Topic: Career Development

Five reasons why it's so important that a civil engineer obtains a P.E. license.

Great managers tend to be strong leaders, but it doesn’t always have to be that way.

You don’t have to be born an entrepreneur, but rather you can be made one through some smart risk taking and the right leadership and moral traits.

Honesty is fundamental to the profession But it’s not always easy to be truthful with your clients, especially for younger and less experienced civil engineering project managers.

How do innovations come about? How can they be inspired?

Master’s degree in civil engineering or an MBA? Make sure your answer to that question checks these three key boxes.

The Einstellung Effect – where the German word means “approach” or “way of doing something” – refers to trying to resolve an issue, problem, or opportunity only by using approaches that have worked in similar situations, rather than looking at each new situation on its own terms. This narrow, habitual, and left-brain dominated tendency, which is illustrated below, inhibits creativity and innovation. Another term for...

In assisting civil engineers with their professional development efforts over the years, I have had many civil engineers ask me if it is worth their while to invest their money in attending industry conferences, especially if their employers won’t pay for them to go. In my opinion, the answer is yes. Here are three reasons why I think attending industry conferences is worth the time and money...

Is it better to be a specialist or generalist?

This is the last of three posts on innovation and creativity by Brent Darnell, Aff.M.ASCE, president and owner of Atlanta-based Brent Darnell International. For more information, email [email protected] or visit brentdarnell.com. In the first post in this series, we talked about why it’s important for companies to promote innovation. The second post discussed 10 ways to do just that. But what about you as an individual? How do...