by Ken Radziwon, PE, Senior Transportation Engineer

Engineers bred a culture that was once about pocket protectors, the hottest calculators, and your finest navy/olive green attire. The new wave of engineers (commonly referred to as “Fungineers”) is about the flyest watches, hottest phones, and, believe it or not, trendy fashion. The engineering is still the same, but the appearance of the engineer is slowing changing. Maybe we don’t look or talk like a “typical engineer”, but our minds function in the same fashion. And therein lies the challenge.

As a so-called “Complete Streets Expert”, garnering my PE and size zero gauges to boot, it can be a challenge for colleagues and coworkers to look past the matching outfits and look more closely at the knowledge I bring to the table. Each meeting with a new client presents the same challenges all young professionals have (such as not having the answers to all the clients questions and being green to the industry), but further complicated by first impressions judged by an appearance.

I believe millennials have finally listened to their parents and embraced the old adage: “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Millennials are stepping outside the lines of the normal business appearance and creating a new trend. A trend that shows it’s important that we do not let our eyes supersede our minds in judging a person’s qualities. And our parents thought we never listened . . .

About the author:

Ken is an aspiring Transportation Engineer by day, a husband and father by night. Creating a safer and more pedestrian-friendly world for his family is what drives him each and every day.