“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.” …

Imagine being named the President of the Washington Bullets in 1991, a time when the franchise had fallen on lean times.  Everyone is looking at you to turn things around.  Then imagine you are a 29-year-old female trying to survive in a business (not unlike our own) that has traditionally been dominated by men.  …

It was a clear, sunny Hawaiian morning on Saturday, January 13th, and I had just finished warming up my daughter’s soccer team, which was preparing to take the field when a message flashed on my cell phone: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” …

Employees leave bosses, not companies. If you have worked long enough, it is a statement you have probably heard sometime during your career. The reason? It is true. According to a Gallup study, approximately 50% of employees that leave their company exit to get away from their boss. To make it even worse, recent Department of Labor statistics indicate that the average tenure of an employee in the U.S. is now only 1.5 years. That number is likely higher for engineering companies, but it is still an indicator of where we could be headed. …

They do not teach business skills at the College of Engineering. At least they did not teach them at UCLA when I went there in the early 90s. They did a pretty good job of teaching me about things like pre-stressed concrete, AISC steel design, and shear/moment diagrams, but they did not go into things like liability and claims, how to transition from a project manager to a firm leader, and they definitely did not tell me that I could have a duty to defend someone even if no fault had been established. If they did, it might have been enough to scare me away from becoming a structural engineer. …

According to Wikipedia, a New Year’s resolution is a tradition in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait or behavior, to accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise improve their lives. According to Urban Dictionary, a New Year’s resolution is a goal that you propose then forget about the next day. With that in mind, I would like to offer nine New Year’s resolutions to improve your life as a structural engineer. Most of them you already know but, like any good resolution, you just need a gentle reminder. …

Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to have a number of great mentors that have provided me with excellent advice and meaningful opportunities. It started right after entering the workforce as I remember my first boss telling me, “It is great working here, you work three years and get six years’ experience.” Looking back, I realize that he did not mean he would be a great mentor for me, but that he literally meant we would be working 80 hours a week. …

Develop a Risk Management Plan

Structural engineers are a weird bunch. The vast majority of them are comfortable determining the forces and moments on an indeterminate structure. This, by the very definition of “indeterminate,” shouldn’t be possible. And yet, structural engineers find a way to do it. …