Duties in municiple/public works
Duties in municiple/public works
(OP)
To those that are involved with municiple/public works engineering.
I am curious on the regular types of duties. I'm thinking of making the transistion into a small town city engineering department. It seems exciting with a little more involvment in the construction and interaction with people. Please let me know what some good skills/qualities are desirable. I am comming from a structural and computer background, so I will be starting from the ground up in drainage, traffic, roads, surveying, etc. The job decriptions are extrememly general, and I don't give a solid impression of what the most common day to day tasks are.
Is an extensive background in hydrology and fluid mechanics needed. I think I can brush up on the fluids but a little concerned about my hydrology.
Thanks
I am curious on the regular types of duties. I'm thinking of making the transistion into a small town city engineering department. It seems exciting with a little more involvment in the construction and interaction with people. Please let me know what some good skills/qualities are desirable. I am comming from a structural and computer background, so I will be starting from the ground up in drainage, traffic, roads, surveying, etc. The job decriptions are extrememly general, and I don't give a solid impression of what the most common day to day tasks are.
Is an extensive background in hydrology and fluid mechanics needed. I think I can brush up on the fluids but a little concerned about my hydrology.
Thanks





RE: Duties in municiple/public works
As a small town engineer you will be in charge of a lot and of nothing all at the same time. Your duties will revolve around the political scene (yes, even in a small town) and you will be pulled and pushed into decisions that have little foundation in engineering judgement. Most likely your job duties will be that of review; review for compliance with the codes not review for the compliance of basic engineering principles. That means that you can't knock how the consultant did it as long as the work can be defended. You can only critique the presentation of the material and to see that all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed. For the most part you will oversee the public works maintenance people and the construction of drainage ditches or perhaps upgrading the old "v-ditch" to a pipe.
I don't know what has brought you to this fork in the road with structural engineering, but civil servant is hard way to make a living.
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
If you are looking for technical challenges relatively early in your career, this is not where you'll find them. You'll meet lots of political challenges, but little else.
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
Been there and seen it. Ron's point about laypeople tyring to make enigneering decisions for you is the most painful part of the job (of the many). When I'm imvolved in such projects I often wonder why I even bothered to get an engineering degree. Heck, how hard can this stuff be? All engineering is is opening up a catalog and picking what costs the lowest, right?
I was working in dredging for several years and only once had the joy of working with a municipal enigneer who was a P.E. and had, thanks to his experience, the respect from everyone in his town. Usually, you get these bufoons who practice engineering by the insult method. If they can bully you enough they get a "good enough" project at no cost to them. If they don't get their way, "...you don't know what you're talking about."
On the other hand, if you are inclined to work well with people and know your Machiavelli and Dogbert, then you may find it a very rewarding job. Qshake is right about the kind of work, but you do get to spend time in the field -that's a lot of fun, I think.
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
Mikolay
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
1 - capital improvements - municipality hires contractor to build road, sewers, water distribution systems, landfill...whatever - keep civilization as we know it running. You design it - they build it - with your oversight. If you get a good contractor, it is rewarding and can be fun - you work together, in a way, while still riding herd, but the effort is to get a smooth flow while maintaining your ethics and assuring production/construction of a servicable civil facility.
If the contractor is less competent, your job is more challenging and can be difficult, depending on the contractor's reception to education. Some was fun and some contributed greatly to my "grey-hair" engineer appearance. What support you get from the town and your supervisors ('til you become one) matters. We used to get along well with our town boards and counsels and they actually invited us to holiday parties and the like. Had some great contractors, too! Low bid and did a good job - town was happy, we had a confidence level in the work and the citizens appreciated the facilities - would actually bring out coolers with sodas to the crews. Wasn't all horror stories, although some projects made us more than earn our pay.
2 - review and recommendations for revisions to or recommend approval of applications for development. Mostly in these parts the municipal engineers, planners,etc. beat up pretty well on applicants and their consultants and pretty much get away with it. Although as the yin and yang of it go, as the development is wanted, there is typically some balance (more or less) achieved between overdesign and reasonable safeguards and servicability.
Depending on what type of challenges with which you like to deal and how well you can determine when appropriate to stand your ground and what will work, and how well you can do that, municipal work can be fun or a drag, or some of each at one time or another.
Hope that helps...you really gotta get a feel or the pulse of what goes on in the particular locale.
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
Here's my $0.02: If you want the experience of working for a small town/public works engineering, get a job with a consulting firm that serves as the City Engineer for a small town (or better yet, many small towns). You'll get all the experience with construction you'd want, get great experience working with people (contractor, city inspection and public works staff, city secretary/administrator/manager, P&Z, and council), plus make alot more money. And oh yeah, you won't have to constantly worry about getting fired by some idiot council member that doesn't know his you-know-what from a manhole because you required a developer to comply with the design standards/sign ordinance/etc. that he requested and approved without reading but which happens to inconvenience him because he has a behind-the-scenes deal going on in which he stands to lose money. Does that paint a pretty enough picture of it? I'm really not bitter, I just feel sorry for my friends that have to deal with this kind of stuff and I'm grateful that I get all of the advantages with few of the disadvantages of working directly for the council. I can only think of one reason to consider working for a city....the hours. You won't find alot of 40 hour weeks in consulting, but you are generally rewarded for the extra 5 - 10 hours per week. If you can handle that while balancing family/personal committments, you'll probably find it alot more challenging.
If I've offended anyone, I apologize. That's just my open and honest opinion safely offered from the anonymity of the internet:)
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
Scott
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
Also what's uncanny is that an Aggie can use a computer. There aren't many at TAMU to learn on.
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
If you do take the job, make sure to contact the Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) center in your state (assuming you're in the US). You'll find a lot of help and training available there for municipal highway folks. For example, check out our workshop offerings at http://www.clrp.cornell.edu/workshops/workshops.htm Other states' offerings will be different, but this should give you a good idea of what's out there. Check out http://www.ltapt2.org/list.htm to find the one in your state.
RE: Duties in municiple/public works
Sorry it took so long to reply...I had to wait for my turn on the only computer on the A&M campus (funny one, Bayou). My use of "Aggie" in my username refers to the fact that I'm a graduate of Texas A&M University. It's our nickname (like longhorns, seminoles, fightin' irish, etc.).
Bayou,
It sounds like I hurt your feelings. If so I apologize. I'm glad that you enjoy your civil service job, and I mean no disrespect to your profession; however, while perhaps too harshly put, my description of working for a municipality remains largely accurate, in my experience. I hope that your experience has been much better.