Exponents

It was bound to happen. I ended 2013 on a high note on this blog, cranking out more posts than I have the years prior. Even more than that, I boldly publicized that I had several posts in the hopper. Then 2014 started and the posting stopped. Seems sketchy.

At least I have somewhat of an excuse. For the past four years, I have been working almost exclusively on one project. One. For four years. In the engineering world, that is damn near eternity. My involvement started during the pursuit phase of a major design-build project; I spent countless hours updating at-grade crossings to more accurately estimate the construction costs. After we had won the project, I got the opportunity to leave my home office and be a civil designer in a project office, cranking out InRoads designs and producing roadway plans. As the project evolved, my role followed suit. Slowly responsibilities were added to my plate and my experience and resume grew to what there are today. I understand that this last paragraph does not explain my lack of posting, hang with me.

Right before the end of 2013, I had a few discussions with my various bosses about my next project. After all, my life on that project had to end at some point (maybe?). It was during these discussions that another project popped up. It was smaller in size, but similar in style - we were teamed with a contractor to pursue a design-build project here in Colorado. And the boss men wanted me to work on it. After everyone reemerged from their cookie and pie comas that first week of January, I had some more sit downs with my managers. The thought of leaving my comfort zone that I had resided in for the last four years was becoming a reality. On January 6th, my boss and I met with Jason and Mike to let them know it was happening and to start the transition of handing them the reins to the tasks under my watch. On January 20th, I officially moved back to the Denver office to pursue this new project.

When I left my office to start my life on that project, it was the second half of 2010. Between then and now, my company moved to a new building and hired a crap-ton of people. When I rolled into my new digs on that Monday, I was the new guy. Between meeting all the new people, getting reacquainted with all the old people, learning my new office, and that little thing called "doing my job," things have been a bit crazy. And THAT is why I have neglected the old Flickerblogger site. No longer.

When you are a young engineer coming out of school, you feel like the knowledge base that you are absorbing is massive. I felt like every day I was learning something new or becoming better at something - design, production, whatever. However, it was during the last four years that I realized how linear my growth during the previous five years truly was. I was learning and growing in a steady and constant manner, but it was slow in comparison to what the last four years provided. Those years showed me what real career growth could be: it could be exponential. As more and more tasks were thrown my way, my learning was steep, fast, and consistently increasing. It was a crash course in engineering; a trial-by-fire method of learning the ways of our industry. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities that were presented to me and there are a crew of people who helped me along the way. To Karen, Charlie, Scott, John, and Ken: thanks for giving me opportunity after opportunity and thanks for being receptive to the myriad of my questions along the way. And to the rest of you jokers (especially Jason, Alana, Mike, Nate, Sally, and Anthony), thank you for making my work life fun. Now let's go win the next one.

Until the next post,
Mikey