envirograd

Flexibility at Work!

envirograd — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:14:00 GMT

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!

Re-cap 2007

envirograd — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:57:00 GMT

Here is the promised 'end of the year' post that I had started writing long back but did not get a chance to complete until now. Read on...

Last year was a great learning experience. I worked on lots of interesting projects such as NSR permit applications and Permit By Rule applications for agricultural, chemical, and petroleum refinery facilities, compliance tools for chemical plants, and dispersion modeling for various facilities. The one project that I learned most on was an on-site compliance assistance task. I was responsible for day to day multimedia compliance at this site and it involved interacting with plant personnel and state environmental commission folks. All in all, it was an interesting year!

It was not all smooth sailing; there were times when we were scrambling to meet project delivery deadlines, when errors were detected in the deliverables right before they were to be submitted to the client and we had to re-do them and still meet the delivery deadline! There were a lot of set-backs, lot of challenges, some failures and a lot of learning!

Also, I got my performance review for last year! At Trinity, performance review is done twice a year; in June/July and then again in Nov/Dec. A salary review is also performed during the Nov/Dec performance review each year. A typical performance review includes self-review, peer-review, supervisor-review, and HR-review. My experience regarding performance review at Trinity has been very positive. I have always come out of Mike's office after a performance review feeling confident, motivated and charged up to face future challenges!

Life at Trinity is not 'all work and no play'! During the course of the year, our Corpus team enjoyed several dining and sporting events. Checkout our pictures below!

Summer Outing 2007 - Hook's Game, Whataburger Field, Corpus Christi

L-R: Erin, Mita, Melissa, Tim (Melissa's husband), and Mike

Christmas Party 2007 - Dinner at Republic of Texas Bar & Grill, Corpus Christi

L-R: Erin, Mike, Heather (Mike's wife), and Mita.

That's it for now! Will write again very soon!

Regards,

Mita.

Hi Again!

envirograd — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:39:00 GMT

Hi guys!

I can’t believe it is mid December already! Time just flew by while I was working non-stop on one project after another for the past couple of months. Surprisingly, this year our office was very busy during the last quarter of the year. Same time last year, we were working on several projects but not as many as we have this time. This may be because we took on more projects this year since we are a team of 4 (1 managing consultant, 1 senior consultant, and 2 consultants) now as compared with a team of 3 (1 managing consultant, 1 senior consultant, and 1 consultant) last year. I guess part of the reason for loads of work towards the end of the year is that most clients want to wrap up pending projects before the Christmas holidays begin. Also, some clients have a goal to complete certain projects before the end of the year; therefore, the huge push from their side to finish the projects before the year ends. The projects that I worked on this past couple of months include NSR permit applications, PBR registrations, dispersion modeling, and on-site compliance tasks. All in all it was a busy time for all of us at the Corpus Office and needless to say, there was a lot of learning, putting in extra hours, and scrambling to meet project delivery deadlines!

A ‘Re-cap 2007’ blog summarizing my work, progress, ups and downs over the past year at Trinity coming soon!

Stay tuned!

My 53 hours week!

envirograd — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:48:00 GMT

Last few weeks have been very busy for our office; I guess that is quite apparent from the lack of new entries on my blog! To remedy that I am going to tell you about my ’53 hours week’! My regular work routine involves working around 44-45 hours per week. However, once in a while, I may have to put in more than regular number of hours.

Last week was completely ‘crazy’! I was juggling between several projects, minor and major, that needed to be completed ‘ASAP’! Projects included permit amendment application, air dispersion modeling, and various other compliance tasks. As part of a project, I visited a client’s site to collect process related information. To me that’s the best part of my job; meeting with clients, finding out what they do and how they do, gives me a better understanding of the work that I do for them. It makes me appreciate what I do! All in all it was a challenging as well as a rewarding week!

Bye for now! :-)

My perspective...

envirograd — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:44:00 GMT

Hi Guys,

Now that you all know me a little, I would like to take you into my life at work and give you MY perspective on life, work and career at Trinity! The purpose of this site as I understand is to give you guys an insight into the work, culture, 'pluses' and 'minuses' of working at Trinity as I see it; hopefully, this will help you make an educated decision on joining or not joining our team. I can write about how and why I joined Trinity, what I like and dislike about working here; however, I think I will rather let you see that for yourself through my experiences at Trinity! Next blog onwards, I will focus on my experiences at Trinity and why I like to be part of the Trinity team!

Stay tuned!

Hello!!!

envirograd — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:54:00 GMT

Let me start with a little bit about myself...

Who I am…

My name is Mita Upadhyay and I work in Trinity’s Corpus Christi office. I am from Mithapur, Gujarat, a state in western India. After completing my undergraduation in Civil Engineering, I worked for Tata Chemicals Ltd. (http://www.tatachemicals.com) as a trainee civil engineer for a brief period of time. In 2004, I came to US to get a graduate degree in Environmental Engineering. Since my graduation from the University of Texas at Arlington last summer, I have been working at Trinity's Corpus Christi office as a consultant.

What I do….

At work – As a consultant, my job responsibilities include delivering quality technical services to clients under the supervision of a managing consultant (my boss!). Typical tasks involve, keeping myself updated with state and federal regulations, conducting modeling, helping prepare various permits, helping clients with compliance issues, performing emission calculations and endless other tasks required in assisting clients in the area of permitting and regulatory compliance.

When not at work – I spend my spare time reading, walking on the beach, swimming…My husband and I love to take vacations whenever we can to visit new places!