Her Story
About Wendy
I spent over 36 years working in construction engineering with the New York State Department of Transportation before retiring. My journey into this field was somewhat unexpected. I originally went to school for architecture because I loved designing, drawing, and drafting. During a break between semesters, I came home and took a temporary position with the Department of Transportation as an inspector in the field, working on projects. I did that for two breaks between semesters, then took a civil service exam, passed it, and got hired on permanently with the state. The people I worked with pushed me to keep going, so I continued and never left. Throughout my career, I held multiple roles including engineer in charge, office engineer, and Chief Inspector. On smaller jobs, I sometimes held all three roles simultaneously. My work involved overseeing contract work on roads, bridges, landscaping, and all sorts of different projects. I made sure contractors adhered to our specifications, conducted field measurements, made payments, and handled everything in between. In 1999, I received specialized training in bridge painting inspection and coatings inspection. I was on a crew of three females, and we all went through the training together and hung our butts off of bridges doing appropriate inspections. It was a tough field to find people for, let alone females. When I first started in the early 90s, I was probably one of the only women in the whole end of the state doing this work. While the field is still male-dominated, there have been a lot more women coming into it than there were back then.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Wendy
01What do you attribute your success to?
I grew up with a good core group of people that were not looking for me to fail and were not trying to push me out the door. They helped me succeed. The men that I worked with mentored me, looked out for me, and showed me the direction to look for things and learn things on my own, and who to ask for help. They were my greatest asset. In recent years, with turnovers, a lot of the good guys are gone and new people are all about themselves, looking to push themselves to get as far in their career as they can. That's not a bad thing, but you should also be there for somebody else and help lift them up to get further in their career. Don't make it all about yourself.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
It's very hard to tell right now because there are so few people left due to retirements, and the state is not being able to either keep people, at least on the state end of things. I don't know if the private sector is doing better. Retention is definitely an issue. There are a lot of changes going on in the department right now, so it's very complicated. There are new programs, new people, and nobody seems to understand. It's just been cumbersome. The state does not train their people to do certain specialized work like bridge painting inspection anymore. They hire it out through consultants now, so people moving forward, at least through the state, will not get that training. Also, nobody coming into at least the state right now with a two-year architecture degree could ever get to the position I am at right now because there are so many other things that they require you to have, like four years of school, and they're looking for that PE license.
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