The Life of a Civil Engineer:
From the Mind of Joseph Bachi
“Civil Engineering can be difficult but don’t be afraid to take on the tasks ahead.” From the mind and words of Joseph Bachi, a civil engineer working for the Mott MacDonald company located in Iselin, NJ and New York, NY. In our brief interview, Mr. Bachi provided the insight and liberty of working as a civil engineer. Mr. Bachi works at the Mott MacDonald company full time and is very enthusiastic about his profession. According to him, he likes to be given a problem and search for ways to resolve them. He believes that every project provides a unique challenge that keeps him interested and focused. Based on our conversation, it is clear that Mr. Bachi likes to see what he designed being built. To observe his vision come to life and know that he helps contribute to society directly with projects to improve the world.
Growing up in the NYC area, Mr. Bachi always had an interest in infrastructure. He was fascinated by the many highways, tunnels, bridges and visits to skyscrapers. As a grade school student, both math and physics were his favorite subjects. In his search of colleges with his passion in mind, he quickly realized civil engineering was a good fit. From the gathered information, Mr. Bachi’s eagerness to find a college that would best expand his knowledge in this field, discovered Rutgers University located in New Brunswick, NJ. He felt that Rutgers University was a good school that met his requirements to pursue his major and was conveniently located close to home. Along with majoring in civil engineering, he spoke of taking an elective in economics because he enjoyed the subject matter but did not see the value in obtaining a minor degree. As a student working to complete his bachelors at Rutgers, Mr. Bachi spent a lot of time studying and socializing rather than getting involved in engineering clubs in college. However, with obtaining a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering he is now involved in ASCE, the American Society of Civil Engineers.
As his freshman year of college flew by, Bachi found his first internship after his sophomore year of college through a family friend in a civil engineering consulting firm. Mr. Bachi stated, that it helped him understand how engineering firms worked, the daily task of a staff engineer and working a 9-5 job. Due to his internship at the civil engineering consulting firm throughout the summers, it eventually became Mr. Bachi’s first job as a staff engineer with the position title of “Engineer I.” He was able to build a good relationship with the staff and managers there, which made it an easy transition once he graduated from Rutgers. When asked about what he learned from his first job, Bachi replied with, Networking is key because it can provide relationships with other companies for further business. He learned that college was just a foundation for more to come. According to him, he gained a ton of experience and knowledge, and still feels like he barely scratched the surface of his profession. Thanks to his first job, he understood the need to continue to grow as a professional and to continue to stretch his capabilities. On the technical side, Bachi learned how to properly write a report and realized much of the engineering profession is about communicating with your colleagues in order to achieve the job at hand. Mr. Bachi credits the civil engineering consulting firm in leading him to be part of the Mott MacDonald company today.
With the hard work and dedication of Mr. Bachi, he found the Mott MacDonald company where he feels comfortable to work in and where he generally likes the people he works with and gets to work on multidisciplinary projects. He gets along well with his coworkers, where they have fun and also participate in social activities outside of work. His facial expressions and tone of voice reveals that at the same time he is motivated to keep growing as a civil engineer by expanding his knowledge and contributing to his profession. When asked about his regular day as a civil engineer, Mr. Bachi replied there’s no such thing as a regular day. However, his common tasks included writing proposals for work, planning work and subsurface explorations, analyzing soil data, performing calculations, writing geotechnical engineering recommendation reports, meeting with design teams to discuss geotechnical considerations for various projects, overseeing soil and rock drilling operations and construction oversight. According to Bachi, writing and reading plays a huge part at his job. It can be a hassle but he has to write and read emails, reports, proposals for geotechnical work and geotechnical engineering reports. Within the office and during the course of the day, he has many phone conversations with coworkers, clients, subcontractors, and design team members. He believes you need to have your technical writing down where it’s concise, clear, and understandable. There needs to be a balance between getting the technical points across, but also writing it such a way that your client, who is not a civil engineer can comprehend it.
In the closing of the interview, Mr. Bachi provided me with some last minute encouragement. He told me as an engineering student, soak up as much as you can from my classes. Get involved in ASCE or other professional societies and work on my writing and communication skills. His self motivation, dedication and passion for his profession mirrored my aspirations of becoming a civil engineer. After concluding my interview with Mr. Joseph Bachi, I felt compelled, motivated and inspired by his words to continue on my path. He’s assured me that it requires hard work and perseverance to succeed in this field however it is a rewarding and beneficial profession that contributes to our society, and to our future.
