Young Engineer’s Sharing: Aliza Suriani Binti Ramli
Young Engineers Programme
By
Concrete Engineers Malaysia
This programme is something that I had not expected. In some of the internships by my coursemates, they were left alone to do what they like or do some minor tasks. Here I was allowed to participate in current projects. This was very exciting to me as I am involved in the major decision making. Well, at least the discussion leading to the decisions!
I was trained in concrete mix design, doing trial mixes and writing technical proposals with lots of guidance and discussion back and forth from the seniors. En Kadir (Ir Wan Kadir Wan Ahmad, Head Of Projects) was particularly very helpful. He would send me links to articles which are related to my work. Dr Ben (Ir Dr Benjamin De Souza, Senior Associate) was always encouraging me to try new things and not to do it just because something was done a particular way in the past. This gave me confidence to learn and suggest new things. Here it is like no idea is a stupid idea. All suggestions are given due considerations.
Mr Lim (Ir Lim Kim Bok, Technical Advisor) and Mr Tan (Ir Tan Chong Ming, Chief Engineer) were of course very busy but every now and then they would ask me how I was doing. I can see that they are concerned about my growth.
I find that the depth that we go into is much more than I had expected. For example, in our textbook, there was only one chapter on cement. But here I have to read an entire book on cement technology! Or else I could not follow what they were discussing. I did not realise that there was so much impact from cement on concrete. There were lots of discussion on cement hydration, cement blended with PFA (Pulverised Fuel Ash), GGBS (Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag) and Silica Fume. I cannot remember, but there were many times when we had to contact the cement production people to ask on pertinent points on cement. So, it was tiring but to me it was very educational. A very great eye-opener to me indeed.
I have learnt a lot about the techno-commercial part of the business. I realise that no matter how good our technical work is, it is important to be able to convert them into commercial terms. And able to convey the benefits in simple language so that people who are not technically inclined can also understand them.
I also learned that many things can be estimated even though at a very early stage. I learned many ways of estimating depending on the various stages of the projects and what information are available. These estimates are important and very useful for us and our clients to make decisions as the project progresses. This is also something different than our text books where everything is given. I have learnt to be able to do such estimates on volume and costing that clients use for their own estimates, bidding, tender or budgeting.
I really value the things that I have learnt through this programme. I know that although it was not easy (because there were lots of work to do to be able to catch up with the senior engineers!), it was definitely an enriching experience for me.
My sincere thanks to all the senior engineers who have guided me along!
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