aerogirl

It Certainly Was An Interesting Fall!

aerogirl — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:13:00 GMT

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!

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!

Consulting Or Industry?

aerogirl — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:57:00 GMT

I have been asked by many, many people whether I like to do environmental work for consulting or industry better. Although this seems like it would be an either/or answer, that is not actually true for me. The honest answer to that question is...they are very different and somewhat hard to compare. That may seem strange, considering I have spent a good portion of my career now in the environmental field, concentrating on air quality. How can they be so different, you ask? Well, that is what I will try to explain here...

What I liked about industry:

- I really enjoyed being out in the plant working with all of the workers in the factory (operators, maintenance personnel, etc.). Working as a team, we could bring so much knowledge to trouble-shooting problems. My knowledge came in the form of theory that an education in chemical engineering gave me and theirs came from having worked in the factory for 20 years or more. The combination of those two things can bring about great solutions to many different problems, including how to comply with environmental regulations or fix a piece of control equipment that isn't working. You have never really gotten to know someone until you have been out there in the factory with them at 3:00 am going through the piping of a control system for the hundreth time to try to figure out what is wrong!

- There is a fairly constant knowledge of the work that will need to be done and how steady/busy that work will be. Obviously, there will always be fires to fight at any facility, but overall there is more of a sense that you know what you are going to be doing the next day.

What I disliked about industry:

- The bureaucracy working for a big company is truly incredible. Sometimes, it seemed like a true miracle if anything actually got done.

- It can be difficult to disagree with upper management when they are the one deciding whether you should get a merit raise or not.

What I like about consulting (especially at Trinity):

- Generally speaking clients are very happy to see you coming. I actually got a hug from one once because she was so glad I was there to help her!

- I learn something new about environmental every day: a new industry, a new process, new regulations, etc.

- I learn something new about running a business every day: invoicing, sales, budgets, personnel, etc.

- I get to be a manager and a technical person at the same time!

- The people that work here are so motivated and talented. There is an energy here that I did not find in industry.

What I dislike about consulting:

- Not much actually! But truly, there are a couple of things that make consulting more stressful. Not always knowing where the next project is coming from or whether you will have enough work for the staff in your office is stressful. That being said, we have not had any problems keeping busy since I have been here! I guess what is really difficult is not always knowing what you will be working on a couple of weeks from now. Always thinking about Sales as well as projects that you are currently working on is challenging.

- Timecards and being billable. In industry environmental is an overhead function, whereas, here it is our business. Making sure that you are striving to meet your utilization target and accounting for every 15 minutes of your day is a bit hard to get used to doing.

Hopefully that provides some food for thought for anyone who is contemplating a change in career or whether to take a job in an industrial or consulting setting. For those thinking about changing careers, I would say that the biggest key is to be flexible because it is VERY different being a consultant than it was in industry. It was a really great change for me!

Mondays and Other Exciting Events

aerogirl — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:20:00 GMT

Mondays

Monday mornings are always interesting here at the office. It seems that there is a lot of miscellaneous stuff to do (e.g., timecards, scheduling meetings), but it also seems like clients are ready to hit the ground running for the week. Makes for stressful moments sometimes! However, this morning has been pretty quiet (for a Monday), so I thought I would spend some time writing about the training event I went to last week...

Training and Networking

In general, the training we get here at Trinity is based on the classes being taught and the immediate or perceived future need. In other words we send consultants to our own classes (see the Training section of our web site for more info) often based on projects that they are doing at the time. This year, the director of the North Region, which includes St. Louis, Columbus, Kansas City, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Iowa decided to conduct a region-wide training event. We all met in Chicago last Friday and Saturday (yes, we do occasionally give up a Saturday!) to see presentations given by senior staff as well as participate in several mixers/networking opportunities. It was great to finally meet face-to-face with people that you may have been working with for months or even years and never actually met. In addition, the training topics were great - from core topics related to our business (e.g., Startup, Shutdown, Malfunction Plans and Refineries) to emerging topics (e.g., Endangered Species Act Consultation - this one was particularly fabulous since it was presented by me!). Even though we all came back pretty exhausted, I think that it was worth the time and effort to be able to meet people from other offices and learn so much in the span of just a couple of days.

Hi there!

aerogirl — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:27:00 GMT

My name is Kristine Davies and I am a Senior Consultant in Trinity's St. Louis office. I have been with Trinity for almost 2-1/2 years. I will give you a little background on my education and career to this point, so that you know a little bit about where I come from...

I have a very different background that many consultants here, as I am not a life-long consultant. I attended the University of Tulsa for my first three years of college, then graduated with my chemical engineering degree from the University of Minnesota. I worked for a year at a hazardous waste transport, storage and disposal facility in Minnesota before moving on to work for The Boeing Company in Wichita, KS as a Research and Development/Manufacturing Engineer. After 6 years in the production world at Boeing, I took a job in Environmental Engineering where my focus was Air Quality and new chemical introduction (among other things). I worked in Environmental at Boeing for 5 years before I moved on to Trinity. During my tenure at Boeing, I also completed my master's degree in environmental science with an emphasis in biology at Wichita State University. (Ask me about wading through the creeks of Wichita to find bugs for my internship with the City of Wichita!).

Since joining Trinity I have worked on a wide variety of projects, including PSD permitting, state construction permitting, atmospheric dispersion modeling, MACT compliance, operating permits, endangered species analysis, and multi-media compliance audits. The industries that I work with are also wide-ranging. Aerospace is obviously my specialty (as evidenced by my background and username), but I have also worked with tire manufacturing, printing, coatings and chemical manufacturing, cement, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and food manufacturing. Throughout the year I also teach courses, deliver luncheon seminars, and attend conferences. In addition to the consulting and sales activities, I supervise two junior consultants as well as the business development/admin person in our office.

On the personal side, I grew up in Omaha, NE. I have been married for 17 years and have two children: a 16-year old boy and an 11-year old girl. Add to that two dogs and a guinea pig and we have quite a lively household! In my spare time (of which there is little), I enjoy volunteering and spending time at church, sports of any kind, reading, and traveling (which mostly involves visiting friends and relatives).