During high school I already had an idea that I wanted to pursue a career in civil engineering so I asked my interviewee to take me with him to work one day and see exactly how it was. On the drive in the first thing that I noticed was the sign that exclaimed “HARDHAT MUST BE WORN” this was a bit intimidating as you never know what can happen at a place with so many moving parts whizzing by you at all times. As I looked around at the site I was in awe, I had never seen so many trucks and heavy machinery in one place. Mr. Sas’ and I walked into his office and there were just mountains of blue prints and paperwork that I was astounded by, I never knew an engineer would have to do that much paperwork. This place was very loud and by that I mean there were people shouting jobs at each other, there was the bulldozer knocking down whatever was in its way and pile drivers digging into the ground in order to make sure that when they laid the concrete it was deep enough into the ground that whatever they were building that day would be stable. At that moment the de Moya group was building a major highway in Miami. So they had all their employees working in all different areas in order to try to finish the project as quick as they could. I then walked over to these four guys and watched them as they were mixing around this sandy solution with water and aggressively stirring it. They screamed at me “move out of the way kid” as they had just moments before the what I now know was concrete was going to harden up and become useless unless they poured it around the pole that was the hold up a bridge for the highway. Mr. Sas’ told me that he had told them before just have much water and solution to use so that they would have the longest lasting concrete. This seemed like such a difficult task to me, as I had never dealt with any real world problems in school before. So this really helped me learn that the only way to really be prepared for a career to experience. Everybody on the site knew exactly what to do and when to do it; it was so captivating to me. As I looked around I saw people working with such determination and motivation that it actually made me want to help them. I obviously wasn’t trained to do any of their jobs but this gave me a good starting point in trying to decide exactly what I wanted to do within civil engineering.
After going to the construction site Mr. Sas’ took me to the office to see the other side of civil engineering, the design portion. These were the people that had to draw up the blueprints and make sure their designs could withstand millions of cars driving on it everyday. These people were very impressive as they were meticulously working on their design programs on their computers trying to figure out the most efficient model for the company. These guys told me that in order to get to where they were they had to study their design programs for years in order to master building the roads and bridges. One key point they made was that since Miami has numerous bodies of water in it the most difficult thing they have to deal with is building bridges over them because they then have to deal with having to put supports for the bridge in the water.
After having such an experience under my belt, I really feel as I can see myself diving deep into the world of civil engineering. The atmosphere I felt as I was on the construction site was like no other. All the people know their jobs and then don’t have to be told twice to do their jobs. Not being stuck in the office all day is also something that is a great perk of this community as civil engineers get to spend time outside and not be cramped up inside all day like other office jobs. This community is one that I would love to continue exploring and researching till I know a lot more about it.
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