Norwich University

David Crawford School Of Engineering EG110 Spring

2021

Interview

Intro to Engineering C-L3

Pelayo M. Martinez Rodriguez Miaja

Professor Kulkarni
16 February, 2021
 My subject’s name is Jonathan Mackintosh, he is a civil engineering technician who

works for the state of Vermont in the design section for “AOT” (Agency of Transportation) Most

of his work is done remotely now that he is part of the design section, before he got that position,

he held several others (also for the state) that required him to work outside allowing him to

acquire several good work experiences that otherwise he would not have gotten such as

diligently working with a bridge crew for a short period of time, on that bridge crew he worked

as a flagger and worked his way up to managing the entire bridge crew and at some point he got

to drive the largest truck someone can drive without a CDL, which I thought was really

interesting and cool. When he referred back to the definition of his design job, Jonathan

mentioned that when most people think about design, they think of professionals designing brand

new things but in reality, the majority of projects are already designed and all his team has to do

is fix or modify those old designs due to the fact that there is not much building going on in

Vermont at the moment.

Jonathan worked a lot in construction projects with his grandfather when he was a kid,

making it the origin of his career as a civil engineer by lighting up his interest on the field.

Another thing that sparked his interest in the field is the fact that his father is also a civil

engineer, “It’s always been somewhere in the back of my head, I always thought of it as the right

thing to choose” he commented. Ever since COVID started he was forced to fully work from

home like most people but even before that he was already partly working from home, having

only his own cubicle next to his associates as a physical option available to him at work.

Jonathan went to college at the Vermont Technical Center (VTC), where he got his

associate’s in civil engineering and received a Microsoft certification. When asked if he had any

special training or certifications Jonathan commented that his specialty is working with

MicroStation and he has been trained very extensively on working with that program, he
received all of that education and training from the state and from college. He has taken several

introductory online courses that have helped him throughout his career but he got no actual

paperwork as a certification from those courses, he said it was “for the grunt-work,” which

means for the physical part of his field.

He believes that COVID brought both bad things and good things for his line of work,

Jonathan said that one hand everybody at work is a “push-button away” and in the other hand

there is not that needed interaction and mutual physical help that physical workspaces have. He

said that in today’s world and in the current global situation, in order to talk to somebody from

work you cannot just simply walk over and talk to them but instead you have to schedule an

appointment and then communicate through some kind of software, which makes the situation a

lot more complicated and time consuming. Jonathan is also a very active member of the Church

Beth Towb by being one of the many worship band leaders, so he also stays active within his

community.

When he looks at what got him to where his is, some of the biggest key points are the

fact that he works for the state as a temporary during the summer and he put in time with them

before he was hired for a higher job so as a result of that everybody there already knew him and

all of his skills as well as his hard work. According to what he says “it is always good to make

connections and get to know people around your field so that your name is out there in the blue

and people begin to know about you.” When he stated that, he was mainly referring to when his

own father, who is also a civil engineer, has helped him grow as a worker and as a civil engineer.

To conclude with the interview, Jonathan mentioned that it is important to go to job fairs

in college and to get to know the people so that one day, whenever you need it you can remind

them that you’ve met before and maybe get a better shot at a job interview.