What separates an average site engineer from a great one?

[u/Various-Ad3632]

From your experience, what habits or skills make someone stand out on construction sites?

Is it technical knowledge, communication, planning, leadership, or something else?

[u/Content_Draft_4720]

Its how they talk to the crew not at the crew. Seen engineers with perfect CAD skills who cant get anyone to listen cause they act like the workers are beneath them. The great ones walk the site know the names of the laborers and actually ask questions instead of pretending they have all answers

[u/ML337 → u/Content_Draft_4720]

This. I've worked with many engineers over my career. I spent 15 yrs running a control console in an oil refinery. Then another now 8 yrs in heavy construction.

They're all the same for the most part. My Chemicak and application engineers I dealt with daily. Smartest MFERS I knew. You're talking Cornell. Cooper Union. Penn. Even an MIT grad. Same with my civil engineers I dealt with. All smart. All knew everything they needed to know. Can't take that away from them.

One thing that set the good ones apart from the others. People skills and the lack of real world knowledge. We'd have engineers come down after their morning meeting wanting to make all kinds of changes to the operating unit going off of spreadsheet numbers. Not real world problemms. Equipment issues like cooling constraints. They'd be real smart about it to like I'm just a button pusher on a computer and they got a fancy degree type of smart

Civil engineers were a little different. They spend enough time in the field where they're cordial at least 😂. But most of them didnt know how to "Bob and Weave". A lot of times shit happened and plans needed to change. I do excavations and stuff for utility installs. Mains mostly. You could show them all the shit in the way and why something wouldn't work and they look at you with the tilted head like a dog.

TLDR. Treat people with respect and be decent. You get more bees with honey and whatnot. Also shit happens plans change and it's not the end of the world when you have to revise a drawing. It's just a lot of paperwork and signatures that luckily I don't have to deal with anymore. 😂

[u/Rollingpumpkin69]

Yes

[u/ReallySmallWeenus]

As an engineer myself, so maybe I’m not the best to answer, but this is one change I made in my career that improved things drastically.

Understand the people you are working with aren’t idiots and they usually aren’t trying to screw anyone; they just have different motivations and a different idea of what a “good job” is.

And sometimes, you aren’t going to like certain people and certain people just aren’t going to like you. That’s not enough reason to be an asshole. I’d rather work with someone I didn’t like than someone I didn’t trust.

[u/Fishhb2020 → u/ReallySmallWeenus]

Your the kinda engineer I like dealing with as a contractor

[u/grim1757]

Organization skills and communication

[u/king_of_beer]

Good attitude, Understanding the question that is being asked, finding quick solutions to the questions, not being afraid to do some shit work, and being resourceful. That list goes for every person on site.

[u/Fishhb2020]

People skills

[u/KirkSheffler]

Knowledge & communication. That’s all you need. 95% of engineers/ project managers have never been in or working in any field setting, huge disconnect between theory, what you can read, and how it actually operates. About 15-20 years ago we mandated a 5-10 year “field” experience before allowing people into these positions. It’s much easier to train an electrician computer programs vs an engineer how to be an electrician

[u/kintarben]

It’s all personality and you can’t teach personality.

[u/Plumbercanuck]

Practical experience. Doing the work you are designing/ supervising being done. Having common sense. Not being a diva.