The Construction Engineering Show

What's up Crew? Cool to be back with y'all. In this episode, I answer a question that I received from a college student who is considering changing his educational trajectory into construction management. Connect with me anytime!! LinkedIn: ⁠⁠ Bob Hildebranski, PE ⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠ Hildebranski.com ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Contact Page Link

Hello construction types! It's great to be back with you - Let's get 2026 rolling! This is somewhat of a scattered-topics episode as I had a few things on my mind to share with the crew: Engineering Management Institute Book Recommendation - Construction Surveying and Layout Being good at the basics Article - The Tailgate - A Discord for Construction Engineers If you're interested in j...

With this episode, I'm rolling something out that's a bit different. Maybe you'll like it, maybe not. Like most of you, I do a lot of training, job and daily work activity preparation while holding onto a steering wheel. There is something about the austere environment that the front seat of a truck can provide. I try to use the time as best as I can. Occasionally, it'll be music in the background...

Welcome back Team! It's great to be with you again! In this episode, I revisit (somewhat...) some concepts from Episode 20 - Preparing for the Operation . but with several new twists & angles. Question: How prepared are you for the workday. In this episode: --I dissect my performance on a recent EMA callout --I discuss what it means to be Fit for Duty: What condition are we in? How is our...

When you hear the term "shelter in-place," what do you think about? My first inclination has me needing to remain where I'm at. Indoors. In a safe place. Away from an impending event. But, how appropriate would it be for me to consider that I shelter in-place , say, when I'm in an uncomfortable position? Maybe I'm asked to push myself a little, to do something new, to go some...

"The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word...these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence." - -"On Writing Well" by William Zinsser As professionals, how we communicate is a reflection on us. It's a reflection on our ski...

Hello Team! It's great to be back with you after a bit of a hiatus. For the past several months, I've been working on a municipal improvement project. The project is located in a residential subdivision in a southwestern Chicago suburb and has required me to keep dozens of plates spinning simultaneously: On-site troubleshooting, design changes, coordination with the municipalities, residen...

As I was debriefing this past week (and really, much of this past month...), it occurred to me that I ought to consider sharing my personal "Lessons Learned" with the crew, thinking & hoping that maybe there are a few useful takeaways for all of us. Topics in this Debrief include: -Starting at a new company -Filling-in for someone on another project -Being curious & willing to as...

I had an opportunity to interact with a group of high school students and had a great time. The Illinois Tollway (who our company is working for) hosted the students to introduce them to all of the different kinds of careers that are possible. It was a great time, the students & their instructors were great. The group got a chance to visit one of the active construction sites to see what a bri...

I am putting this out there: How can I be of service to you? What questions do you have? What issues are you working through in the jobsite that a seasoned member of the industry could help you with? I haven't been doing enough. I've been letting you down. We have a small but growing community of sitework professionals who come here to get a dose of positive impact. And I've been lax i...

Hello Construction Engineers! It's great to be back with you for Episode #27. Being a college instructor, learning is a front-and-center part of my life. As much as I hope the students are learning under my tutelage, I am learning as well: Learning how to speak. Learning how to break concepts down. Learning how to present materials in a digestible format. Suffice to say, we are always learning...

Hey Crew - It's so good to check back in with you here on Episode 026.  With so many task management systems now in existence, there's an opportunity to turn your To Do list into a job unto itself. Managing your tasks should be a simple exercise: Prioritize and execute, that's the goal.  But it's now easy to become lost in app's, bogged down in trying to get this app to talk to Outlook,...

Hey Crew - It's great to be back with you for Episode 025. I'm a big fan of the fire service: Fire service podcasts, fire service leadership. I've come to really value listening leaders in the fire service. I think there is a lot of carry-over between the fire service and the construction industry: Our jobs place us in, sometimes, risky situations that we are called to mitigate. There are leadersh...

Hey Crew - It's great to be back with you.  For the past few weeks, I've spent a lot of free-time thinking about goals. I've been a goal setter since I got my first Franklin Planner in 1989. Back then, I learned the basics of goal setting that we all know & love: Determining values & what matters most, developing ways of creating task lists that would be the incremental steps that lea...

Episode 023 - I'm excited to be back after a bit of a hiatus! I've spent the last couple of months immersed in teaching a course in Construction Surveying, but the spring term has been secured, the final grades have been posted, and I now have time to get back to the podcast. This episode comes to us by way of a question from the Interwebs. Although I could list dozens of attributes, I discuss six...

Episode 22 - It's nice to be back with you all!! The couple-of-month hiatus is past, just too much else going on... A couple of weeks ago, those of us at our company received our annual "Self-Evaluation Form." That means it's time to reassess. I've always enjoyed stepping away from the total station and the laptop and getting the 10,000 foot view of where my life & career are heading. I've don...

Episode 21 - How many times do we find ourselves on-site, or in the field office, where we see something that we think could be improved? It could be a process that our team uses, or a manner that we communicate, or it could be something that we noticed on-site during operations that, if tweaked, could improve a work element. As listener Patrick asked "When is it worth it to take initiative?" In t...

Episode 20 - How well are you preparing for the work day? Are you putting in the "mental reps" prior to heading out to the site to meet with your crews? Are you prepared to inspect the work, answer questions and troubleshoot problems?  Or are you rolling out to the site and simply reacting to what is going on, rather than engaging in the work.  On this episode of the Construction Enginee...

The construction industry is about as dynamic of an industry as there is. Think about it: Every project is different. Multitudes of issues, problems, paperwork, people & personalities, weather conditions, you name it. Nothing is ever the same. And as construction professionals, it's our job to navigate this ever-changing landscape that we call "A Project." To be an effective construction profe...

We've all know that there are times to lead, and times to follow. But in the same breath, there are times to take full responsibility, but there are times when, although you might want to, you can't.  In this episode of The Construction Engineering Show , I take a step into accepting responsibility. Being a leader requires taking ownership of everything that happens on your watch. Leading you...

We are in a world where we are constantly being told that we need to advance our careers. We see and hear from lots of sources that may or may not be credible when it comes to the construction and engineering industries, giving us "tips and tricks" that will lead us to a corner office. While the over-arching goal of striving towards a goal is extremely important, the rate at which our growth actua...

Critical thinking is one of those skills that, for myself, I probably take for granted. My mind works very practically. I like to work with my hands. I don't like asking for help. I like to fix things myself. I can look at a situation and pretty-much develop a course of action and a method of execution to get it resolved. I like to solve problems myself. But more and more, I'm seeing a trend. A di...

How many tools do you really need (figuratively speaking, of course) to be effective in your work? How complicated are your systems? Do you spend more time updating spreadsheets, typing up emails or trying to integrate Trello with Slack and Teams and Outlook? What would happen if you stripped your toolbox down to just what you need? The Basics. On this episode of the Construction Engineering Show...

In this episode of The Construction Engineering Show , we discuss constructability reviews. If you are a construction engineer, chances are, you'll be asked to review a set of plans and specifications for your design team, your agency or a client who is getting ready to issue a set of plans for bid. Constructability reviews are a great way for those of us who wear white hard hats and have mud-on-o...

Athletes train. Service members train. Police officers & firefighters train. If you’re an engineer, ask yourself: How’s my training? Am I training regularly? Are the PDH’s I sign up for selected with a purpose? What am I training for? As engineers and construction professionals, it is our responsibility to train. Our crews and the contractors & agencies we work with need us to be functioni...