By Zac Culbert, PE
I didn’t set out to be a civil engineer. When I started college, I was looking at computer engineering, then electrical, and honestly, I changed my major three times in one semester before landing on civil. What finally clicked was pretty simple—I like building things. I like seeing something go from a plan on paper to a real structure that people use every day. Civil engineering gave me that.
What I didn’t expect was how much more the profession had to offer beyond the work itself.
Early in my career, I joined the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). If I’m honest, I walked into my first meeting not knowing a single person in the room. I didn’t have a strategy or a networking plan. I just showed up. And that turned out to be the most important career decision I’ve made outside of choosing my discipline.
Here’s what I learned pretty quickly: joining an organization and being involved in an organization are two very different things. A lot of people sign up, attend a meeting here and there, and call it good. I get it—we’re all busy, we all have projects and deadlines and families pulling at our time. But the real value doesn’t come from sitting in the back row at a luncheon. It comes from raising your hand when someone asks who wants to help with the next event. It comes from volunteering for a committee before you feel ready for it.
That’s exactly what I did. I asked what needed to be done, and I did it. No one handed me a roadmap. I just kept showing up, kept saying yes, and before I knew it, I was helping shape the direction of our chapter. The relationships I built through that process—with peers at other firms, with clients I never would’ve crossed paths with on a project, with seasoned engineers who’d been in the profession for decades—those relationships changed the trajectory of my career.
The other thing that surprised me was how much I didn’t know about my own profession. Civil engineering isn’t one thing. It’s dozens of disciplines under one umbrella—water resources, transportation, structural, geotechnical, environmental, and more. Through ASCE, I got to hear from engineers working in areas I’d barely considered. It broadened my understanding of what civil engineering actually looks like and gave me a much deeper appreciation for the work happening across the industry.
That’s a big part of why I’ve gotten involved with student outreach at Western Michigan University. I go back to campus and talk to students about what this career actually looks like from the field, not just the classroom. Some of those students are in the same spot I was—not entirely sure which direction to go, maybe second-guessing their choice, wondering if engineering is really for them. I tell them what I wish someone had told me: don’t knock it until you try it. The uncertainty isn’t a problem. It’s part of the process. You will miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
And somewhere in that room, there’s going to be a student who connects with what you’re saying. Maybe they hadn’t considered civil engineering before. Maybe they were about to change their major for the third time. If your experience helps one person find their direction, that alone is worth every minute you spent getting there.
Industry trends are showing that younger professionals are attending conference sessions during the day, and then back to their hotel room for the night. I get it—I get the pull—your phone is right there, your laptop is right there and socializing with people you don’t know feels like a lot after a full day. But here’s what I’d ask you to consider: the engineers sitting at that dinner or standing around at that reception have been doing this work for 30 or 40 years. They have knowledge that doesn’t exist in a manual or a webinar. They learned it by doing it, by getting it wrong, by figuring it out in the field. And when they retire—and they are retiring—that knowledge walks out the door with them.
The only way to access that experience is through real conversation. Face to face. Not through a screen. Those hallway conversations and post-session dinners are where the real learning happens, and that window is closing. If anything, your generation has an opportunity to shape what professional organizations look like going forward. But you’ve got to be in the room to do it. You’ve got to stay for the dinner.
So, if you’re a young engineer reading this—or even a mid-career professional who’s been meaning to get more involved—here’s my advice. Don’t just join an organization. Get on a committee. Volunteer to help with an event. Sign up to present at a luncheon or speak at a student activity. It doesn’t have to be a keynote at a national conference. Talk about what you know. Share what you’ve learned. That’s enough.
The hardest part is walking through the door the first time. After that, it gets easier. And the return on that investment—in your career, in your network, in your understanding of the profession—will be more than you expected.
I know, because I’ve lived it.
