The Civil Engineering Academy Podcast

Effective communication in the workplace would solve most of the problems we, engineers, face every day. Yet it’s incredibly hard to achieve it. Do you feel like heated situations in the office could be avoided by simply knowing how to deal with other people’s personality traits as well as your own? Well, then this episode is for you. Salman Raza has been advising companies on their organizational...

Civil engineering is famously known for its positive impacts on society once a project is completed and fully functioning. Today’s episode, however, will make you reflect on societal questions that play a crucial role in our communities long before the project is even approved. Today’s guest is Collin Yarbrough, a pipeline engineer, bakery owner, and the author of Paved A Way . During his graduate...

“ Your design is only going to be as good as the survey that it’s drawn on ”. That’s how today’s guest emphasizes the importance of land surveying for civil engineering projects. Cory George is both a licensed Professional Engineer in NC and SC and a licensed Professional Land Surveyor in NC, SC, TN, FL, and DC. After “falling into the field” while still a major in college doing research for the e...

That’s a fact: The PE Exam can be tricky. Whether it’s a calculation-based or a theoretical question, we have to watch out for everything during the exam to make sure our answer is correct. Our guest today will tell you how to prepare for the exam and handle those subtle questions that can trick you into choosing the wrong alternative. Daniel Reyes is a structural engineer currently working at a c...

Work-life balance is a topic that keeps coming up in our everyday lives. At the end of the day, we all have not only career goals but also personal goals and family responsibilities. Even though it can sound daunting, today’s guest will show you it’s possible. Bahaar Taylor is a structural project engineer at Erickson Structural Consulting Engineers in Washington, a 2021 ASCE New Face of Civil Eng...

Calling all international students and professionals out there! Today’s episode features Luis Felipe Duque, an engineer in the US from Colombia, who has recently become a Professional Engineer after passing his PE exam. Luis is currently a bridge engineer working on the erection, retrofitting, and dismantling of bridges at Foothills Bridge Co. in Boulder, Colorado. His passion for construction sta...

Regardless of our profession, we all know the importance of properly handling the money we worked hard for and putting it to work in our favor. While there may be several well-known investment options, from 401ks to index funds, today’s guest is a strong advocate of the power of passive cash flow investing. Lane Kawaoka was a licensed professional (PE) civil and industrial engineer turned accredit...

Six. That’s how many attempts it took today’s guest to pass the PE exam and get his license. For those out there who may be feeling disappointed for having failed the exam before, this episode will prove that it’s all part of the process. James Johnson is a construction engineer at the Indiana Department of Transportation, where he’s had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects from roads...

Today’s guest is Danielle Schroeder, an Associate Engineer for Pennoni Associates in Philadelphia and an honoree of the ASCE’s 2021 New Faces of Civil Engineering. She first learned about the field while attending an engineering girl’s camp as a high school student, and then went on to graduate with both a Bachelor and Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Drexel University. After graduation...

While becoming a true expert in our particular field and subject of interest can lead us throughout our career, being a successful engineer requires much more than being extremely good at our craft. There are people skills we inevitably need to learn, soft skills related to project management we need to understand, and as today’s guest will prove, sales skills. Today on the show, Isaac interviews...

Whether we fail our professional exam or make a mistake at our job, the key takeaway we should walk out with from these experiences is what we’ve learned from them. Even though some moments in every industry require a much more cautious approach than others, as our guest today says, “ when we make small mistakes and we can be honest about them, that helps us prevent large, major, really bad mistak...

The field of civil engineering allows us to positively impact the lives of many people and make a huge difference in our nation. Even though getting through our schooling and professional exams can be really hard, the end result of all this hard work is well worth it. As our guest today put it, “ The nation needs engineers and will always need engineers. And if you stick with it, you'll have great...

As history books will never let us forget, 2020 was the year the world went remote. Along with that, live events, family gatherings, as well as in-person office meetings shifted to virtual settings. Since the technology will only keep improving and not go away, it’s crucial that we learn the basics of how to run an engaging and effective virtual meeting instead of a long and arduous virtual talk....

We’ve all at some point wondered how the process to become a civil engineer in other countries goes and what requirements and examinations people need to meet and pass in order to get the desired initials, whether they are P.E, C.Eng., etc. Today, we’ll take a closer look at how this process takes place in the UAE, as well as a deep dive into a really important topic most civil engineers simply, a...

Any pathway within civil engineering is full of speed bumps. Although there are countless options within the field, we may sometimes feel stuck, uncertain of what we should and could do next. Should we make the leap and move into a leadership role? Do we want to move into a leadership role? Should we switch between organizations? Today’s episode will answer these career questions we all have. Our...

As it does every year, the NCEES organization has already released its 2020 Annual Report, in which it provides an overview of the initiatives it has been involved in, a roadmap of what happened in the previous year, and where it’s headed looking forward. Today, Isaac walks us through some of the most important points and how they affect our licensure as professional engineers, but also how we pre...

Today is not a normal episode of the Civil Engineering Academy Podcast. Whether you’re getting ready for your Geotech Depth Exam on the PE or the California Seismic Exam, this audio version of our last live workshop will make you feel guilty if you haven’t participated in it. Seriously. Isaac and Mark walk us through some seismic, geotech, and deep foundation materials, explaining some key concept...

We all choose our career paths based on our younger self’s dreams and expectations of what we might be able to do and work on someday in the future. Whether we thought we would design and build the next Burj Khalifa or get rich off an extremely high salary right after getting our first job out of college, the truth is that, even though we can still accomplish such things, we have to be mindful of...

Throughout our lives, we’re always trying to overcome the hurdles of reaching the next level, whether it’s going from junior to senior in college, getting the PE license after passing the FE, or even going from one job position to the next. The real challenge, however, lies in how we frame the situations we need to go through in order to reach such a new level and not really the situations themsel...

As engineers with an analytical science-based background, we tend to rely a lot on what the numbers tell us about something. Therefore, the statistics on the Civil PE Exam give us a hint on which depth exam can be considered the easiest one to take and pass. Today, however, Isaac combines his years of experience as a test taker himself and as an instructor to those seeking their PE license to diss...

The five main branches of civil engineering are widely recognized by most of us who choose a career in the field. We begin to develop an interest in one of such branches during the early college years after taking more specific classes or attending presentations of companies within this branch. Today, however, Isaac reveals how a particular presentation got him into an area that few people know of...

Almost every single one of us has already faced a period in life in which we were completely stressed out, whether it was due to exams we were about to take, personal life issues, or even the combination of these two. Dealing with all this can, and certainly will be challenging. Today’s guest, however, provides the best approaches to weather the storms of life. Dr. Laura Jaget is a retired chiropr...

Whether we were studying for final exams in college, putting in the daily effort to prepare for the FE or PE exam, or trying to get any sort of task done at work, we’ve all faced the challenge of trying to focus but simply not being able to. Maybe it’s a coworker or a classmate that asks for something, maybe it's the phone that keeps ringing, or maybe it’s as simple as our cell phone staring at us...

We all know the PE license opens doors to a variety of possibilities in our careers, which also have their own indirect benefits in our personal lives. While we may decide to take the PE exam with an eye on its future benefits, most of us struggle with the basics: How much time do I need to put in every day? How should I organize my study time? And how many months before exam day should I start pr...

Becoming a professional engineer is a difficult task at any point in time, regardless of where we were born or live. However, challenges become even greater when we choose to pursue a career in a different country. Not only are the language and culture adoption barriers to overcome, but the way things work out in the new place can also be intimidating. Today, our guest explains how she managed to...