Flatiron Rolls Out the Welcome Mat at Engineers Forum

In late May, Flatiron hosted a three-day conference designed to provide engineers with Flatiron for 5 years or less with an overview of the company, our core values and strategy. 35 participants from Flatiron’s four divisions gathered in San Jose, California, to meet Flatiron leadership, learn about topics from formwork to finance, and network with their peers.

A highlight of the event was a tour of the nearby Calaveras Dam project, led by project manager Shawn Golden and his team. For Civil Division field engineer Evan Slater, one highlight was a session by Allan Brayley on Steel Girder and Concrete Segmental Erection.

“I enjoy technical operations stuff,” said Evan. “Allan also talked about lessons learned, gave examples of where things went wrong and advised us on how to prevent them.”

It was one of 13 sessions led by 18 experts—mostly Flatiron staff, as well as a few guest speakers.

“The seminars opened my eyes to all the different career opportunities that are possible with Flatiron,” said Canadian Division field engineer Tiffany Kirk, who works on the Interior to Lower Mainland Transmission Line project. “We touched on everything from the importance of prework, to estimating and formwork. It was really well done.”

“The speakers were enthusiastic and genuinely seemed to like what they do, which is encouraging”, said Western Region field engineer Daniel Benevento. “They’ve been in this business for 20 or 30 years, and they’re encouraging people to stick with it, continue their education and focus their expertise.”

The forum went beyond the technical side of the job, and also touched on topics like finance and leadership.

“Because I haven’t been in the field yet, I hadn’t been exposed to the financial side of our business,” said Evan. “Learning about finance and subjects like cashflow from Mike Cornelius was quite enlightening.”

CEO John DiCiurcio and COO Javier Sevilla hosted the first session of the forum, and also attended a dinner with participants.

“I appreciated the fact that upper management acknowledged the work of this group of junior field engineers,” said Tiffany. “They included us in the business culture and let us know they’re here to support us.”

“Dinner with the executives was my favorite part,” said Daniel, who is working on three projects in the Los Angeles/Orange County District. “They came up the same path that we’re on now. It’s great to get to know the people you’re working for—they’re fun; they have a sense of humor. It makes it a lot harder to walk away from a company if you’re a person—not just a number.”

The forum also provided an opportunity for engineers to meet their peers from other parts of Flatiron.

“It was fun to put names with faces and meet some of the people you’ve been working with,” said Evan.

“I liked meeting people from Alberta and Edmonton and hear what’s happening on other projects, like Northeast Anthony Henday,” said Tiffany.

“In my district, there are very few of us that work directly together,” said Daniel. “This was an opportunity to meet with a bunch of engineers that all are around the same age, have a similar level of experience and love what we do.”

Flatiron will continue to host the Engineers Forum (which was previously called the Young Engineers Forum) in the years ahead.