Civil engineers often get a bad rap for being poor communicators. But this is probably due more to the nature of the business rather than actual skills. Our typical work involves peering into sewer manholes, measuring roads, inspecting concrete pours, drawing plans, calculating water flows, and discussing the cool, new fire hydrant design; not necessarily activities where people are hanging out hoping for good conversation. And when we do finally have the chance to talk to people, it is usually because some problem has occurred to negatively impact their lives. Not necessarily the best time to expect to wow someone with your speaking skills. Fortunately social media has arrived on the scene allowing engineers the chance to communicate outside the normal work environment. And we get to talk with people for reasons other than sewer back-ups. Although we can talk about that too!
And thanks to the Engineering a Better World Blog there's a great list of engineering blogs to start reading! So if you love engineering or are just interested in finding out more about what we do, click on over and look through the list. And don't forget to grab some RSS feeds while you're there.
Note: The Public Works Group Blog was included as one of the 50 in the list!
