So, the college engineering student/summer intern who's working for the PE who's my biggest client sends me this email yesterday afternoon:
Jim,
Thanks for all your hard work on the easements, it’s all been sent over to the attorney.
However, we are going to need the digital pdf copies of all the easements as well.
Secondly, I need to make some changes to the plats, so could you send me the CAD file please?
Less than a minute later, I get this one from her boss:
Jim,
We are not going to revise the plats! We just need the updated lot file to xref for revisions to Ph 1 IP's
Yesterday's lesson: how not to make your surveying consultant's blood pressure go through the roof. PE's are like puppies, you have to start house breaking them the minute you bring them home.
That's funny. I would have replied to both from the second email telling them that you were about to call as it wouldn't have been right.
Regardless of your job, lessons learned from slaps in the face tend to last longer than those learned easily. 🙂
Love in Vain
Communication skills are so important. Can they be taught?
There is a lot of gab nowadays about how they are lost in the modern world of the digital age.
It seems that she got the train to leave the station but failed to hook up a few of the freight cars in her message.
I know that I have come across a few engineers that were brilliant but lacked the communication skills with co-workers and clients that caused serious problems
When the train left the station, it had two lights on behind
Yeah, the train left the station, it had two lights on behind
Well, the blue light was my baby and the red light was my mind
You can train them?
cool.
You can train them?
Sometimes (and it depends on the discipline)
A few years ago when I was working at a "big box design firm" a fresh outta college Landscape Architect and I have this conversation in the kitchen:
"Hey, on the XYZ project it looks like your survey base drawing was rotated 90 degrees, so I fixed it"
"Really, do tell"
"Well looking at the coordinate grid ticks, the north coordinates were written above lines that ran east/west (I think he may have said 'side to side'), and the east coordinates were written on lines that ran north/south (once again he may have used the technical terms 'up and down'), so I rotated the drawing to match the grid ticks"
Later that day the IT department moved every survey drawing to a hidden drive on the server that was locked down for everyone other than the survey department.
Train in Vain
(Embedding disabled)
Love in Vain
or.....
"She caught the Katy...and left me a mule to ride...."
You can train them?
Isn't it great?
I had one young engineer design a swale that ran through some backyards....I was out staking it...and the cuts were on the order of nine feet....this was just supposed to be a swale mind you.....
Called him on it...his reply..."I guess I grabbed the wrong layer"
Some of them I do not think you can train.
Train in Vain Kept a Rollin'
hmm that is more up swmbo's track
this is more of mine..but nobody will ever top Robert Johnson's poetic styles...
maybe Elibeth Cotton
Train in Vain
That's in my iPod as well; I played harp in a poor excuse for a blues band for the few months between when I quit college and when I told my parents I quit college.
Given the political news of the last few weeks, Bo Carter should be making a comeback 😉
[flash width=480 height=390] http://www.youtube.com/v/GW0M2zEx-7g?version=3&hl=en_US [/flash]
One of my favorite memories growing up was seeing Scott Dunbar play at the Fourth of July BBQ every year at Lake Mary (south of Natchez, north of Ft Adams).
[flash width=480 height=390] http://www.youtube.com/v/vmu38Iv4OPw?version=3&hl=en_US [/flash]
You can train them?
Practical matters must be learned from experience, not in a classroom. Does anyone purchase 60,000 mile tires and ignore them completely until they reach 60,000 miles? Life does not exist in a vacuum. Reality plays heck with theory every time. This is why it is important that school kids learn as much practical stuff as possible during their formative years. By the time they hit 22 they think they know everything, but, the vast majority have been sheltered from the practical stuff. Parents who try to fill their children's time with only "educational" experiences and ignore things like responsibility, sharing, scheduling, understanding partial and complete failure, hard work and do-overs are not providing their kids with an adequate range of knowledge in today's world.
Love in Vain
Robert
How are you?
Funny, but I was listening to that song and album this AM. Along with Beggars Banquet.
Some things never get old.
Chuck
Do Civil Engineering majors even get a block of instruction on coordinate systems these days? I swear, for some of them it's a revelation that the earth is a curved surface.
Mine certainly do. They get about 5-6 hours of lectures on Grids & Datums and have to know how to utilize the corrections for Grid Geodetic computations. They get homework, lab exercises, and are examined TWICE on those topics.
> Mine certainly do. They get about 5-6 hours of lectures on Grids & Datums and have to know how to utilize the corrections for Grid Geodetic computations. They get homework, lab exercises, and are examined TWICE on those topics.
but Prof., how many actually learn what you teach as compared to those who memorize just long enough to take and pass a test? I have seen more of the second type by orders of magnitude more than the first type.
😛
You must be referring to engineers that have been educated at places other than LSU.
😉