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I started work at the end of June 2003 at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District. So far, so good. You may be wondering why I chose this job... Well, it had many benefits in it for me. First of all, since I am fresh outta college, I really need some hardcore experience before I plan the next phase of my life. I already know I wanna go on to do my Master's in either civil or architectural engineering, so in order to solidify those plans I need to figure out what my interests are within the field. This job was IDEAL for my goals. Currently, I am in a rotational program where I am able to experience all the concentrations within civil engineering such as planning, geotechnical work, structural design, environmental work, construction, operations and maintenance, management, etc. When I mentioned this job offer to one of my professors that taught me senior design, he was surprised and said he hadn't seen an entry-level civil engineering position much better than this one! Once I got thinking, I also recalled what Mayor Bloomberg had said at my graduation a few weeks earlier. He had encouraged the graduates to basically go after experience rather than money. Money would always be there, he said, but experience was something that needed to be gained right out of college to help map the rest of your life. I had almost arrived at my final decision....
I did have other offers coming in, some of which even tried to tempt me with better bucks, but in the end I had to look at what I wanted and what would make me happy. |
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I wanted some key things from my job: experience, good money, the opportunity to travel, good benefits, etc. The Corps of Engineers had all this and more, so this was it. My mind was made... I was in!
Even though I'm based in Baltimore, some of the projects I'm currently working on are in Pennsylvania and New York, so that means I get to travel up the eastern coast. In the past 10 months, I've rotated through Planning Division, Operations Division, and currently I'm in Engineering Division. One of the major projects the USACE is conducting is the Poplar Island Environmental Restoration Project. It's quite interesting, and did I mention there are little turtles that were hatched at Poplar?! When I took a trip out to Poplar, I was able to see these little ones, and they were the motivating factor in my decision to adopt 3 baby turtles back in July. |
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