 Agnes
Ayuso
Water Resources Engineer
Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc.
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 B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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Water Resources Engineer, involved in lake/reservoir/river water quality
assessment and modeling, sewer system modeling, water quality field
programs, and watershed management planning |
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"What I like most about being a civil engineer is the variety of projects
and the combination of scientific and social thinking needed in each
project." |
 
"I
am a water resources engineer at Camp Dresser & McKee. I guess a lot of
people think that engineers would all day like, I don't know, do -- build
buildings or something, that that's the only thing engineers do. But what
I do is -- a lot of people would not think of it as like engineering
because what I -- what I do is I work a lot with computers and for one
part that tends to be technical. But there's also a lot of sides to the
job that are not just like technical or computer related. We do field
work, we go out. We have to take samples. We have to organize field
programs. We have to round up people to go to these field programs. We
have to write reports. There's a lot of writing."
Q: Is there any other
advice you have for people that are starting out or are not really sure,
like you weren't really sure what kind of science they want to study. How
can they sort that out? What should they do to make that decision?
Ayuso: Well, like I said before, I was really
concerned about am I going to be able to find a job or, you know, what am
I going to do? How am I going to sustain myself? And I guess I would tell
them that it is important to know what career opportunities there are and
I wouldn't go blindly into a profession without finding out what kind of
opportunities there are. But that shouldn't be the sole focus; they should
also like what they are doing. Because they are going to be working 40
hours a week for the rest of their life or unless they hit the lottery or
something so they should try and find something that they enjoy doing. And
I would say don't be afraid if you are interested in the environmental
field, because it's growing a lot. And it is true that civil engineering
is not the highest paid but there are things in civil engineering that I
like a lot. I like a lot of projects that I work in and I feel that I'm
contributing to society. That's one of the most beautiful things about
civil engineering, that you're doing things for that are beneficial, where
in other jobs you might not be connected that directly to beneficial
things.
Q: So do you really like being an engineer?
Ayuso: Yes, I -- I guess I take it for
granted perhaps now. It surprised me because I guess a lot of people think
that engineers would all day build buildings or something, that not the
only thing engineers do. But what I do is work with computers and for one
part that tends to be technical. But computers are becoming easier for
people to work with and it is true that here we try to push the boundaries
of what we do with computers but there's also a lot of sides to the job
that are not just technical or computer related. We do field work. We have
to take samples. We have to organize field programs. We have to round up
people to go to these field programs. We have to write reports. There's a
lot of writing. And a lot of times, the type of writing that we do has to
be to explained to people who don't have the technical knowledge. Explain
to them what's going on so the client can understand what the problem is
and why are we proposing these solutions and why the solution costs more
than the other one and what is the difference there. There's also a lot of
opportunity to use creativity because in this firm we do a lot of studies
that people haven't really done a lot before. We have to go to the
library, do some research, find out what these people did and think of
ways of how we're going to approach this problem. It's not cut and dried,
it's not like a formula or anything.
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