From Student to Engineer

Hey Guys,

First, I want to welcome you back to a new school year and wish you all the best of luck.  If you are reading this, I’d like to thank you for taking a look at the LDDI website and I hope that you’ll frequent the website often. 

I’d like to tell you a little about myself as we’ll be spending at least a year together here.  My name is Ryan Kincer and I graduated from the Via Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering this past spring.  I am now a project engineer at Mattern and Craig, Inc., which is based out of Roanoke, Virginia, in the civil engineering department.

As a student, I was always nervous about finding a job.  Once I was hired, I was nervous about the adjustments I would have to make from being a full-time student to a full-time employee in the “real world.” Luckily, everyone at Mattern and Craig made it very easy on me to adjust to everything.  One of the biggest adjustments that I had to make was the new schedule.  Instead of going to class every day, it’s going to work every day from 8-5; with that being said, there aren’t any tests or homework assignments which is awesome.  I still have deadlines when projects are due but the timeline is much greater than when I was in school.  Another major adjustment I had to make was the company drafting standards that were in place.  For example, at school when homework was due in Civil3D there wasn’t a structure for what items in the drawing needed to go on what layer; at work it’s completely opposite in that some organizations won’t even accept some plans if they don’t adhere to their guidelines. 

One of the challenges I faced as being a new employee was getting to know everyone and how they function. Everyone here is different; just as everyone at school came from a different background, so has everyone here AND there is a wider range of ages.  So getting to know everyone, while still performing on the job, has proven itself challenging yet fun and interesting.  The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that team work is essential.  We all have to rely on each other in order to be successful.  I discovered this at school through group assignments but it is heavily reinforced at my job.  Creating a cohesive team and knowing each personality lessens the challenges of the work day.

I hope that you all have an awesome semester and do well in your classes.  Don’t forget, I was in your seat only 6 months ago so if you have any questions or if there are any topics that you would like to dicsuss, please feel free to contact me at rpkincer@matternandcraig.com and I will put up a post.