Re - low - cay - shun</h1> <article> <h1>Re - low - cay - shun</h1> <p>M1NARET5 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:45:00 GMT</p> <p>Adoring reader, I've left you un-updated, lonesome, and likely worrisome of my dubious whereabouts. But I said I'd write you back, and I'm a man of my word, so here goes (better late than never):<br /><br />Where to begin? It's been almost a year since my last Dear John. To be honest, it wasn't that I got bored of writing about all my goings-on, nor that I forgot about it. I was truly...busy (funny thing how that happens at work). Trinity has certainly groomed me quite well in the past year. With experience comes comprehension, with comprehension comes skill, with skill comes more work! I have learned so much, and I have seen such a variety of projects that I could garrulously expound on all the individual projects, site visits, performance reviews, personal and professional relationships, and travel I have undertaken in the last year. I think anyone reading this would agree that this would be both difficult to accomplish themselves, and mind-numbingly painful to read. So I will spare you that. I'll wrap it into this: I learned a lot, gained much more confidence and autonomy, advanced within Trinity, added a specialty, had to leave some good friends, and made some new ones.<br /><br />To get back to the title, for myriad personal reasons, I decided that Charlotte was not the best place for me to be. I decided in July that I needed to be elsewhere, and I was pretty nervous about a) making the decision and b) letting everyone know. As I was well aware (and as my parents constantly reminded me), these kind of major decisions are not to be made lightly, and in America, are often grounds for tension in the workplace. There are many companies that do not especially care for the well-being of their employees, much less whether they are content with their careers or geographical location. Trinity is not one of these companies. From day one, I had been constantly reminded how supportive Trinity is, and how flexible it can be to work <em>with</em> its employees. I thought to myself, "Yeah, yeah, that's great, I'm sure it's true, but I'll never need to worry about it. I've got my plan, right?" Well, as I learned, plans change, especially at my age (23).</p> <p>My initial anxiety was met with understanding, discussion and options. This was great! My office manager (Tony) and I were able to candidly talk about all the different things going on in my life, both personally and professionally, and he let me know that he would give me time to think about it, but also move along the paperwork. He let me know that of course he wanted me to stay, and that he greatly valued my contribution, but also understood my position. The word "bittersweet" does not adequately describe my move from Charlotte to Austin. I learned so much, and so valued the people I worked with in Charlotte. Even with just one year experience, these people were my friends, mentors, and colleagues. To leave them was hard, <em>really</em> hard. Yet I knew that Austin was where I needed to be. The welcoming spirit of Trinity HQ in Dallas was a good way to remind me that Trinity is great everywhere, and that I would find a good home with my new office, new (home) state. I have new regulations to learn, new clients to assist, new sites to visit, and new people to meet. At the same time, I still have all the experience and contacts I had in Charlotte, and I know everytime I call over there, I will get some nice greeting and likely some tomfoolery (sorry, I had to). For all the things going on in my crazy life right now, Trinity has been there to help me with the transition. You will be hard-pressed to find any company so willing to aid you, so understanding and cooperative with its employee's life plans. I cannot help but be continually impressed and endeared to such great people. <br /><br />So I'll set my pom-poms down now, and just let you cogitate on this for a while. Trinity was just as committed to me as I was to it. Can you ask for more?<br /><br />P.S. I promise to write again soon (less than 10 months from now). Make it a great day, ~ttfn.</p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>Coal-Gen Conference - Not Worth It!</h1> <p>razorhack — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:44:00 GMT</p> <span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:Arial;">I'm starting my trip back from Louisville, KY (I have to fly through Chicago and St. Louis to get to Little Rock - go figure!) where I've been attending the annual Coal-Gen industry group conference. This was my first trip to Coal-Gen, and it will probably be my last. Despite a heavy focus in the agenda on environmental issues, especially CO2 issues, it was not the right place for an environmental consultant. The conference is just overrun by mechanical contractors, pipe fitters, industrial painters, etc. I did gather some good information about pending controls for CO2, but it really wasn't anything I couldn't have learned without spending three days out of the office. On top of the relatively ineffective conference, I had a terrible tooth ache the whole time. At least I got to watch some of the Olympics at night in the hotel.</span> </article> <article> <h1>Public Hearing</h1> <p>razorhack — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:09:00 GMT</p> <p>I went to a public hearing today where people could comment on some proposed regulations changes. Compared to other public hearings I've been to, it was very uneventful. Only one person gave comments - the Executive Director of the Arkansas Environmental Federation, which is an advocacy group for industry in Arkansas (see <a href="http://www.environmentark.org/">www.environmentark.org</a>) - and he just read the AEF's written comments (to be submitted later). It was good to be there however. Two part-time (they also use others) clients were there, and I think we solidified the fact that we stay on top of what's going on in the air permitting world (in Arkansas at least).</p> </article> <article> <h1>Benched Again</h1> <p>nonTraditional56 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:46:00 GMT</p> <p>I've completed all the task creation for the future EMIS implementation for our aviation client. As so much of our work seems to end up, I'm now waiting for the client to review the work and advise on how they'd like to proceed. We had a $15k budget & used about $12k of it on this project. I'm told the client is a little shocked at the reality of how much the work cost, but at least we came in under budget.</p> <p>Last week I sat in on a client web demonstration for our VEMS product & then was given an opportunity to write three proposals for VEMS implementations. It looks very likely that we'll get the work, as a cement manufacturer has decided that VEMS will be implemented corporate wide. So I may be making travel plans for a software implementation.</p> <p>I was also pulled into another proposal last week for an educational institution. They put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for their Title V Air Permit work & also wanted barcodes and barcoding software worked into the bid. One of our T3 consultants on the east coast was asked to help by the local office & he checked with the T3 group to see who had experience with barcodes. I had some familiarity from another project at a previous empoyer, so I did some research for him to include in the proposal.</p> <p>Wednesday & Thursday of this week I'll be taking the final training course for one of our EMIS partners, which will then make me a certified implementer of their product. I know a couple of T3 consultants have work I can help with, but again, they're waiting for the client to get back to them, so I'm in a holding pattern for the moment.</p> </article> <article> <h1>EMIS Task Creation</h1> <p>nonTraditional56 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:13:00 GMT</p> <p>This is my first post in quite a while. Since my last post I didn't have much to write about, then I was too busy with projects to write. I had an unusually slow period & my Regional Director introduced me to the term 'benched' in the consulting world. It's a word that means you don't have any billable work to do at the time. This may apply to the T3 division more than the Environmental Consultant (EC) division, since we are always working on a ton of proposals & waiting for the client's to give us the OK. The EC division seems to have more long-term contracts for recurring work.</p> <p>The "benched" time was short, thankfully, & I was handed a project for a large aviation manufacturer. My task was to dig through their Waste Water Discharge Permit, Spill Prevention Control & Countermeasures (SPCC) Plan, & their Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWP3), & pull tasks out of them for entry into one of our Environmental Management Information Systems (EMIS). The work consisted of reading through the permits & pulling out specific recurring permit tasks such as monitoring, reporting, inspection & training. I entered these into a spreadsheet template which will eventually be uploaded into the EMIS of the client's choice. When I completed a permit I notified a senior consultant that a QA was needed. Now I need to merge her changes into my master spreadsheet.</p> <p>That's it for now, I have to get back to the permit/EMIS work.</p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>A Jumpstart to Life!</h1> <p>Sid — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:55:00 GMT</p> <p>After three months of senseless pondering over "What my first blog should be about", common sense has prevailed. So here I am, putting down facts in plain simple english!</p><p>My name is Sid, or as my Trinity business card puts it - Siddharth (Sid) Rajmohan. I happen to be a Mechanical Engineer (Undergrad from India, Masters from Cincinnati), and have been with Trinity for close to 5 months now. In all honesty, my journey so far with Trinity has been nothing short of a jump-start to life, and I'm loving it! Just out of grad school, I was like freshly prepared dough (its a metaphor, stop picturing it!) - ready to be molded in whichever form available, and Im glad Trinity happened to be my first molding vessel (Yes, still continuing with the bad analogy.. but its true!) The work culture at Trinity is truly remarkable. Everyone around me (and now me too..) seems to have a certain sense of pride in their work, and a sense of responsibility towards the 'deliverable' that goes out to the client. And a lot of this 'faith in what you're putting out there' comes from the faith that the management has in you. As my office manager here in New Orleans puts it - "We have hired only the best, and we expect nothing less from any one of you". So doing a 'good job' at Trinity isn't a special one time event, its what you do every single day. Sounds like a daunting task in the beginning, almost like a roller-coaster you wanna ride or a peak you wanna scale but are scared of. But trust me, the satisfaction you get out of it all, is worth the plunge. I think every new college graduate who has recently joined Trinity will agree with me when I say this - "its truly a jumpstart to life"!<br /></p><p> <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>Flexibility at Work!</h1> <p>envirograd — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:14:00 GMT</p> <p>It is Monday morning and I'm working out of a friend's apartment in Houston! It so happened that my husband and I had planned to drive to Houston to visit our friend over the weekend. On Thursday, my husband found out that he was going to be interviewing with a company in Houston on Monday which meant that he would have to stay back on Monday while I would have to get back to Corpus so that I can be in the office Monday morning. Now with the sky high gas and flight ticket prices, I did not wish to spend on driving to Corpus in a rental car or taking a flight out of Houston to get to the office on Monday. So I spoke with Mike (my supervisor) about it and he said that it was OK for me to work remotely from Houston on Monday!<br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>Performance Review!</h1> <p>Sundar — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:08:00 GMT</p> <p>Hello Folks,</p> <p>Oh yeah, I am still alive. Have been wanting to write for so long now, but haven't been able to get to it somehow. There were a couple of things I wanted to share after my introductory blog... who cares, something's fresh on my mind today, so might as well get it down on the post </p> <p>I completed 5 months with Trinity last week and this happens to be that time of the year when you are handed out what I call a "Karmic Balance Sheet" - good karma, bad karma, no karma - everything you did in past months neatly summarized and ranked in what Trinity calls a performance review. This is done once every six months for 56 graders like me. Your immediate supervisor is the one who fills out this very detailed and structured questionnaire reflecting on your performance on various aspects of your job as a consultant. Now, you all must be very curious by now as to how I fared on this one - come on, there's no way I am gonna reveal that on a blog like this - ha, too confidential. Suffice to say, I am safe </p> <p>The reason why I am writing about this is that I believe this is a very fruitful exercise that Trinity engages in. To begin with, you fill out a self review setting goals for yourself (didn't have any previous goals as this was my first one). So you have some conrol over what you wish to do in the following months ('some' control). There's also peer reviews. But the most important piece is your supervisor's review on you. Not only do you get a document that clearly spells out your performance and your future goals, but also this whole process facilitates a dialogue between you and your supervisor to discuss various aspects of your work, the expectations and your performance just to name a few. So you get a pretty good picture of what is expected out of you, how have you performed against those, and what are your goals for future. Well, this is not to say that this is the only way to get feedback - informal feedbacks are possible anytime - this process just gives some structure to the whole task.</p> <p>Summer's here, July 4th long weekend is so near (wow, have been waiting for this one for sometime now) and time's flying by so fast... So wishing all you guys out there a fun-filled, enjoyable, and relaxing long weekend... hit the beach or your pool or the campground or whatever it is that you like to do...have a blast! Bye..</p> <p>Sundar</p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>An International Business Trip</h1> <p>dsquared — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:09:00 GMT</p> <p>After ten years with Trinity, I had my first international business trip. And of course, it was somewhat last minute! I bought my tickets to Germany on a Monday afternoon and flew out on Friday! For someone who hasn't traveled abroad in nine years, I had a lot to figure out in just a few days!</p> <p>Because of the last minute nature, I wasn't able to extend the trip much beyond the business needs. That was a bit of a bummer, but I still managed to take in some of the local culture during my trip. That's what is neat about business travel. It is tiring and exhausting, but it still affords an opportunity to get a flavor of different areas, customs, etc.</p> <p>One particular challenge in doing business internationally was attempting to have some insight as to customs and norms in the country you are visiting. I did not want to inadvertantly offend anyone. For example, in Germany, use of first names after an initial meeting is not necessarily the norm. Also, they shake hands a lot! Not just when you meet for the first time, but at the beginning of your meeting and at the end (not that unusual for us), but what I noted was that they shake hands with their working colleagues when they first see them in the morning and then often when they leave. That struck me as unusual. I might say "good morning" to my officemates, but I seldom shake their hands!</p> <p>I was fortunate that the individuals I was meeting with spoke English. While I used to know German, it has been a long time since I've used it. I was able to pick things up here and there. I am thankful I did not have to conduct any meetings in German, but they certainly seemed to appreciate my efforts to understand when they did speak in German and to ask questions to learn some more vocabulary. I was certainly impressed by the number of individuals I met that had some knowledge of English - that was a big help to me.</p> <p>I am looking forward to a possible opportunity to go back - I'll have to keep my fingers crossed. One of my big take-aways - some things are universal. Environmental personnel in Germany are frequently asked to do the next to impossible by operations personnel (i.e., get a permit ASAP) with very little information, just like their American counterparts. And from one office to another, regardless of continent, computers like to present technical challenges for their users!! Regardless of the users' nationality!</p> </article> <article> <h1>Get Motivated Seminar</h1> <p>razorhack — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:47:00 GMT</p> <p>Yesterday, my entire office (at least those of us who were not out of town) went to an all-day seminar called "Get Motivated." It was well done and included some big-time speakers such as the founder of Monster.com, Jeff Taylor, and the former major of NYC and former republican presidential primary candidate, Rudolph Giuliani. There was a little too much sales pitching going on for my taste, but I guess they have to pay for the seminar somehow (the tickets were cheap). One thing that surprised me was the amount of faith/spirituality (specifically Christian) that was presented. One of many commonalities among the many extremely successful speakers was a Christian life and a trust in biblical principles regarding finances. This probably did not sit well with all of the several thousand people in (though perhaps they reconsidered upon hearing the presentations). I enjoyed it; it was a perspective you don't often hear anywhere outside of church, i.e., from our very secular print, TV, and radio media. Anyway, to get back to the point, in hindsight, I'm not sure the seminar was worth it to Trinity (30+ hours total of unbilled time), but it is nice to know that we are willing to take a chance on something like this.</p> </article> <article> <h1>On the other side of the expert witness issue</h1> <p>razorhack — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:37:00 GMT</p> <p>An earlier post discussed my recent, grueling experience as an expert witness. Getting asked yes/no questions that you can't answer with a simple yes or no - like "have you stopped beating your spouse?" - is no fun. But now I get to be on the other side. I am working with an attorney to think of tough questions for an opposing expert witness. So basically I'm breaking down his analyses and pointing out anything that could/should be conducted differently, or anything that is questionable whatsoever. This is fun!</p> </article> <article> <h1>My 1st Method 9!</h1> <p>nonTraditional56 — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:16:00 GMT</p> <p>I mentioned in my last entry that I was looking forward to an upcoming opportunity to conduct my first <span style="FONT-SIZE:11pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Times New Roman';mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;">EPA certified Method 9 visible emission (VE) performance test. Well, I completed the test on May 06. I started preparing the day before by reviewing the previous years test, then left the office around 4:30 to pick up a rental car. I headed out first thing in the morning for Sedalia, MO, about 1.5 hours southeast from KC. This is old territory for me, as Sedalia is about 30 miles northeast of Warrensburg, MO, my alma mater of Central Missouri State University. But it's been a good 10 years since I had reason to be in the area. I arrived at the client site, met the client contact & was taken through the plant to the roof access where the client & I discussed which stacks were running. He left me to do my work, which only took about 1.5 hours. There wer 26 emission points, but 8 of them were not running that day. Only one had visible emissions, the rest were clear. The result was everything passed. (This plant produces wheels for car manufacturers & they use propane to burn off the emissions from their spray booths)</span></p> <p><span style="FONT-SIZE:11pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Times New Roman';mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;">On the way back to the office I stopped in Warrensburg for lunch. I'd liked to have stopped at the university to see some of the old professors, but didn't want to waste time. What I really wanted was to see if Perry Foster's Georgia Style BBQ was still in business. This was my lucky day - he was still in business & the food was as good as I'd hoped - awesome BBQ pork sandwich & BBQ beans. The place looks like a dive, but Perry is very friendly, the food is excellent, & due to the proximity to Whiteman Air Force Base his walls are decorated with pictures of fighter squadrans who appreciate his cooking. The walls are covered in pictures of pilots & a few Generals who have written him letters of thanks, and one wall is dedicated to Hank Williams, Jr. - Hoo Ahh!</span></p> <p><span style="FONT-SIZE:11pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Times New Roman';mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;">Satisfied that the world is still a good place with Perry's smoke still churning, I headed back to the office & started preparing my documents for the client's binder. Once everything was updated I handed it off to our Administrative Assitant to put the binders together. Today I took the binders to a Senior Consultant to review & quality check my work before we mail them to the client. He had me create a QC document for his review in our Project Management Database for our ISO9000 certification. The project was quick, billable, & a nice break from the office. I'll do more of these anytime!</span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Pocket Solutions Client-Site Implementation</h1> <p>nonTraditional56 — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:12:00 GMT</p> <p>On Wednesday, 4/30/08, I traveled 1.5 hours southwest of KC to one of our client's cement plants to upgrade their pocket solutions software from version 3 to 5.54. This was my first time being on-site for a client and my first time at a cement plant. I was expecting it to be a dirty/dusty environment, but the corporate offices were very elegant & clean & even the plant operating offices were very clean. The people were very friendly & easy to work with (I grew up in a relatively small rural town in Missouri, so I think I relate to small-town people pretty well) - it helps that they have been using our Pocket Solutions product since 2002 & they love it. </p> <p>We loaded the desktop software on a supervisor's PC soon after arriving, then had to work out a database issue. We didn't receive the authorization to upgrade their database until the day before we were due on site, because their IT department was taking over control of these types of processes (from the plant supervisor) & didn't realize that this was another piece that required approval since it was billable work. We worked on fixing the database issues while we trained two supervisors on the new version features, then loaded the new database on the PDAs. We loaded the desktop software on the second supervisor's PC then headed back to KC.</p> <p>Overall, it was a great field experience. Each installation/implementation is a little different, so it's a great learning opportunity when you get to do it on-site & work out the bugs in real-time. I'm the type of person who learns by driving the PC/doing rather than watching/listening, so this hands-on experience was very worthwhile.</p> <p>I think my next field opportunity is coming up next week in Sedalia, MO. A client needs some Visible Emissions monitoring conducted & I'm going to handle this for another consultant who will be out of the office. This will be my first opportunity to use the "smoke school" certification I received last month. Looking forward to it!</p> </article> <article> <h1>A Day of Sales at Memphis National Golf Club</h1> <p>razorhack — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:30:00 GMT</p> <p>I love my job, but sometimes are better than others. Today is one of those times. Right now I am riding to Memphis (actually Collierville), TN with my office manager and another consultant to play golf in a charity golf tournament put on by the Valero refinery in Memphis. That refinery, which has been owned by four different companies since the Trinity-Little Rock office opened (Jan. '96), has been a great, long-term client so the expense (tourney fee and lost time/revenue) of this sales effort is worth it. Unless our fourth (we don't know who it is yet) is a pro, I don't think we have any chance of winning, but I'll let you know.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Fast Mondays</h1> <p>nonTraditional56 — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:28:00 GMT</p> <p>Mondays do seem to go by very fast. First thing I do when I come in is review my time sheet from last week for accuracy & submit it through our internet portal. Next thing I know it's time for our weekly T3 conference call which lasts about an hour. Our division members from KC, Chicago, Ohio, Houston, Dallas & Ontario Canada discuss the proposals & projects we're working on, see where we can assist one another, etc.</p> <p> At noon we have our weekly KC Office meeting which also lasts about an hour. We all gather in our conference room with our lunch and have a round table about projects we're working on, who needs help with projects, upcoming training courses, regulatory reporting deadlines, & sometimes a colleague gives a brown bag. Today's brown bag was given by our Business Development Manager & was the second in a series on SEM (Sustainability and Environmental Management).</p> <p>I've spent some time today going through old email & coordinating my calendar. Next week I'll be taking a road trip with two other Consultants to a client site to install an upgrade of our VEMS (Visible Emissions Monitoring Software) PDA software. The next week I have the ESS Essential Suite EMIS certified implementer training in our office. Mid May I'm going to Dallas to work with another T3 Consultant & get some training on another brand of EMIS called opsEnvironmental. I'm hoping to get approval for another training while I'm there - my Regional Director has recognized my background in corporate security & thinks there may be an opportunity for Trinity to offer security consulting services to our clients relating to <font face="Arial" size="2">CFATS</font><font face="Arial" color="#0000ff" size="2"> (Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards</font><font face="Arial" size="2">) Security Vulnerability Assessment & Chemical-Terrorism Vulnerability Information Programs. We're always looking for ways to capitalize on our experience & offer more services to our clients. It feels great to be empowered to look for ways to generate new business & be an active participant in the business, rather than being a prairie dog in a cubicle farm - been there, done that - Boring!</font></p> </article> <article> <h1>Okay, Who am I?</h1> <p>Sundar — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:09:00 GMT</p> <p>Hello folks,</p> <p>This being my first post in this blog, let me introduce myself quickly. I joined Trinity (NJ office) in the last week of January, and so its gonna be almost 3 months now (wow, time flies -- well, more on that later). I graduated last December with a Masters in Engineering Management from Missouri Univ of Science & Technology and did my undergrad in Chemical Engg.</p> <p>I was born in India and grew up in the amazing city of Mumbai, which not only is the world's most populous city with a population of 13.3 million - but also is a melting pot of varied cultures, languages, and traditions. It is the financial capital of India and is full of pace, vibrancy, color, and character.</p> <p>Its been about 2 years that I came to the U.S and I must say, its been a fun ride so far. New Jersey has been a very different experience especially after Missouri </p> <p>As promised, will keep this post short, and till the time I write my second - wish you all a nice time! Take Care</p> <p>Sundar</p> </article> <article> <h1>Consultants have tools too</h1> <p>razorhack — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:18:00 GMT</p> <p>For the most part, we at Trinity are very much white-collar workers (we don't get dirty on the job) because we generally don't do stack testing or "field" work. Getting out of the office usually means going to a meeting, conference, or training course. We do occasionally get to tour plant sites, especially those for which we are preparing air dispersion modeling analyses (it's good to know what a site actually looks like when you are trying to build it in a model). It is these times when we get to break out the few tools (excluding software) we have. I'm sure the stack testers who tote equipment to the top of smoke stacks would scoff at me, but try carrying and using a camera, GPS, and two stop watches while also trying to make notes on a D-size plot plan drawing and multiple aerial photographs in 20 mph wind 150 feet off the ground. This is what I recently attempted (except for the stop watches - you only need those when doing visible emissions observations, which are typically conducted from ground level). I even got dirty! Of course, it was just from using the handrail while walking back down the *who knows how many* flights of stairs because the man lift broke while we were on top of the super structure.</p> </article> <article> <h1>To Bill or Not to Bill</h1> <p>nonTraditional56 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:54:00 GMT</p> <p>One thing I forgot to mention in my entry yesterday was that my time at the client site scanning docs for the EPA request was billable. That's one of the reasons I so readily volunteered to work on the project - & spent 1 1/2 weeks there (it wasn't just the food ). Since my other work was non-billable, I'd much rather be working a project that is billable so that we can make some money.</p> <p>On another note - when I first started two things impressed me. The first was the longevity of the people in the office & the second was that most had started here right out of college & were still here 3-4 years later. I knew there was something good about this organization that kept people here long-term. Our Principal Consultant started here out of college & has been here 14 years! The people I work with are friendly, personable & professional. They're willing to share & teach, as well as let you learn by doing. Trinity definitely feels like home to me.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Work Examples</h1> <p>nonTraditional56 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:20:00 GMT</p> <p>It's pouring rain here in KC & I'm in a blogging mood, so thought I'd tell you about my first couple of months work experience.</p> <p>In the T3 division we specialize in custom Access databases to manage our client's mountains of emissions data, as well as the installation/customization/support of Environmental Management Information Systems (EMIS). My first week here I was able to assist on an Access database for a telecommunications company, helping them identify & sort all of their stationary & portable generators for permitting. The project is actually out of the St. Louis office, but we crunched the numbers & assisted them - that's one of the really cool things about Trinity, you get to work with people all over the country & on multiple & various projects. I'm the kind of person who can get bored very quickly in the corporate world, but there's enough variety here to keep you engaged.</p> <p>As a fellow blogger pointed out, there is a lot of reading. I've been digging into the EMIS systems & teaching myself how they work, reading their documentation, etc. I'm not big on the self-teaching method, but you've got to start digesting the mountains of information somewhere & this is where to start. Luckily, my manager had been working on setting up a training course before I was hired & it was just approved. All the T3 folks will be coming to the KC office 5/1-5/2 for a training course that will make us certified implementers of one of our partner's software - Very cool & exciting!</p> <p>Last week all I had going was the EMIS education work, and an EPA request for one of our customers sites in Portland needed immediate attention. Since I was available I went to the customer's HQ here in KC & spent 1 1/2 weeks scanning docs for the EPA request. It was a little tedious being clerical work, but the legal dept. was footing the bill for the cafeteria & they fed me really well. And they didn't just have a break room - they had a full soda fountain & featured a local KC coffee called The Roasterie which shames the Folgers coffee also produced here. Also of note was that the Corporate EHS Director came up to me & thought I looked familiar. After talking we remembered where we'd met - I'd given him a black eye at a Krav Maga class (unintentional of course - he bruises easy), & we talked training occasionally to break up the monotony of the clerical work. Funny how small the world is sometimes.</p> <p>Also last week I attended Smoke School and am now Method 9 certified for visible emissions. Just another example of the varied & cool things you get exposed to here. Can't wait to use this for a client! The rain is stopping & so am I.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Why Non-Traditional?</h1> <p>nonTraditional56 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:26:00 GMT</p> <p>I was having trouble coming up with a blog name when I thought about a comment our company President, Jay Hoffman, made when he was here a couple of weeks ago presenting. He joked that Trinity doesn't often hire people with gray in their hair. It got me thinking that by the time I decided what I wanted to major in I was a non-traditional student & since the majority of Trinity new hires are directly out of engineering schools, I'm definitely a non-traditional 56 at age 40. But with 17 years of work experience I think I'm well seasoned and hey, I consider the gray hair a mark of distinguishment (let's not talk about the gray in the beard OK! - I blame that on my 3 boys )</p> <p>So how did I come to be here? I was looking for a change & saw Trinity's posting on Career Builder. When I read the job description I thought it was a perfect fit, but I was used to resumes submitted to Career Builder going into black holes, so I was very surprised when they called me 2 weeks later for an interview. I was expecting a standard interview - it was anything but standard. I interviewed with 4 people, starting with the Principal Consultant, 2 Senior Consultants, & the Managing Consultant I would work for. The interview went great & I left in a state of disbelief that a job existed which perfectly fit my 2 degrees. I guess they thought so too, as I had an offer 2 weeks later. BTW - I work in the T3 division.</p> <p>Having worked for companies as large as Sprint and as small as an 18 person video production company, I had a pretty good idea that the corporate culture here was going to be great. I haven't been disappointed. My last position was frustrating because although the company had a training budget they wouldn't invest in their people. Trinity is all about training you to deliver the best service possible to our clients, from joining professional associations, to training classes, to on-the-job training - they want you to become in expert in as many areas as possible.</p> <p>The personal stuff: The picture is from Legoland in San Diego last summer. We went there to celebrate my wife's aunt's 50th Jubilee (she's been a nun that long!) & worked in a great vacation. Andrei is sitting next to me & just turned 9. Although the picture is worth a million he loved the ride. Ethan is next to my wife & is 12. He's not much of a thrill seeker - I guess you can tell I am by the stupid grin. Daniel is not pictured as he has a little fear of heights & chose not to ride - he's 10. My wife & I have been married for 15 awesome years. When we're not running Ethan to Tae Kwon Do or soccer, Daniel to gymnastics, or Andrei to wrestling or soccer, we love to work out. We've been training in Krav Maga for 5 years & are long distance runners from way back.</p> <p>Well, that should be enough for a first post. Be glad to answer any questions you have, so shoot them to me. Check out my blog profile for more dirt .</p> </article> <article> <h1>Let me Introduce Myself</h1> <p>abhi-shake — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:58:00 GMT</p> <span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"><span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';">Well, I'll use a slightly non - conventional approach. I am a person who is really interested in protecting the environment, having a great time with friends and family, love playing different types of sports. Coincidentally, I did my undergraduate at one of the good engineering colleges (Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi University) of one of the fastest growing economies of the world (also the world's largest democracy). Then I came over to the country with the world's largest economy for my graduate studies (Georgia Tech). It may be surprising but both my undergraduate and graduate major was Environmental Engineering, hmmmm... strange isn't it? Does someone notice a pattern here?</span><span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';">I am currently working as an Environmental Consultant at one of the top air quality firms (Trinity Consultants) in the US (sorry I couldn’t use the same reference again and again, gets kind of lame). The company is a small yet dynamic organization with a really nice culture and friendly people (who again coincidentally are very smart, knowledgeable people).</span><span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';">Ohh if I forgot to mention my name, it's Abhishek (a-bheee-shake) Srivastava (well I don’t want to try this one, I think most people find this far too difficult).</span> </span><span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"> <p style="TEXT-JUSTIFY:inter-ideograph;TEXT-ALIGN:justify;"><span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';">Hope I haven’t bored anyone with my first post, I can be pretty eccentric with writing so please excuse me, if I go overboard once in a while!</span></span></p> </article> <article> <h1>I'm now a Certified Manager!</h1> <p>razorhack — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:21:00 GMT</p> <p><span style="FONT-SIZE:12pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Times New Roman';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;">I just passed the last exam of the Institute of Certified Professional Manager’s (ICPM’s) twelve-month Certified Manager (CM) course.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>The CM course is something Trinity sponsors – a couple sessions per year with just a handful of the more senior employees per session.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>This is one of the myriad of professional designations you can pursue.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>Common in our field are Professional Engineer (PE), Qualified Environmental Professional (QEP), Certified Environmental Manager (CEM), Certified Environmental Professional (CEP), and Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM); there may be others that I have forgotten.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>At this point I’m doubtful that CM carries the same weight as these others, which are more specific to our industry, but at least it shows dedication to managing business activities the right way.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>Whether the CM designation – technically I’m now Jeremy Jewell, CM – makes any difference or not doesn’t matter as much as the training has helped me understand some of our more intricate business activities like dealing with employee complaints (hey – no company is perfect) and analyzing our financial statements. </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>No more Avenue!</h1> <p>razorhack — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:15:00 GMT</p> <p>Just a note to any who may become an employee at Trinity - consider yourself fortunate to have never known Avenue.</p> <p>We just implemented a new software that keeps track of our client/project information, time/billings/invoices, expenses, etc., and while the transition is likely to have some hitches, I can already tell that the new systems is going to be so much better than the old system.</p> <p>I know this is probably a pretty boring post for you guys, but believe me it is exciting for the current folks.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Fighting global warming and dependence on fossil fuels</h1> <p>razorhack — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:43:00 GMT</p> <p>We are working on several innovative and exciting projects. One is turning vegetable oil (mostly from soybeans) into biodiesel (this technology has actually been around for some time, but there are still not too many facilities doing it). Another is using wood scraps and waste water treatment plant sludge to make bio/synthetic gas (mostly methane) and then burning that gas to make electric power. A third project I am working on right now is proposing to extract/squeeze "natural" gas out of coal, and process it to the extent that it can be sold as standard natural gas. Lastly, we are about to submit an application for a coal-fired power plant (pretty standard design) that will be equipped with a carbon dioxide (CO2) recovery plant. If built, it will mostly likely be the first of its kind on a large scale. Most of the readers of this blog are probably unaware that CO2, the primary "pollutant" of concern in regards to the alleged global warming, is not yet a regulated air pollutant under EPA rules. The laws/regulations are being discussed on capital hill and are probably not far away. But that is why such a plant is a big deal. It's not very often that our clients are so far ahead of the rules.</p> </article> <article> <h1>It Certainly Was An Interesting Fall!</h1> <p>aerogirl — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:13:00 GMT</p> <p>I just looked at the website and could not believe that I had not posted anything since October! I guess that just goes to show how busy I was this fall. In November, I took over a project from another consultant that had left consulting,so I worked an amazing number of hours in November and December. Normally, these are two of our slower months, but not this year! The project I inherited involves looking at air permit needs for a company in all 50 states and 3 U.S. territories. I am working with 15 other Trinity offices, which has been really great. I really like interacting with so many different people within the company. Although the project has been a great opportunity to learn about regulations in other states and work with different people, I must say that I am also completely exhausted. The mental challenges of the organizational and project management skills necessary for a project like this leaves me pretty drained by the end of the week. Luckily, I was able to take a really nice 1-1/2 week break during the Christmas holiday. I am not sure I would have made it without that!</p><p> The other challenge for me this fall was that in the midst of all of this client work, I had to complete three performance reviews and set goals for 2008 for one of our new consultants. I have to admit, however, that although it was challenging to find the time to write the reviews and decide on what the goals should be, I truly love this part of my job. To me it is so rewarding seeing new consultants grow not only great technical skills, but great client and sales skills. Seeing them rise to the challenges put in front of them is very energizing!<br /> </p> </article> </main></body></html>