I wish I'd known how much seasoned professionals are willing to not only share their knowledge and experience with aspiring young professionals but also learn from them. In my young view, accomplished people always seemed too busy, too important to pay attention to someone like me, who was just starting out in her career. But eventually I realized that while most of these experienced professionals are very busy and important, most will take time to share lessons they've learned and give advice and guidance. I also discovered that they tended to do such mentoring more often and more earnestly if I took the initiative to engage them with pertinent questions and requests for advice. By engaging with senior-level professionals - always with respect but also with a sense of self-confidence - I was gratified to find that my opinions were respected as the views of "the next generation." And now that I am older, I see how important it is that we listen to what younger engineers are saying and understand what they are thinking about in terms of building a better civil engineering infrastructure.
展开▼
