Celebrating National Engineers Week
Founded by The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) in 1951, National Engineers Week, or EWeek, is dedicated to creating awareness and interest in engineering careers to ensure a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce. This year, Engineers Week is observed February 20–26.
As one of the USA's largest engineering staffing firms, it's important for us to be part of the conversation. We work with hundreds of civil, chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineers throughout the country and across different sectors, including renewable energy, power and utilities, oil and gas, and manufacturing.
We spoke with a few of our engineering contractors across different disciplines and sectors to learn what they love most of their respective field, and what advice they can give to new engineers or to people considering entering the field.
Davis George Moye
Electrical Engineer
What do you enjoy most about being an engineer in your industry?
I like to make new stuff. I tried to be a lawyer for a while, but at the end of the day, lawyers exist to win arguments against others. Engineers invent.
What has been your proudest moment as an engineer?
Around midnight after a busy day on Navy reserve duty I was alone in my room with my laptop out, reviewing a problem that had evaded me for months, and I finally realized which variable needed to be changed to make my product work. Then the numbers worked!
What is the hardest part about being an engineer in your field?
Keeping up with the technology. In the battery world people often develop new chemicals for new batteries before they really understand the technology they already have, let alone competing technologies. I even have a patent pending on a way to automate this work.
What skills that you have developed on-site have made you a better engineer?
In school they teach theory, which is essential, but you are seldom designing anything from scratch. Typically, somebody else has already developed many of the components you will need. Therefore, the work is often a plug and play.
What advice would you give to future engineers in your space?
Learn your chemistry. Learn your power electronics. Then get a job to observe what your older colleagues and the technicians are doing.
Kimberly Mullooly
Controls Engineer
What do you enjoy most about being an engineer in your industry?
Building relationships with everyone in the industry has been the greatest part of being an engineer, from managers, sales, technicians and electricians. I don’t always remember the details of a past assignment, but I remember the people who worked so hard to go above and beyond to help me and the project be successful.
What has been your proudest moment as an engineer?
As a lifelong consulting and contract engineer, my proudest moments are always when an associate or client recommends or requests me for the next job. At the end of the day, I want to know that I showed up and worked hard and it made a difference.
What is the most challenging part about being an engineer in your field?
Change. Everyday, technology introduces something smarter, smaller, less expensive, easier to install, faster response time, and the list goes on and on. You can’t really stay in a groove as an electrical engineer. If you were part of a “innovative” project two years ago, it’s possible that it is already outdated today.
What skills that you have developed on-site have made you a better engineer?
For me, becoming a better engineer came from doing jobs that were not engineering. From cleaning up oil leaks to working a production line and packing pallets, being hands on always made me strive to make someone else’s job easier by improving control systems and extracting information for operation and maintenance improvements.
Miguel Reyes
Wind Project Engineer
What do you enjoy most about being an engineer in your industry?
To work as an engineer in the renewable energy industry brings fulfillment as it feels I am making a difference by contributing to aid in climate change, which will make the world and society prosper for future generations to come.
What skills that you have developed on-site have made you a better engineer?
Being on site helps you develop technical skills and more in-depth knowledge about your craft, but it is the soft skills you can learn on site like leadership, communication, and team work that can really help you thrive in your career.
What advice would you give to future engineers in your space?
I would tell future engineers in the energy space to always keep innovating. There are so many advancements being made today and technology is always evolving, but it takes great minds make it happen.
John Wages
Engineering Project Manager
What do you enjoy most about being an engineer in your industry?
The daily challenges that need to be addressed. It keeps the work interesting and allows me to stay engaged.
What has been your proudest moment as an engineer?
Delivery of a project completed on time, within budget and completely functional. This came about on a long-term Tire Plant installation.
What is the hardest part about being an engineer in your field?
Getting up to speed on procedure, structure and learning the clients--from their personality to their needs for tasks requested.
What skills that you have developed on-site have made you a better engineer?
On site engineering is most challenging as it is usually an urgent need. The time to support and or correct the concern is paramount until task completion, then the recovery to explain costs and hindsight review. I’ve learned to not have a knee-jerk reaction to immediate challenges and to look at all contingencies before reacting.
What advice would you give to future engineers in your space?
Lead by listening. Thinking before you speak is usually learned over time with experience, but I believe this is a key component in being successful.
