Today, I want to share with you how to prepare for site work. When you’re ready for it, site work affords a young engineer huge growth opportunities. Showing up to site unprepared, though, is bound to be a pretty miserable time.
Photo Credit: Crsytalline Radical
Site work is a critically important aspect of any young engineer’s development. There’s no better way to learn a system, product, or service than through seeing it in action. This goes for major construction projects to supporting mass production of a product, to software development and everything in between. Not only do you learn a lot from seeing the fruits of your labour, it’s actually better for your overall job satisfaction. Site work is still what I consider to be the best part of my job.
Different Kinds of Site Work
I consider site work (or field work) to be anything that takes you away from your desk, and isn’t strictly a business meeting. If you’re out on a construction site, touring a manufacturing facility, installing software on a client’s server, surveying, et cetera, I think of that as field work.
Why You Need to Prepare
It’s critical that you prepare before you head out the back door of your office for site. Not being prepared can lead to any number of awkward situations that basically lead to you not being able to get the job done. This is bad. Especially if you work in an environment where you charge your time and mileage for travel. You don’t want to be that engineer who spends time and money to not get things done.
How to Prepare for Site Work
When I’m asked to conduct some kind of site work, I try to make sure I understand a few key things:
- What exactly needs to be done?
- How do I do what I need to do?
- Who are the key players?
- What’s the big picture?
What exactly needs to be done?
You need to be able to succinctly explain what exactly you’re doing. Why are you going to site? Are you collecting data? Are you supervising a crew? What are the expectations for this trip. You need to know exactly what you’re being asked to do, and what you’re supposed to bring back from your trip. A good way to drill down to get an answer for this question is to ask what deliverables you’re responsible for, and in what format they’re required.
How do I do what I need to do?
Once you understand the “what”, you can move onto the “how”. Understanding “how” is critical to figuring out what personal protective equipment you need, what tools or diagnostic equipment you need, and what training you may need.
If you show up to site without the right gear and without the right knowledge of how to use it to be safe and get your job done, you’re pooched.
I always ask at least the person assigning me the task and someone who’s done it before. This establishes both the expectations, and the tricks of the trade, so to speak.
I’m planning on covering awesome gear to help you be productive on site in a future post, so stay tuned for that.
Who are the key players?
It’s important to understand who the key players are when doing site work. Knowing who cares about the information you’ll bring back helps to make sense of the kind of depth you need to go into. Understanding who’s already on site might lead you to realize you need to coordinate schedules. For example, it’s common to need safety training from a site foreman before you’re allowed on site – better make sure you touch base with the foreman before showing up!
It’s also really important to know who to contact in case of trouble – either technical, or safety-wise. Write down these phone numbers and keep them with you. Even if you only need them once in your career, you’ll be glad you have them.
What’s the big picture?
I think it’s important to be able to see the forest for the trees on any project. If you have an understanding of the greater goal of whatever site work you’re doing, you’re in a better spot to contribute to the success of the project.
Maybe your task is to sample concrete from trucks that are being poured throughout the construction of a building. It’s easy to inadvertently have your blinders up if that’s all you’re told to care about. If you find out, however, that your company’s interests in the project are greater, and another division is, for example, taking care of electrical installations, then you might notice if equipment arrives on site. You might also notice that that equipment is being stored outside in the rain. That kind of information is something your boss would want to know. Since you know the “bigger picture”, you know to share that information without having to be asked.
Closing Thoughts
What do you do to prepare for site work? Let us know if the comments section below. As always, if you like what you read, be sure to follow me on Twitter, subscribe to the blog, and to share this with your friends using the buttons below.
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