Diane Hammonds, the Branch Manager for Sain’s Louisiana [...]
History Underground Can Impact Your Project
By: Alicia Bailey, P.E. Have you ever wondered how paving a new road through an undisturbed wooded area impacts the environment? Sain Associates certainly has. Sometimes there are no major issues, but occasionally an engineer can get an unhappy surprise.
More on Engineering Ethics
“With increasing competition to secure contracts for engineering and design services, AEC firm executives and practice leaders must ensure that they stand out among the crowd. But sometimes efforts to gain favor and secure contracts—particularly for government and public projects—can go too far.”
The Business of Having Fun
It’s the beginning of another new year. This is a time when many people are busy setting personal and professional goals, making resolutions and in general, trying to get a fresh start. And while we all do these things to get ready for a new year at Sain Associates, we’re also already thinking about all the FUN we’re going to have in 2016. Our Funtime Committee will play a big part in these plans.
What Our Team Leaders Wish They Had Known
A few weeks ago, Sain Associates Principal/Owner, Joe Meads, wrote a blog post that was inspired by his daughter’s first college essay. In the essay and the blog, Joe answered three questions that explored his career path to help him determine what he wishes he had known at the start of the journey. We thought this was an interesting exercise, so we presented it to our team leaders as well.
What I Wish I Had Known
For her first college essay, my daughter, Lindsey Meads, was asked to do a career exploration, and she decided to ask me a few questions. I wanted to share them here, because this advice applies to many of us, no matter where we are at this point in our career. It meant a lot to me that Lindsey chose me to help with her paper, and I found her closing paragraph touching.
Another Step Toward More Women in Engineering
My youngest son is four years old, and he’s really interested in construction equipment and talking about any type of construction. I tell him he can be involved in construction when he grows up if he goes to college and becomes a civil engineer. He says “I don’t want to be an engineer, because that’s a girl’s job!”
Attributes of a Dream Consultant [Guest Blog Post]
![Attributes of a Dream Consultant [Guest Blog Post]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sain.com/wp-content/uploads/Steve_Allen-3.jpg?resize=150%2C150 "Attributes of a Dream Consultant [Guest Blog Post]")
Last week, Sain Principal/Owner Joe Meads shared his thoughts about what makes a dream client. We thought it would only be fair to give our clients the opportunity to share the attributes that make up their dream civil engineering consultant. This week and next week, two of our favorite clients will share their thoughts in guest posts.
Attributes of a Dream Client
For several years, we’ve spent time thinking about and studying what our dream client looks like. To us, this is a marketing strategy that helps us identify the best things about clients so we can search for more people just like them. We have several great, long-standing, very successful relationships with clients, and the more partnerships like this that we can build, the better.
Intuition: A Leader’s Quiet Helper
Civil engineers are not typically wired to make intuitive decisions. We’re taught to make decisions based on empirical data. While the day to day brain functions associated with engineering may tend to crowd out our intuitive side, when we’re in leadership roles, intuition becomes much more important.
Improving Intersections in Tennessee
With the ultimate goal to reduce crashes and improve the safety at stop-controlled intersections across Tennessee, our Pulaski, TN office began working on an Intersection Action Plan (IAP) in April of 2011.