Jugal Amodwala

POE

Block 4

Professional Interview Report

Interview conducted on October 27, 2015.

Report submitted on October 29, 2015.
Interview taken over phone
Interviewee: Sridhar Baldava, Civil Engineer

General Information
Name
Sridhar Baldava

Degree
Undergrad in Civil Engineering and a masters in structural Engineering

Place of employment
Walter P. Moore and Associates

Professional Business Email Address

sridhar.baldava@gmail.com

How I found and made initial contact with this professional

I found this professional because he attends my temple, my parents
know him, and he works in an engineering field I am interested in. I made
initial contact with this professional by talking to him about the project in
person and obtaining his email where I formally requested his participation in
the interview.

Professional Interview
Please describe the field of civil engineering, in general.
We are responsible for design, safety, and building structure that needs to
withstand environmental forces.

What is your current job title?

Senior Engineer

Please describe your particular job and duties.

Build a computer model of the structure and put specific loads and do specific
things to the structures to see how the structure holds it. There are three different
kinds of loads gravity, wind, and seismic. The weight of things inside buildings and
the weight of the structure itself are called gravity loads, wind loads are the force of
wind on the structure, and seismic loads are the estimated strength the building
would need in case of an earthquake. Another important part of my job is to
supervise other engineers and assist them with their models if needed.

What is your average work schedule?

My work schedule is generally flexible and I typically work between 45 and 50
hours a week with 9 to 4 workdays and anything beyond that is flexible.

Starting with high school, describe your educational

background chronologically.
In high school I was pretty sure I wanted to go into some kind of engineering
field but I didnt know what specifically so I took some generalized advanced classes
like higher levels of math and physics. I did a bachelors in Civil Engineering and
then did a master in structural engineering.

If you had it to do over, relating to your career or education,

would you do anything differently?
I would do the same thing if I wanted to do civil engineering.

What advice would you give to me as someone interested in

pursuing a career path similar to yours?
Get your fundamentals in math and physics strong and learn a lot. Make sure
you have really strong foundations in those areas so that you can excel in whatever
engineering field you end up going into. It might be helpful to look into models so
that u can confirm your interest in the field. There are two classes of models
analysis and building information models (SAP 2000 and for documentation REVIT is
a good software).

Personal Reflection
What surprised you the most about the interview?
I was most surprised about the lack of engineering classes he took in high
school. I expected someone at his level to have gotten a good head start in high
school so that college wouldve been easier. Similarly it was interesting to learn that
he experimented a bit in college before deciding on a major as he wasnt sure what
exactly he wanted to specify in.

What was the most important piece of information that you

learned from the interview?
The most important piece of information that I learned from the interview was
that there are so many different sub sections to civil engineering. The amount of
specification in an already specified field is incredible and extremely fascinating how
many options I would have after my undergraduate degree. I also learned that its
generally a good idea to get a masters degree right after your undergrad because it
can be extremely helpful to have during job hires.

How has this interview influenced your feelings about your

future career?
I feel more confident that civil engineering might be the field of engineering I
want to specify in because I enjoy software modeling and physics. The interview has
also made me more confident in myself because I know that Im taking the right
classes in high school in order to excel in college and the workforce.

How has this interview changed or confirmed your plans

regarding your future career?
The interview has made me much more interested in graduate school after I
complete my undergrad. It also confirmed that some aspects of civil engineering
that I am interested in are prevalent in day to day work. I am also a lot more
interested in looking into the modeling aspects of civil engineering because I enjoy
CAD and modeling and it would be interesting to have a job centered on things I
actively enjoy working with.

What is the next step for you to pursue your plans? Who do
you need to talk to? What information do you need?
The next step for me to pursue my plans would be to continue to do well in
high school and take more classes geared towards the career I am interested in. I
would like to talk to other engineering professionals about their own specification in
their fields so I can get multiple perspectives on the career paths Im interested in.
Some information that I need to finalize my career path would be to actually get
some hands on interaction with what kinds of activities I would be doing on a day to
day basis in the actual workforce to make sure that I am investing my time and
money into a job that I will enjoy.