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BUSINESS NEWS JACOBS RECOGNIZED WITH PRESTIGIOUS 2018 WATER ENVIRONMENT FEDERATION’S WATER HEROES AWARD Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. was honored by the Water Environment Federation with the prestigious 2018 Water Heroes Award, which recognizes individuals and organizations that have performed above and beyond the call of duty during an emergency situation to continue protecting the public and the environment. Four Florida- based Jacobs operations management project teams, including The Villages, Key West, West Melbourne and Pembroke Pines, were recognized for their ongoing efforts during the most expensive and destructive U.S. hurricane season on record. Staff members and leaders at the four project sites operate and maintain water and wastewater utility systems that serve more than 345,000 residents. The Jacobs-operated facilities were in the path of destruction during the 2017 hurricane season. More than 230
Jacobs staff collaborated and shared skills and resources state-wide to prepare and respond to the events. The staff lived and worked at the project sites voluntarily throughout the storms to ensure the water and wastewater facilities remained up and running. The project teams made extensive pre-storm preparations to prevent issues like facility overflows and speed the return of facilities to regular service soon after the storms passed. “It is an honor for our projects to be nationally recognized for their dedication to their communities,” said Jacobs’ Vice President of Operations Management and Facilities Services Steve Meininger. “With nearly 40 years of water and wastewater operations and maintenance experience, Jacobs has the knowledge, skillset and training to not only prepare for emergencies of this magnitude, but also mitigate the damage done. Our clients value this experience and the resources we bring, especially during hard times.”
The Water Environment Federation is a not- for-profit association that provides technical education and training for water quality professions who clean water and return it safely to the environment. Jacobs also sponsored the Operations Challenge at WEFTEC 2018, reaffirming its position as a leader in the operations and maintenance of wastewater facilities worldwide. Jacobs is a long-time sponsor of the annual challenge, which is a platform for top wastewater collection and treatment personnel to display their skills. Jacobs leads the global professional services sector delivering solutions for a more connected, sustainable world. Jacobs provides a full spectrum of services including scientific, technical, professional and construction- and program-management for business, industrial, commercial, government, and infrastructure sectors.
ADAM ZACH, from page 9
grads are ready. Seventy percent versus 33 percent, seems backwards, right? As employers are hiring engineers, they are looking less at GPA and more towards related experiences and human engineering qualities. “A whopping 85 percent of your financial success is attributed to skills in human engineering, according to the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Only 15 percent is tied to technical skills.” The big question is, how do we climb the hill of human engineering? ❚ ❚ Through learning. Learning through books, classes, webinars, podcasts, seminars, and workshops are the most common. The different material is often quite a refreshing change of pace for most engineers. ❚ ❚ Through doing. Start practicing early and often. Join an organization like toastmasters, present ideas to friends and family. Start doing! ❚ ❚ Join a team. An example would be to join a program and work with others to build your human engineering intelligence. ❚ ❚ Join a community of other forward-thinking engineers to share common struggles and discuss with fellow travelers on the road of engineering. ❚ ❚ Can’t find a team? Ask me. Or create one yourself! If you knew that 85 percent of your financial success would be attributed to human engineering, what would you do differently? ADAM ZACH is a project engineer with AE2S in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and a lifetime learner. He can be reached at adam.zach@ae2s. com.
of Amazon, Bezos said, “If there’s one reason we have done better than our peers in the internet space over the last six years, it is because we have focused like a laser on customer experience, and that really does matter, I think, in any business.” They focus not only on technology, but people. But why should engineering students, faculty, and professionals care about human engineering? ❚ ❚ Financial motives. What surprises most people is that a whopping 85 percent of your financial success is attributed to skills in human engineering, according to the Carnegie Insti- tute of Technology. Only 15 percent is tied to technical skills. ❚ ❚ A lot of aspiring engineers have it backwards and don’t realize it. We spent 80 to 90 percent of our time focused on the “technical” aspects of engineering. ❚ ❚ Think of college. How many credits or classes did you at- tend that discussed technical versus non-technical mate- rial? Most colleges spend about 90 percent of the curricu- lum on statics, dynamics, circuits, mechanics of materials, and other engineering essentials. Maybe 10 percent of the curriculum is on senior design, working in a team, and extracurricular activities. The problem? We are so over- whelmed by the technical that we don’t have time for the non-technical! ❚ ❚ This is not meant to belittle a university education or the technical work done in our industry. To be successful, you absolutely need to learn the technical skills, work hard, and git’er done. That’s the price of admission. But we all kind of know the same things. So, what’s going to set you apart from your peers? ❚ ❚ False sense of confidence. By the time we graduate, we feel we have paid our dues and are ready to enter the workforce and be productive. This is in line with a survey from the As- sociation of American Colleges and Universities, which found that 70 percent of college students say they possess the skills needed to succeed in the workplace. Employers, conversely, see things differently and think less than one-third of recent
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THE ZWEIG LETTER January 7, 2019, ISSUE 1278
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