About Me
Alma Mater: Texas A&M, Bachelor of Science - BS, Civil Engineering
Hobbies: I love spending time with my friends. We find a few events every year that everyone can meet up for a weekend. Most of us are Aggies, so A&M football games are always popular, but we also go to music festivals, lake trips, or really any excuse to hangout every couple months. Individually I’ve always enjoyed strategy and management type games. Civilization, Catan, anything like that. I never play them very competitively, but for whatever reason it’s always a relaxing experience for me to sink into for a few hours here and there.
Career Q&A
-
I chose to pursue a career as a Civil Engineer because…
I was always strong in math and science in middle and high school, so engineering seemed a natural choice. I thought Civil was particularly interesting because everyone sees and uses the projects you build. My perspective on the highways I drive on and the construction I pass by has changed a lot since I started working and that’s been really cool.
-
The thing I love most about my job is…
How much there is to learn. Every time it seems like you’re comfortable with what you’re doing you run into some random problem you haven’t seen before. Getting into discussions with coworkers and mentors on solving those problems has always been enjoyable, even when it’s stressful.
-
My favorite thing about TranSystems is…
My local coworkers have always been helpful and friendly. That’s made it much easier to get comfortable in the office and in my role.
-
Since joining TranSystems…
I’ve become much more confident in leading my own tasks and trusting my own expertise. Some of the responsibilities I’ve taken on in the last two years would have terrified me before I started here, but now I like having that responsibility and hope to get more work like that.
My Day
8 – 8:30 AM – Begin the Day
When I first get into the office, I quickly look through any emails and messages I missed the day before and check my meeting calendar. If nothing urgent came up, I’ll go fill up my water bottle and gossip with my coworkers about anything that happened in the last day or two. Sports trash talk is an especially popular topic.
8:30 – 11 AM – Work on Current Projects
My most common task is working on drainage models and reports. This could be for Storm sewers, ditches, or river crossings. I use Geopak Drainage, StormCAD, and HEC-RAS for modeling. Ultimately everything needs to get shown on a set of plans or summarized in a report, and I do most of that work myself.
11 AM – 12 PM – Lunch Break
Houston has always been an early lunch office since I’ve started here. We don’t always go out to lunch but once or twice a week we’ll get a group to go. There are several foodies in the office (and Houston has a fantastic food scene) so we have a good list of places to go. I even made an excel sheet that can randomly pick a place to go when people are indecisive.
12 – 2 PM – Continue Working on Daily Tasks
After lunch I get back into working through whatever project I’m currently on. Most of my project meetings tend to be in the afternoon so I’ll join those and listen to the state of the project. I usually operate independently for drainage tasks but there’s always some problems or questions that arise. I’ll message my project manager or a senior drainage engineer to discuss those sorts of issues as needed.
2 – 3 PM – Meet with Coworkers & Mentors
We have office meetings every Thursday morning for any general updates on the company or the office. We also briefly go over what projects everyone is working on and what the status of those projects is. I have lots of one-off meetings for specific project problems. A pipe system isn’t working as we thought it would, we’re seeing flooding in an area that we need to avoid, a utility conflict is causing problems, anything like that.
I talk to my Supervisor, Tanya Lindquist, and my drainage mentor, Mike Hobbs usually at least once a week. Tanya gets all my more general questions such as what projects I’m working on, how my workload is doing, anything related to my career path, etc. Mike helps with my technical questions about drainage modeling and how to interpret results. I rely on both Tanya and Mike for career advice and they’ve both been extremely helpful for me to have as resources.
3 – 5 PM – Collaborate with Team Members
I also work with our local Roadway team all the time. Sometimes it’s helping with some backchecks or calculations for the roadway design, sometimes it’s discussing a drainage issue they weren’t expecting. Similarly, I ask them questions all the time when I need to know best practices for roadway design or get a second opinion on how a design change may affect the roadway.
5 PM – Sign off
Usually after work I’ll meet my roommate to go workout or get something to eat and relax. Sometimes there are work events for professional organizations or for the office I’ll join in and often help plan.
