| Profession: Civil Engineer - Water and Wastewater (Consultant) [07:50] Wake up, dress, drink lots of water, drive to work [08:30 - 09:00] Arrive at the office or a treatment plant. If at office, read through emails and review my plans for the day (I currently use WorkFlowy) [09:00 - 13:00] Get work done. Usually not enough. Get distracted by HN and subreddits of interest. [13:00 - 13:30] Eat some lunch alone (but not at my desk) or with some coworkers. Make small talk about clients, deliverables, the news, and our lives [13:30 - 17:00] Back at it, usually in the office. Do more work. Go do some field visits if schedules allow and the weather is nice. [17:30 - 19:30] Get home. Hit the Gym. Do chores. Take care of chickens and garden if needed. Make Dinner. [19:30 - 22:30] Enjoy time with wife. Watch some TV. Read. Work on podcast, EWB, or other non-profit work. Spend time with friends some nights. Research programming and data science, contemplate a career change. [22:30 - 23:00] Start making my way to bed. Journal. Meditate/Pray/Think. Hopefully fall asleep within an hour. Work generally entails:
Early in a project: meeting with our clients, convincing them to do some necessary work, early research about technologies and design options, site visits and inspections, coordinating with surveyors and sewer inspectors, talking to vendors, visiting other treatment plants and utilities to see how they do things, early conceptual designs, watch videos of sewer inspections. Mid Project: Laying out and detailing designs, detailed research in to alternatives, hydraulic and process/chemical calculations, equipment sizing and selection, cost estimation, writing specifications for equipment and materials, sketching drawings for our CADD drafters, use CADD when they get too busy to help, coordinating with subconsulting disciplines that are not our expertise (structural, geotechnical, etc), meet with clients and give progress updates, etc Late Project: Project gets bid and awarded to a contractor to build. Reviewing submittals from general contractors to ensure they supply the correct equipment and materials, visit work site and meet with construction managers, constantly put out fires and answer questions. |