Reflective Essay: Workplace Experience in Civil Engineering

This reflective essay details a civil engineering cadet's experience during a team meeting at a construction company. The essay follows a structured approach, beginning with a description of the event and the cadet's role in assigning responsibilities. The cadet anticipated potential challenges due to their newness but found the team cooperative. The second stage analyzes the event, highlighting the cadet's focus on building relationships, the team's communication skills, and an unexpected software failure that led to a change in presentation methods. The cadet reflects on their performance, emphasizing the use of various skills like communication and leadership. Stage three focuses on the lessons learned, particularly the development of leadership skills applicable to other professional engineering events. The final stage outlines a plan for improvement, including acquiring soft, management, and technical skills through senior guidance and research, with a commitment to changing their approach to be more respectful and receptive to others' opinions. The essay provides a comprehensive reflection on workplace experiences and professional development.

Reflective Essay
Student's Name:
Student's ID:
Subject:

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Stage 1
While working with a leading civil construction company, a meeting was held in the conference
room, which was entirely based on assigning roles to the team members for building work. As a
cadet engineer, I was responsible for conducting the meeting and supervising the team members
regarding their roles. Before going to the meeting, I expected that being new in the organization
the team members may not follow my instructions. To lead and supervise a team, it is necessary
to exercise appropriate project management skills (Gardiner, 2016). However, the meeting
facilitated a positive outcome as the team members were much cooperative.
Stage 2
As a cadet engineer, I was more focused on strengthening the relationship with the team
members that brought positive results. The effective collaboration and communication skills of
the team members helped to accomplish a successful meeting (Huff, Zoltowski & Oakes, 2016).
Before the meeting, I was anxious, but it did not affect my actions as I delivered the meeting
with full confidence. During the meeting, I experienced software failure that created difficulties
in showing the presentations to the team members. Due to the software failure, I was a little bit
embarrassed and understood that in future, I will be prepared to demonstrate the information
through oral presentation. I believe that I performed well as I used different skills like
communication, leadership, time management and problem-solving skills.
Stage 3
The event helped me to gain various leadership skills and traits as well as motivated me to
execute my work efficiently and effectively. These lessons can be applied in different
professional engineering events like engineering workshops and reward programs (Conrad,
2017). The lessons can be applied to these events to set clear goals.
Stage 4
To improve the performance to conduct a meeting, it is necessary to implement certain methods
such as acquiring soft skills, management skills and technical skills (Brunhaver et al., 2018). I
will acquire these skills with the guidance of senior managers and reading different journals. In
the future, I will change by behaviour approach by respecting others and listening to their

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opinions. This plan suits my personality as I am good at communicating with others and
understanding others feelings.

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References
Brunhaver, S. R., Korte, R. F., Barley, S. R., Sheppard, S. D., Freeman, R., & Salzman, H.
(2018). Bridging the gaps between engineering education and practice. US engineering in
a global economy, 129-163.
Conrad, S. (2017). A comparison of practitioner and student writing in civil engineering. Journal
of Engineering Education, 106(2), 191-217.
Gardiner, C. M. (2016). Legitimizing processes: Barriers and facilitators for experienced
Newcomers' entry transitions to knowledge practices. Learning, culture and social
interaction, 11, 105-116.
Huff, J. L., Zoltowski, C. B., & Oakes, W. C. (2016). Preparing engineers for the workplace
through service learning: Perceptions of EPICS alumni. Journal of Engineering
Education, 105(1), 43-69.