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- Name: Bruce N.
- Year Of Graduation: 2023
- College/University: University of California, Berkeley
- Major: Civil Engineering
What do you do for a living?
I’m an assistant traffic engineer based in Virginia and I specialize in signal retiming. Within the traffic engineering industry, signal timing is a very detailed process. If a resident feels inconvenienced and sends a complaint to the city government regarding the traffic lights, the government will then contract traffic engineers like me to diagnose and improve traffic signaling. When we get these contracts, it’s usually like an entire boulevard. Think about a long stretch of road with about 20 traffic lights in a row, and our job is to go out there and take in data from people’s day-to-day drive times. Using several different data sets, we attempt to reduce commuting and usually it is a reduction of about 25-30%.
Can you tell me about your job search experience after graduation?
During my final semester, I was looking for roles within traffic engineering because my previous internship experience was in traffic signals and I wanted to carry that knowledge forward. In the first half of that semester, I was applying on company websites. I used LinkedIn and Indeed for reference, but I did not apply using these websites because to me, I felt it was really competitive and it was not really personalized. We’re all seen as numbers on the flip side.
I looked specifically for roles that I had experience in and qualifications for. I started doing one or two applications per day and received a few interview opportunities after about a month, but it was a pretty tedious time. Some of the applications included free responses and cover letters. I’d say I probably applied to 10-15 roles in total. I didn’t feel a tremendous amount of pressure because I was already working part-time as a traffic signal intern for my local city government. If I didn’t find any opportunities, I would have stayed as an intern and continued looking for open positions.
The role I ended up accepting was on the East Coast. I had three locations to choose from, which were Chicago, Philadelphia, and Virginia Beach. I asked my interviewer which location needed the most assistance. I really wanted to be hands-on and they said Virginia was the most ideal location for that.
Is it enough to only have a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering?
Yes and no. For civil engineering, it’s commonly understood that you do not need to go beyond a bachelor’s to get a role within this industry, but in order to progress into a managerial position or a supervisor position you will need additional certifications. That’s why I’m pursuing a PE, which stands for Professional Engineer license. That requires four years of full-time experience and passing an eight hour engineering exam, which I’m studying for at the moment.
Why did you choose your major? Would you still pick this major now, if you could go back in time?
In high school, I had an interest in architecture at first. Architecture takes more of a creative approach to building, and I found a mentor who was an architect and I talked with him while still in school. Ultimately, I chose engineering for two different reasons. First, my parents wanted me to pursue engineering. Secondly, I actually had an existing interest in civil engineering and traffic engineering. Improving the flow of people and transport is enjoyable and exciting for me. When I was a kid, I was a fan of playing city builder games like SimCity and I would design roads and public transportation systems. There are people that need those resources and rely on public transport to get them to where they need to go, and I want to help with that.
With traditional civil engineering, you could be working with building a canal or a dam, or working with concrete. After learning a little more, I realized you could do so many things regarding traffic and transportation as well. That’s why I decided on the major. It was broad enough for me to learn about other areas while maintaining a focus on traffic.
If I asked you 3 years ago, what would you think you’d be doing right now (in life/career)?
Three years ago, I would probably think that I’d still be in school. If I had taken my time, I would still be a senior right now. I graduated really early, in two and a half years. I did the math about my finances and realized I would have to take out a lot of loans for four years of university, so I decided to kind of create my own curriculum and take classes in the summer to cut down on time. I had a lot of imposter syndrome when applying to jobs because of how early I graduated. I wasn’t sure if they would accept someone who would be like a junior or senior in their eyes since that’s usually when people try to get their internship experience. I was a lot younger than the rest of the applicant pool.
What’s your biggest struggle right now?
I’m a little homesick. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and moved out here to Virginia with no connections. I really miss all of my friends and family back home. I am Vietnamese so I grew up with a lot of access to those food options, but in Virginia I don’t see that as much. I’ve found some Asian groceries and good restaurants and am working on recreating my mom’s recipes, but it’s nothing compared to the availability back in California.
I moved out to Virginia in the winter so the cold was something to get used to as well. I was staying inside a lot and I didn’t get to expose myself to the different places that Virginia had to offer. I kind of regretted not going to many places and exploring. I work from home and we have an office as well, but I’m one of the only employees that lives in my specific city, so not having close team members is quite challenging. I kind of have to stick it out on my own.
I was able to start turning things around going into the summer, though. I began going on Reddit, my local city subreddits, and looking for people who wanted to talk. I found someone who also moved into the city from a different state, so that’s something we bonded over. This person has had roommates that they’ve become close to, and then I became close with them as well. I’ve been able to grow my network that way.
If money was not a factor, what would you be working on or spending more time on?
I would definitely spend more time building different tools using Python. That’s something I picked up in college. Learning Python was part of our engineering curriculum, and I realized you could do so much with it. It’ll help you everywhere, not only for my current job but for side projects as well. I use Discord pretty frequently, and you can use Python to build Discord bots and features. I wanted to build commands that popular Discord bots don’t have. It’s a bit of an experimental thing, but I got it to work with the help of AI and it’s really responsive. It helps me generate, search, and export images. You can really get creative with it.
Another hobby I’d like to pursue is game development. In high school, I created a game for the faculty and students because no one could go in person due to COVID. We all needed some kind of platform to come together. Throughout the summer, they asked me to create a game and there were about ten other people who wanted to learn and work on it as well. It is basically supposed to function as a virtual way to navigate campus. My high school was really big. It’s like the size of Disneyland. Our main goal was to create a game where people can search for their classrooms, and don’t feel overwhelmed on their first day.
If we traveled 3 years into the future of your life, what would you hope we’d see?
I would say three years into the future, I would like to have a bit more stability in terms of my hours, because a lot of the time my work spills into the weekend. I’d like to find a role that would allow me to have a bit more work-life balance, but still be within the same industry. I would also like to have a closer network of people. Everything feels very fresh and new at the moment and I would definitely want to commit myself to fostering really valuable relationships and friendships, and even expand my professional network as well.
What advice and/or learnings would you give to the current students or recent grads?
Don’t hesitate to ask people within your classes what they’re doing, you know, what internships they’re doing or what kind of different things they work on in their free time, because you never know when you could be inspired or even get offered an opportunity yourself. At the very least, you can make a connection with them. That opens many doors, and you should always keep a lot of doors open in your life.
In terms of classes, you should remember to ask for help. You’re never alone and I don’t think I would have been able to get my timetables ordered correctly if I hadn’t sought out the advice of seniors or people who’d taken those classes before. In any situation, hearing from people with prior knowledge really helps.
Connect With Bruce:
- LinkedIn: @BruceRamSeyNguyen
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