today we're here at auckland university
i thought it'd be a great chance to go
through some of the things that i would
do if i was just starting out in the
field so i've either just graduated or
just about to graduate and getting that
first engineering job so what would i
focus on my name's brendan your
structural engineer now let's get into
it and you may have ever heard this but
really take it to heart once you've
finished university you haven't actually
stopped you studied you've only really
just begun it only really taught you the
basics of what you need to know and some
of the basic mechanics of engineering
and not what actually goes into
engineering design so there's quite a
wide variety of stuff that you need to
focus on in engineering design how does
it go together how can you construct it
instead of just doing the numbers to
making sure that you've got the right
size and stress there's a big difference
between analysis and design see in
design you're making sure that it can
actually be built with constraints that
are given to you do you have site
constraints do you have construction
constraints can they put certain things
in certain locations and there are there
better ways to do it sometimes you may
need to increase the size of things to
make it easier to build and learning
from those things takes time we're at
university they've only really taught
you how to analyze the beams what
reinforcement in it where the stress is
going and the flow of forces when you're
starting out there's always that need to
go what is the software that i should be
using how should i be analyzing what
software should i be looking at to make
this easier this is really the wrong
decision especially early on in your
career you want to be able to understand
the basic mechanics of the engineering
behind it so the numbers that are
involved and why the stresses occur in
the structure instead of what software i
need to analyze it as you need some way
of justifying the results out of that
computer
that age i'll debate again about garbage
in and garbage out if you don't know
roughly what the answer should be there
should be no need for you to jump into
engineering software so i'll be starting
to focus on the basic principles of
engineering why stresses flow through
structures which way stresses will flow
through the structure how do i analyze
that by hand how can i do basic rules of
thumb and principles like that so rules
of thumb are really helpful to help you
size up the structure to make sure
you've analyzed it correctly sometimes
you may have had the wrong units in the
software analysis that you're doing and
just basic principles like wl squared
and 8 to calculate the moments in those
critical locations and sets it back
against the results that you're getting
now that's not to say that you shouldn't
learn the softwares as you should
but this will come with time as soon as
you know those basic principles you can
start to move into the software
now as an engineer it's not a
nine-to-five job unfortunately there's
so much we need to know so there's quite
a lot of learning and sometimes you'll
do a little bit of learning on the job
which means that you potentially will
need to do a little bit more outside
education so you're potentially working
a little bit over time to come up with
the time that you actually spent on the
job learning
and now that under job learning isn't
necessarily structured you may be just
using the software to make sure you know
how to use it as the efficiency in the
software comes with time and use so you
may be taking time out of your day to
use that software learn how to use it
either before work or after work another
thing you shouldn't even just be
focusing just on those hard skills or
engineering yes they're important as you
need to be able to analyze the structure
and work out where the results are but
your soft skills are just if not more
important do you think what an engineer
does is not just the numbers yes you
need to get to the right answer but it's
displaying that information to someone
that doesn't have the same engineering
knowledge as you so your communication
skills are highly important so whether
that be your written verbal or schematic
drawings you need to make sure that
you're helping increase those if you're
looking to progress your career fastest
your communication skills come more and
more important as you progress as a lot
of engineers can actually do the numbers
make the right results but if they can't
communicate it effectively those
engineering skills are really a waste so
as an engineer
well your most important skill is those
soft skills so while you're focusing on
the hard skills is also looking at
improving your technical writing skills
making sure that you're focusing on the
right audience knowing the difference
between passive
and active voices by the way you always
want to be speaking in that active voice
it makes it shorter more concise and
people more likely to understand it and
also thinking about what knowledge does
the people have and what are the
problems that they needing to address so
trying to phrase your
problems in a problem that they can
understand and how you're addressing
their issues at some point in your
career you're also going to have that
feeling that you don't know anything
this this is a good thing not a bad
thing because you have a realization of
how much you need to know and what
you've got to realize everyone started
from basics as well so they've been
where you've been now when you get to
this point it's about pushing through
keeping those studies up but also asking
the right questions now when you're
asking those questions
just don't come there expecting
solutions
but come there
with a potential solution of what you
think the answer should be so you're
going through i think it should be this
way now it doesn't really matter whether
that answer is correct or not you had a
thought about it and tried to solve the
problem you've come to them with a
solution so they can talk through why
you would do something a certain way you
just come to people looking for
solutions we aren't trying to solve it
first you'll never learn if you never
know what the right answer is or whether
you actually know the knowledge or not
where that will make you more dependent
on the person you're asking for
solutions then being self-dependent was
where you want to becoming the only
question that's a bad one is the one you
don't ask and just because they have a
better way doesn't make you a bad
engineer they've been doing it for
longer than you and potentially seeing
different things that you haven't seen
so they may have seen this multiple
times and say you've got to do it this
way for certain reasons as an engineer
there's also a wide variety of
structures you need to cope with so
whether it be residential commercial
train stations infrastructure or even
like the spark stadium behind us each of
them having the unique properties that
you need to look at to design and it's
up to you to keep track of what type of
jobs you've worked on what type of
designs have you done you've done
concrete have you done steel
sign up to someone else to do it because
up to this point someone's gonna keep a
track making sure you're doing the right
courses working on the right things once
you go into the career no one's looking
out for that it's up to you to take
control of your career so working out
what you need to work on what you enjoy
working on that's not something your
manager can do and making sure you're
focusing on those areas and making sure
you're getting the broad ranges of
experience on different types of
structures and different construction
methodologies
it's up to you to take control of your
career than someone else this is really
a big change from where you've been
before through schooling and university
so it's something you need to consider
and making sure that you're grinding
your career down the path that you want
to go as there's so many different
pathways when you're looking at getting
that first job it's always key you want
to try and get that tier one company but
that's not necessarily always the best
position and some of the small companies
will offer you a more variety of
engineering from start to finish
starting up your own projects where in
bigger companies you may be stuck on a
big project where you only have to
design one element
so when you're starting out if you can't
get that tier one company looking at
those tier 2 tier 3 and tier 4 companies
where you can have more of a family
environment get involved with talking to
clients earlier get involved with
quoting projects and even running your
own projects it's quite a lot of good
experiences you can get when you're
first starting out in a small company
see that's where i started out and
that's where i cut my teeth as an
engineer and got that broad range of
experience from start to finish from
little projects the one thing i've
noticed when stepping up to those bigger
projects though the little projects are
just as hard if not harder than those
bigger projects so there's really no
benefit in stepping into that big
company if you don't have that variety
of work anyway everyone's looking to
chase that money especially early on so
they may be jumping careers a lot
earlier
but when you're first starting out money
is not everything it's more the
experience in getting your teeth into
the engineering work so if you're
learning it's very valuable to you so
you want to make sure that if you are
learning at that company that not just
considering the paycheck it may be low
but they're teaching you they're
educating you they're bringing you up to
that next level and giving you the
experience that you may need to step up
to the next role either within that
company in another company so making
sure you're valuing the experience
you're getting
if you ever do stop learning either
reaching out to them to try and get a
better position so you can get that more
range of experience that you're looking
for or maybe you do need to start
looking for that next role but just
don't do it for money career development
for pay is one thing and you're making
sure you're striving for that more money
and it does help you out in the long run
however you should separate that from
career development you see career
development is about how you progress in
your career what things you should be
focusing on and quite often when you
bring it into money although it is
somewhat related you can get quite
confused so making sure you're having
separate discussions about your pay and
about your career development and where
you want to see your career going and
not everything you do you're going to
enjoy just because you're working
doesn't mean you don't enjoy everything
you're doing though you do need to enjoy
some part of your work but there's
always stuff that you need to do that is
monotonous and boring you don't find
interesting sometimes the grunt work is
where you can learn the most they're
doing that repetition and sometimes it
just clicks you know you link up this
with this and you have a better
understanding so don't shy away from
that grunt work and don't be afraid if
you don't enjoy everything you're doing
but there are parts of it especially
when you build those big buildings
reveled in the excitement of seeing
something go up that you've designed
saying that you're involved with that
and you're key to making sure that it
was put together
whether that be a big building or a
small building still something should
help pride in as engineers we affect
many people day in day out whether it's
the houses they live in and enjoy
whether it's the infrastructure that
they use or whether it's the buildings
they live in much like this hotel it
needed an engineers or multiple
engineers involved to make sure it come
together whether it be mechanical
electrical structural everything needs
to come together to make sure that
building is functional and is safe to
live in engineering is not a sprint race
it's a marathon and sometimes it can
feel like you're moving very slowly in
your career but when you look back at
something you've done a year ago two
years ago you realize that how much
you've actually progressed it's really
slowly slowly it's like the turtle
always wins in the end you will find
sometimes you'll have those major leaps
as you're jumping up through your career
and some of the things that you get to
do and when you look back on it it's
really quite exciting you see
engineering can either make you travel
interstate like i've traveled a lot
interstate through my role as an
engineer
but even now people are moving
nationally and internationally if you
want to work in different countries or
different areas
engineering will give you that ability
and if you're interested in supporting
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would not be possible and as always stay
safe keep learning and i'll see you next
week bye