Real-Life Communication -- Solution
As a civil engineer, you won't always be behind your desk. You'll
have to get out in front of crowds, too.
So here's what you could write
in your proposal:
The sand blew so thick we couldn't see
the team of camels that had helped us carry supplies to the base camp. Through
the howling wind we heard the distant sound of gunfire and mortar shells exploding.
Forty workers lay on stretchers, suffering heat stroke.
It was just
another day on the job.
For nearly seven full years, I supervised crews
working on one of the most ambitious, dangerous and important civil construction
projects in recent years -- a water pipeline that slices across 110 miles
of Saudi Arabian desert and brings irrigation to what was once a barren land.
During
our time in the desert, we encountered fierce sandstorms that blew for days
on end, prayed in vain for rain showers and nearly got caught in the crossfire
of a nearby war which lit up the desert sky on calm nights.
But despite
the distractions, 11,000 men and women -- and countless load-toting camels
-- helped bring the $4-billion project to life. When we were done, water flowed
freely where just a short time before there had been none.
This experience
left me with a deep well of stories to tell, both about life in the desert
and about the difficulties of managing a construction project under such adverse
conditions. But above all else, I learned that no matter what the odds or
how impossible something seems, almost anything is possible.
"Communication skills are important because you find that you have to present
very technical information to non-technical people," says civil engineer Tina
Adams. "As you get more experience, your exposure to the general public becomes
greater and greater, so you might find that you're presenting the project
or the solution to somebody that knows absolutely nothing about engineering.
"The other benefit of having good communication skills is you can
sell yourself and the value that you have on a particular team
or your particular skills," Adams adds. "Because there's actually a lot of
marketing that's involved in the background in civil engineering, to be able
to win the [right] to work on the job."