I became president after spending about 5 years as a Vice President, the last 2 years of which involved shadowing and directly assisting the president and company founder. I learned how he talked to the clients, and maintained relationships and mutual respect, when he was firm and when he Cut people a break, when money mattered and when to compromise on an invoice to help a client out. I would spend my time thinking of strategic issues, and business processes. Trying to correlate what I learned in business classes to what i saw going on in the company. And when I was not doing that I would assist with jobs in the field or help solve problems in the lab or office.
Prior to becoming a Vice President, I had worked in the company for 8 years, since graduating High school. I was an assistant to the engineers and a field representative. My father founded the company and I remember him taking me to job sites whenever he could throughout my childhood. I was very young during its initial growth in the 80s, and being away in college for much of its expansion in the 90s, I always looked at our company as a grand endeavor, with such a great legacy. But I did to see the simpler side of it, until recently.
When one of our professional engineers left in 2008, there was no worry, we had others. But when the others left in 2013, we were left in a position to fill that role with someone from outside. Someone who would need to be familiarized with what we do and how we do it? I had never been in a position to do his work. He reviewed the reports and signed and sealed them as a licensed Professional Engineer. Thus, providing the key product that our clients paid us for.
To some clients it was only a piece of paper they needed to submit to a government agency to get the project to the next stage. There are plenty of Professional Engineers willing to review reports and sign and seal them.
To other clients it was more, they hire us to do one of these things:
-make sure the property they are buying is not contaminated.
-give them a recommendation about what type of foundation will work best for their project.
-ensure that the soil they have compacted has achieved the minimum required density.
-ensure that the concrete they are purchasing is as strong as it is supposed to be.
Through 20 years of experience as a field technician and with the guidance of our experienced senior civil engineer, our team continued to do what we are hired to do:
We are hired by developers to protect them from contractor short cuts.
We are hired by contractors to protect themselves from blame.
I have...
...visited that site you want to purchase and sampled the contamination on the surface and in its groundwater and prepared the environmental site assessment report.
...drilled into its soil to find the muck unfit to be built upon and prepared the foundation recommendation and geotechnical report for you to give to your architect or design engineer, and submit to the city for a building permit.
...analyzed your existing construction on the site with a steel detector and also load tested it because it was either built without a permit and needed to be legalized or used for something it was not initially designed to be used for.
...inspected that new construction area excavation and certified its soil bearing capacity through a proctor test in the laboratory, and then verified with a density test in the field. Protecting your investment from settlement issues that will devalue it later on.
...monitored the installation of piles in those areas where your soil was so loose that it was more cost effective for you to by-pass it and install piles into the limerock layer deep below the surface.
...inspected the steel reinforcement that was going into your structure before the concrete is to be poured or after your masonary blocks were placed..
...tested your concrete for its required slump, air content, chloride content, depth of carbonation, and its compressive strength.
I have...
...set up the laboratory to do the testing
...repaired the rig to do the drilling
...established the office to write the reports
I have...
...prepared various templates for staff to write the reports
...written those reports
...invoiced those reports
...delivered those reports
All I have not done is review, sign and seal the report.
I have a P.E. for that.
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