too many rules, and she wanted to do only geotechnical engineering going forward. Seven years later
she began designing excavation support and started
to accept that structural engineering was essential if
she wanted to understand and design complete earthretention systems. She learned this lesson with reluctance, but as she gained momentum, she discovered
that the structural aspects of these systems were not
so boring when she understood the purpose of beam
sizes and weld specifications in the bigger picture.
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GOING BEYOND TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

Engineers are not known for being outgoing and social. However, a successful career requires the ability
to communicate with others, form relationships, convey findings and recommendations to clients, and sell
a companys abilities to potential clients. When you
leave school, you may not realize the importance of
effective communication, clear and concise writing,
and the ability to connect with others. To be a successful engineer, you need to be not only technically
savvy but also able to form relationships with colleagues and clients. It is important to seek out work
and experiences and volunteer for them. These experiences may be technical or nontechnical; the idea is
that you will learn something by participating and
become part of your companys culture.
Our advice to you is get involved. You dont like
mingling and small talk? You dont have time to go
to long dinner meetings or organize the annual office
Christmas party? You do not have to do it all and you
do not have to do something you hate, but if you pick
something you have an interest in, you are likely to get
something out of it. There are many choices: attend
lectures with other colleagues, join a committee at the
office, organize lunchtime get-togethers or friendly
sports competitions, or attend younger member events
for a local organization. Making connections with
others is personal and does not always need to revolve
around technical work; however, the relationships you
form will provide you with potential resources. In addition, you are advertising yourself and your abilities,
not only as an engineer, but as an individual. At first
this may seem irrelevant, but as you move through
your career, your connections and resources within the
industry and your ability to effectively communicate
your needs and your abilities become invaluable.
Early on in Sonias career, she got involved in a
mentoring initiative at the office. She took a strong
interest in figuring out how to help junior and senior
staff members forge relationships in which they could
speak freely and exchange knowledge and information
in an informal setting. She invested a large amount of
time; she nervously made presentations to the vice
presidents in the office, many of whom she had never
spoken to; and she participated in and oversaw a
program that she and her colleagues developed with
passion and pride. The program itself was semisuccessful, but the relationships she formed with the others
on the team, the confidence she developed during the
years she worked on the initiative, and the exposure it
gave her within the company were surely worth the
hours she invested in the effort.

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Currently, the two of us are struggling with business development, learning to take ownership of selling our companys services, and competing with other
firms. We are faced with the daunting task of bringing in work for us to manage and for others to do.
We need to start passing the technical skills we have
learned on to others. Our focus has shifted from doing
calculations to thinking about the bigger picture and
bringing all the pieces of a project together effectively
and efficiently. Slowly, our focus must continue to
shift from being known within the company to becoming known within the industry and knowing
others within the industry.
So the cycle begins again. We feel as if we are out
of our league, we do not know exactly what to do or
how to connect with others, and we wonder whether
we are doing the right thing. We are lucky because
we have been here before, in a different setting,

Leadership and Management in Engineering

and we learned how to overcome challenges and

how to deal with the unknown. We have the framework for solving problems and we can adapt the skills
we learned and apply them more confidently than we
did in the past.

Sonia Swift is a project manager at GEI Consultants, Inc., 400 Unicorn Park Dr., Woburn,
MA 01801. She can be reached at sswift@
geiconsultants.com.

Mary Nodine is a project manager at GEI Consultants, Inc., 400 Unicorn Park Dr., Woburn,
MA 01801. She can be reached at mnodine@
LME
geiconsultants.com.

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