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OPINION
Investments of time and effort need to be made with younger engineers to effectively transfer technical and communication skills and establish robust future leaders. The importance of transferring knowledge
A couple weeks ago, a good friend of mine retired from the water and wastewater treatment engineering industry after a long and fruitful career. It was difficult for me to see him retire, as he provided invaluable technical knowledge and leadership to myself and others. More importantly, through his daily willingness to pass on lessons learned from a 40- year career of working with nearly every imaginable type of water treatment facility, he set a rare benchmark for young engineers (like myself) to dig deeper technically in developing rare and valuable skills.
Stefanos Word, PE, ENV SP
This individual wasn’t a casual friend or coworker. Through his humility, patience, and willingness to help me develop invaluable skill sets, he quickly established himself as a mentor and pillar of technical leadership in my life. From the first day I started at MKN, he invested time and effort that provided me with an ever-expanding toolkit of practical lessons and niche technical skills that were delivered to me with deep and profound humility. To put it simply, he was an “engineer’s engineer” who was always willing to teach me as much as he could. His investment in transferring more than 40 years of industry experience continues to provide me with opportunities to grow in my career.
Sadly, older generations are retiring from the workforce more rapidly than in previous years. According to Pew Research, the retired population ages 55 and older grew by about 1 million retirees per year between 2008 and 2019. More recently, the population of retirees 55 and older have grown by 3.5 million over the last two years alone. In the context of the AEC industry, this effectively pushes younger generations to step up to the plate. Investments of time and teaching efforts need to made with younger engineers to effectively transfer “hard” technical skills and “soft” communicative skills to establish robust
See STEFANOS WORD, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER NOVEMBER 14, 2022, ISSUE 1465
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