The Civil Engineering Academy Podcast

Regardless of the field we’re in, there will always be heated situations that tend to make us lose our temper and completely get out of the “professional mode”. It can be our boss or supervisor that is a little bit difficult to deal with, or maybe we’re in charge of a team and one of our subordinates has this unique personality trait that can make things uncomfortable. Since we cannot escape these situations, we’d better learn to handle them. Today, Mark Oakeson jumps back on the show to discuss some tips and tools we can use to navigate through situations that have already gotten emotionally charged. As two practicing engineers with significant field experience, they have personally seen from a distance as well as participated in such heated conflicts. In today’s episode, they share their experiences, mistakes, and lessons that will definitely help you out whenever faced with such situations. As Stephen Covey mentions, “seek first to understand, then to be understood”. Isaac and Mark start with this incredibly put principle, but they go even further. They touch on how owning your mistakes can help you build relationships and get respect from others, as well as what to do when your personality and your manager’s simply don’t mix. Sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, keeping butting heads may not be the best approach. Resources (Some Links are Affiliate Links!) Purple Mattress - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/purple PPI - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/ppi Civil PE Review Course - https://civilpereviewcourse.com Civil FE Review Course - https://civilfereviewcourse.com The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey - https://amzn.to/3a5D6CD Haven’t joined up in our free community? What’s wrong with you? J/K. Ok, just go there and join a group of like-minded civil engineers! - https://ceacommunity.com Join over 4000 engineers like you and learn the tips and tricks to passing the FE and PE. We even have a free resource for you! - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/join-our-newsletter If you need exams, solved problems or courses, make sure to check out our home base - https://civilengineeringacademy.com Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com

For the loyal CEA audience out there that listened to a previous episode on the best resources for the AM portion of the PE exam, the School of PE is already a well-known and innovative player in the exam preparation material industry. With its recently released breadth review guide, it brought a modern feel to the industry by not only providing a different printing style but also an integrated use of technology to enhance the learning experience. Today, Isaac sits down to talk to the man in charge of all this.    Vinod Dega is a civil engineer and School of PE’s president who came from India to the US to get his Master's in Transportation Engineering at the Ohio State University. His passion for teaching and helping others made him notice that many people would struggle in their preparation for the FE and PE exams - what started out as him personally teaching colleagues, has now become a key company in the exam preparation industry today, with 7 books published, lots of question banks developed, and a lot of students enrolled in their courses.    Vinod and Isaac discuss the process for developing the PE manuals and review guides, the decision to include AR features in the books, and how the ever-changing NCEES spec may affect the School of PE’s materials. In addition, Vinod mentions the importance of getting a professional license no matter how long we’ve been out of school, as well as the best advice he’s ever received in his life and who gave it to him. Hint: The author of the “Bible” for the PE exam.    Resources Mentioned  (some links are affiliate links) Vinod Dega - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinod-dega-4b6b9144       School of PE - http://www.civilengineeringacademy.com/sope   Ohio State University - https://www.osu.edu    HoloPundits - https://www.holopundits.com    Total AR - https://www.totalar.com    PE Civil Exam Review Guide Breadth Manual, by School of PE (Book Review) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGEN_0Wt8EI    PE Civil Exam Review Guide Breadth Manual, by School of PE (Example of TotalAR Codes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCfxbzT6ce0   KiwiCo - http://civilengineeringacademy.com/kiwi  If you need exams, solved problems, or courses, make sure to check out our home base  - https://civilengineeringacademy.com     Haven’t joined up in our free community?  What’s wrong with you?  J/K.  Ok, just go there and join a group of like-minded civil engineers! - https://ceacommunity.com      Join over 4000 engineers like you and learn the tips and tricks to passing the FE and PE.  We even have a free resource for you! - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/join-our-newsletter     Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com   Have you checked out the SOPE's resources?  What do you think about them?  Let us know below!

While the PM portion of the PE exam can be considered difficult because it dives deep into someone’s knowledge about a specific discipline of civil engineering, the AM portion can be just as challenging since it mixes up questions from all five major areas. Therefore, getting ready for the breadth portion of the PE exam is of crucial importance. Today, Isaac details the most common and best resources that will definitely help you out with your breadth exam. Starting with the ever-present and always recommended books, such as the Civil Engineering Reference Manual (CERM)— which is now called the PE Civil Reference Manual— and Dr. Goswami’s All-in-One books, Isaac details the particular features of each of them, pointing out not only their positives and negatives but also how some of them can be used simultaneously with another one to help you build a study schedule. Furthermore, he also details some features of the newest guy in town, the PE Civil Exam Review Guide: Breadth, by School of PE. This one offers a new perspective on how PE materials could look like and their integration with technology by using plenty of QR codes scattered throughout the book in order to enhance our interaction with the material being studied. If you’re about to take the PE exam soon, this episode is for you! It contains a lot of pro tips on how to pick the best resources that work best for you, but also on how to integrate theory and practice while studying so that you can ace the AM portion of your exam. Resources Mentioned (some links are affiliate links) Purple Mattress -  http://civilengineeringacademy.com/purple PPI is our partner to help you ace your FE and PE exams. Use our discount code of CIVACand our link to get 15% off any book you order - http://www.civilengineeringacademy.com/ppi Visit School of PE to check out the PE Civil Exam Review Guide: Breadth - http://www.civilengineeringacademy.com/sope PE Civil Exam Review Guide: Breadth (Video Review) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGEN_0Wt8EI All-in-One Civil Engineering PE Breadth and Depth Exam Guide, by Dr. Goswami - https://amzn.to/3iQoY2Q All-in-One Civil Engineering PE Practice Exams, by Dr. Goswami - https://amzn.to/3olKJZu Four Sample Exams for the Civil PE Exam With Step by Step Solutions, by Ruwan Rajapakse - https://amzn.to/39mQkup Ultimate Civil PE Breadth Exam (Vol. 1 & 2) - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/breadth Civil PE Review Course - https://civilpereviewcourse.com Civil FE Review Course - https://civilfereviewcourse.com Civil Engineering Academy Resources Page - http://engineeringacademy.com/resources Haven’t joined up in our free community? What’s wrong with you? J/K. Ok, just go there and join a group of like-minded civil engineers! - https://ceacommunity.com If you need exams, solved problems or courses, make sure to check out our home base - https://civilengineeringacademy.com Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com

Even though life is full of challenges and sometimes it makes us uncomfortable with where we’re at, more often than not, these individual situations are just steps along the way to something better. Doesn’t matter if you currently are on the job hunt or working with something that you may not be as passionate about as you thought you would, our guest today — who went from bus driver to transportation engineer — explains that these are just part of the process. Brent Chase is a transportation and project engineer at David Evans & Associates (DEA), focused on the design and construction of roads and highways. After graduating from university, he went to Logan, Utah, so that his wife could start her college program. Even though he had a really good knowledge base and internship experiences, he could not find a job in Logan right away. Therefore, he ended up being a bus driver for a while. Obviously, the goal had always been to work as an engineer, but he didn’t let this temporary condition take him off the track he wanted to go. In fact, the time he spent as a bus driver helped him get to know the city better and he later applied this knowledge to his transportation role at his company — He would think in terms of bus routes! In today’s episode, Brent mentioned his most memorable project, and why it carries that much sentimental value to him, as well as mentioning his current work on the Aurora-Donald Interchange Project in Oregon. He goes on to talk about the most challenging situations we face when becoming civil engineers, the need for engineers to build connections wherever and whenever possible, and also the benefits that can come out of being a reliable professional in your organization Resources Mentioned Some links below are affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I receive a small commission for recommending products and services that I personally recommend and I think you'd enjoy too. Brent Chase - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-chase-pe-31308652 David Evans and Associates - https://www.deainc.com FE Reference Handbook - https://account.ncees.org/exam-prep/387 How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie - https://amzn.to/3bWL2YjLink Aurora-Donald Interchange Project - https://www.oregon.gov/odot/projects/pages/project-details.aspx?project=19062 OpenRoads - https://www.bentley.com/en/products/product-line/civil-design-software/openroads-designer Civil 3D - https://www.autodesk.com/products/civil-3d/overview AutoCAD - https://www.civilengineeringacademy.com/autodesk PLS-CADD - https://www.powerlinesystems.com/plscadd School of PE - http://www.civilengineeringacademy.com/sope KiwiCo - http://civilengineeringacademy.com/kiwi If you need exams, solved problems or courses, make sure to check out our home base  - https://civilengineeringacademy.com Haven’t joined up in our free community?  What’s wrong with you?  J/K.  Ok, just go there and join a group of like-minded civil engineers! - https://ceacommunity.com Join over 4000 engineers like you and learn the tips and tricks to passing the FE and PE.  We even have a free resource for you! - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/join-our-newsletter Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com

“New year, new me”, the old maxim we’ve all used or at least heard of when preparing for the upcoming year every December. That’s when we stop to reflect on the things we’ve accomplished, and most importantly, think about where we want to go from there. We’re two weeks into 2021 already and that’s precisely when we start working on all the goals we set for ourselves, be it personal or professional. Today, Mark Oakeson jumps back on the show to discuss the approaches and tips engineers can use to make some changes in their professional life. It’s not rare to see civil engineers who are not pretty satisfied with the work they’re currently doing or the place they’re working at. Some people just feel like making a complete change and switching to a totally new discipline in or outside the field, while others just want to incrementally improve the work they’re already doing. Whatever the case may be, Isaac and Mark dismantle the existing barriers to it, warn about the potential hurdles and difficulties that come with such changes, while also giving tips on what your mindset should be and how this can be done smoothly. On top of that, they discuss other topics related to how civil engineers can boost their careers, including passing the FE and PE exams before it goes CBT, choosing between an MSE. or an MBA for their graduate studies, going from engineer to manager, and even asking for a raise. In addition, they also mention how we can use our PDHs wisely to learn something new and valuable to our careers, whether we choose to specialize even more in our area of expertise or if we choose to learn something different but somewhat related to what we do on a daily basis at work. Resources Mentioned  Some links below are affiliate links which means at no cost to you a get a small commission for referring products and services that I think you'd enjoy because I enjoy them too. KiwiCo - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/kiwi Purple Mattress - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/purple School of PE - http://www.civilengineeringacademy.com/sope Civil PE Review Course - https://civilpereviewcourse.com Civil FE Review Course - https://civilfereviewcourse.com CEA Episode 51 (Tim Miller - NCEES) - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/cea-51-the-ncees-chief-officer-of-exams-tim-miller-pe Crucial Confrontations, by Kerry Patterson - https://amzn.to/3oIEgbZ Crucial Conversations, by Kerry Patterson - https://amzn.to/3i6mDR6 Haven’t joined up in our free community? What’s wrong with you? J/K. Ok, just go there and join a group of like-minded civil engineers! - https://ceacommunity.com Join over 4000 engineers like you and learn the tips and tricks to passing the FE and PE. We even have a free resource for you! - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/join-our-newsletter If you need exams, solved problems, or courses, make sure to check out our home base - https://civilengineeringacademy.com Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com

According to the rules specified by NCEES, people can take the PE exam whenever they feel both financially and personally ready for it, but they can only get their license after meeting the experience requirements. Therefore, most test-takers are recent graduates in their twenties and young engineers in their early thirties, which creates the belief that those with a bit more life experience are not as likely to pass the test. Today’s guest, who is in his sixties, will show that this belief is in fact a misbelief. Born and raised in the Czech Republic (former Czechoslovakia), Zdenek Vymazal is currently a construction roadway designer at the Oregon Department of Transportation. After going to a technical high school and specializing in mining surveying at a Czech university, he decided to get out of his country and move to the West, eventually settling in the US with his family. Working around civil engineers on a daily basis and looking to boost his career, he noticed that he needed to get his professional license since it was the minimum requirement for the higher positions he was aiming at. Therefore, his journey with the FE and PE exams started. After taking some of the many available online courses and failing to pass his PE exam with the content provided by these courses, he eventually found The Ultimate Civil PE Review Course, by Civil Engineering Academy. Zdenek shares his review of the course and how its features helped him during his journey to get the PE exam done once and for all. Zdenek mentions how hard it can be, but also how rewarding it is, both personally and financially, after you pass. He received a promotion offer right after passing the exam without even applying for it! Resources Mentioned Zdenek Vymazal - zgv@juno.com The Ultimate Civil PE Review Course - https://civilpereviewcourse.com The Ultimate Civil FE Review Course - https://civilfereviewcourse.com PPI is our partner to help you ace your FE and PE exams. Use our discount code of CIVAC and our link to get 15% off any book you order - http://www.civilengineeringacademy.com/ppi CEA Episode 51 (Tim Miller - NCEES) - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/cea-51-the-ncees-chief-officer-of-exams-tim-miller-pe Oregon Department of Transportation - https://www.oregon.gov NCEES - https://ncees.org If you need exams, solved problems, or courses, make sure to check out our home base - https://civilengineeringacademy.com Haven’t joined up in our free community? What’s wrong with you? J/K. Ok, just go there and join a group of like-minded civil engineers! - https://ceacommunity.com Join over 4000 engineers like you and learn the tips and tricks to passing the FE and PE. We even have a free resource for you! - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/join-our-newsletter Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com

History books will definitely never let us forget the crazy year of 2020. A year that changed everybody’s ways of working, doing business, celebrating, and enjoying time with loved ones. Regardless of all the bad things that happened, we have to both recognize and be grateful for all the things that went well. In order to recognize the bright spots of 2020, as well as to prepare for a better 2021, today’s episode is a recap of all we’ve accomplished this past year, and a list of goals we’re setting for the upcoming one.    After receiving their October results, tons of CEA students have already sent us a message via our free Facebook group providing feedback on our course and how it helped them achieve their goal of passing the PE or the FE exam. They took the Ultimate Civil PE Review Course or the Ultimate Civil FE Review Course in order to help them prepare for the tests. According to one of our students, “The best early Christmas gift I could ever hope for”.   This is just one of the accomplishments we’ve had so far in 2020. Others include amazing interviews on this very podcast, ranging from the NCEES chief officer of exams to a successful immigrant woman living the American dream, as well as the creation of a ton of in-depth material for all five major depth sections of the PE exam, called the Ultimate Civil PE Depth Review Courses.   Now, what are our plans for 2021? Listen to the show to hear what the CEA team is working on to help you on your journey to passing the PE or FE exam. Hint: more live study sessions and a brand new course specifically tailored for the California Seismic and Survey exams. Listen to find out more about it!   Resources Mentioned   KiwiCo - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/kiwi   NCEES - https://ncees.org Civil PE Review Course - https://civilpereviewcourse.com  Civil FE Review Course - https://civilfereviewcourse.com  The Ultimate Civil PE Depth Courses - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/depthcourses  CEA Episode 51 (Tim Miller - NCEES) - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/cea-51-the-ncees-chief-officer-of-exams-tim-miller-pe  CEA Episode 30 (Braden - Engineer4Free) - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/cea-30-engineer4free-with-braden  CEA Episode 53 (Melody Gonzalez) - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/cea-53-single-mom-to-engineer-living-the-american-dream-with-melody-gonzalez  CEA Team Members - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/about/our-team  Coaching Package - https://courses.civilengineeringacademy.com/p/linked-profile-review  Live Study Session on January 8th - https://youtu.be/NtBsL_rUMKY  Haven’t joined up in our free community?  What’s wrong with you?  J/K.  Ok, just go there and join a group of like-minded civil engineers! - https://ceacommunity.com    Join over 4000 engineers like you and learn the tips and tricks to passing the FE and PE.  We even have a free resource for you! - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/join-our-newsletter  If you need exams, solved problems, or courses, make sure to check out our home base  - https://civilengineeringacademy.com   Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com

With technology just getting better every single day and making it easier for people and companies to work and connect with one another, the old-fashioned way of emailing a resume, or even visiting each individual company with a printed version of it, has been replaced by professional networking platforms. The most famous one is, with no doubt, LinkedIn. As the largest online professional networking platform in the world, with more than 600 million users and 30 million companies, most employers resort to it in order to pre-select candidates for their available positions. In addition to that, many other features allow LinkedIn to be a go-to resource for every professional in every field. In today’s episode, Isaac shares tips and tools to help you create an outstanding LinkedIn profile. Diving deeper into the individual sections available, Isaac mentions the do’s and don’ts of each one of them. He covers the strategies we should use to fill them in so that we can make them look professionally good and clearly explains who we are, what we do, our areas of expertise, as well as the hard and soft skills we have. Touching on tips that help both those people who already have experience in their respective fields and the ones who are just starting out, this is a great episode that will help anyone polish up or even kick start their online resumes on LinkedIn. Resources Mentioned LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com Purple Mattress - civilengineeringacademy.com/purple If you need exams, solved problems, or courses, make sure to check out our home base - https://civilengineeringacademy.com Haven’t joined up in our free community? What’s wrong with you? J/K. Ok, just go there and join a group of like-minded civil engineers! - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1682344491800869 Join over 4000 engineers like you and learn the tips and tricks to passing the FE and PE. We even have a free resource for you! - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/join-our-newsletter If you need a personal review of your profile, resume, etc. visit me! https://courses.civilengineeringacademy.com/p/linked-profile-review Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com

Today’s episode is another one on our “America’s Infrastructure Report Card Series”, so to speak. Produced by the ASCE, these report cards are released every four years with the purpose of bringing to light the existing infrastructure problems and limitations in different sectors within the United States, ranging from bridges and dams to wastewater and energy. Today, Mark Oakeson jumps back on to discuss with Isaac the last report card on bridge conditions nationwide, released in 2017. The overall grade assigned was a C+, which may not seem that bad initially, but according to the report, almost 10% of the nation’s bridges were structurally deficient in 2016, and there were about 188 million trips across such bridges per day. According to the report, 4 in 10 of America’s bridges are 50+ years old, which is highly significant once we factor in that a bridge is designed to reach 50 years of proper functioning at most. For all civil engineers out there, this is a great episode that will certainly show you that there are plenty of opportunities. According to the report, civil engineers are needed as never seen before to ensure that our infrastructure functions properly, safely, and efficiently. Isaac and Mark dive into how inspections are made and how specialists determine if a bridge is a “pass” or a “fail”, the huge role that funding plays in this discussion, as well as uncovering the States that are doing a good job at taking care of their bridges and the ones that don’t. Resources Mentioned America’s Infrastructure Report Card (2017) - https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org Bridge Infrastructure Report (2017) - https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/bridges I-35W bridge collapse (MN, 2007) - http://www.dot.state.mn.us/i35wbridge/collapse.html Federal Highway Administration - https://highways.dot.gov Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) - https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/fastact Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) - https://www.udot.utah.gov/connect PPI is our partner to help you ace your FE and PE exams. Use our discount code of CIVACand our link to get 15% off any book you order - http://www.civilengineeringacademy.com/ppi If you need exams, solved problems, or courses, make sure to check out our home base - https://civilengineeringacademy.com Haven’t joined up in our free community? What’s wrong with you? J/K. Ok, just go there and join a group of like-minded civil engineers! - https://www.community.com Join over 4000 engineers like you and learn the tips and tricks to passing the FE and PE. We even have a free resource for you! - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/join-our-newsletter Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com

Civil engineers, as with all the other professionals within the STEM sector (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), are undeniably more comfortable with the “hard skills” they are required to learn in school than they are with some, if not all, “soft skills”. However, once they start working, they realize that these soft, interpersonal skills can be just as valuable for their careers as their math-focused, college-trained competencies. Or even worse, they may end up having to use more of the former than the latter. Today’s guest is a living example that people in STEM can acquire and master such interpersonal skills to excel both in their professional and personal lives. Neil Thompson is a speaker, writer, entrepreneur, and a professional engineer who runs Teach The Geek To Speak, an online course dedicated to teaching public speaking skills specifically to people within STEM. Neil started out his career by earning both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in product development engineering. Since his company didn’t hire a project manager, he was chosen to take on that role. However, what he didn’t know was that it included giving project status updates to senior management on a monthly basis in the form of presentations. After some failed attempts, he realized he needed to improve at this. Now, he’s combined all the things he learned over time with these monthly presentations in the form of an online course and has put it out to help others achieve the same level of mastery and further their careers. Isaac and Neil walk us through the top tips regarding presentations, both related to how to act when giving them and how to structure our slides and visuals so that our audience can in fact listen to what we are saying. In addition, Neil paints a totally new picture of the difference between introverts and extroverts, as well as why the idea that introverts are not good at public speaking is the biggest lie ever. Resources Mentioned Teach The Geek - http://teachthegeek.com Teach The Geek To Speak (Online Course) - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/teachthegeek Teach The Geek (Youtube Channel) - youtube.teachthegeek.com Neil’s Children’s Book (Ask Uncle Neil: Why Is My hair Curly?) - http://askuncleneil.com Neil’s Public Speaking Book (Teach The Geek To Speak) - https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Geek-Speak-Neil-Thompson/dp/0578410117 Toastmasters - https://www.toastmasters.org If you need exams, solved problems, or courses, make sure to check out our home base - https://civilengineeringacademy.com Haven’t joined up in our free community? What’s wrong with you? J/K. Ok, just go there and join a group of like-minded civil engineers! - https://www.ceacommunity.com Join over 4000 engineers like you and learn the tips and tricks to passing the FE and PE. We even have a free resource for you! - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/join-our-newsletter Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com