 Alexia A. Nalewaik, E.I.T.
Consulting Engineer
Deloitte and Touche, LLP
Los Angeles, CA
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 B.A., Physics,
University of Dallas
M.S., Structural
Engineering, University of Southern California |
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"As a Consulting
Engineer in Management Services and Solutions, I am responsible
for cost engineering, estimating, and scheduling for major
construction projects." |
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"Take the EIT and PE
exams as soon as possible, while you still remember all of the
information. Don't be afraid to look off the beaten path for a
job - civil engineers have many options, and the traditional
companies are already swamped with resumes from job seekers." |
 
"I now in cost engineering. I put together the estimates for all of our
bids and figure out how much process plants are going to cost and these
are in the millions of dollars. In cost engineering and scheduling I track
the progress of our existing projects and jobs and also schedule them and
make sure we're on track figure out where we're losing money, where we're
making money, and why and then try to feed that information back to the
estimating department, so that hopefully, our bids will be a little more
on track."
"I'm a competitive swimmer. I spend, basically, actually, most of my time
outside of work, either in the ocean or in the swimming pool. And I do
long-distance events. So I need to put in some pretty serious workout
time. There is a balance there. I have the full support of management
within the company, and they understand that the swimming is important."
"There aren't very many women in my company at all. It's not really a
problem. Every once in a while somebody will fail to take me seriously,
and then they learn pretty quickly that that was a bad idea. People know
that I definitely am going to do whatever it takes to get the job done,
and that's very well respected."
"The size of a company has considerable influence on the salary range for
a given function. Larger firms tend to offer higher starting wages and
more benefits, but upward mobility may be highly competitive. A smaller
company may pay less but offer a more direct path to greater
responsibility and a bigger check. It is your preference, and up to you to
seek out the facts regarding each individual company you might consider
working for."
Q: Could you define
structural engineering, to someone who doesn't know -- it's a specialty,
right?
Nalewaik:
It is a specialty. It's basically the design of any structure. The design
of bridges, buildings, structural supports for furnaces and pipe, which is
largely what our company does. It's anything that you can build with wood,
masonry, plastics, steel, whatever you want -- pick a material, build it,
that you need a structural engineer.
Q: Is there a demand for
people in this specialty?
Nalewaik:
There is a demand and it's -- it is not really a fluctuating demand, it is
a constant demand for infrastructure and for anything that you build. I
mean, if you're putting together a building or a bridge or absolutely
anything that has a structural -- a structure attached to it, then you're
going to end up needing a structural engineer. So there's a demand, but it
doesn't fluctuate like the environmental fields or any of the others.
Q: So describe where you
work.
Nalewaik:
OK. I work of Kinetics Technology International
Corporation. It is a company which builds process plants and petro-chemical
facilities. We build hydrogen plants, ethylene furnaces -- things along
those lines. So largely our structural engineers and our civil engineers
are building pipe supports, foundation and structural steel for the
furnaces.
Q: And what is your role?
Nalewaik:
My role is cost engineer scheduler and estimator. I'm fluctuation
in-between two departments at the moment. I used to be in estimating, I'm
now in cost engineering, but estimating is still short of staff, so I keep
running back and forth. I put together the estimates for all of our bids
-- figure out how much process plants are going cost and these are in the
millions of dollars. I mean, when I first started working I had literally
divide by 100,000 in order to get some sort of grasp of the numbers I was
dealing with. I mean, when I'm looking at the compressor price and saying,
"Wow! This thing costs more than I get paid in ten years," it's a bit of
an adjustment. I mean, you're no longer just calculating how much wood
you're going to put on something. So it was a bit of an adjustment, but
it's also fascinating. Every estimate is different, every job is
different, every approach to an estimate is different. I mean, there are
countless things that get added into an estimate that you perhaps wouldn't
think of. And so your basic rule of thumb for estimating is -- consider
everything. And that sounds really simplistic, but it means, consider the
temporary fencing around the plant during construction, consider a
security guard. Consider what kind of paving you want. Consider your lay
down area and whether or not you have unions, and whether or not you have
other jobs in the area which are going to pull workers. So you need to put
in some sort of bonus or incentive to keep workers on site and
construction on site throughout the job so you don't change your learning
curve, and your progress during the construction phases. In cost
engineering and scheduling I track the progress of our existing projects
and jobs and also schedule them and make sure we're on track, figure out
where we're losing money, where we're making money, and why and then try
to feel that information back to the estimating department, so that
hopefully our biz will be a little more on track.
Q: Where to you see
yourself in a couple of years?
Nalewaik:
Project management. Project engineering first, and
then project management. As I said, I like to see the full picture. I want
to see everything that's going on. I don't want to concentrate on just the
piping or just the civil design or just the mechanical or just the
estimate. I want to see how that estimate was put together, how the
project flows, how it finishes, what happened at every phase during the
project -- and that's project engineering and project management right
there.
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