Interview Assignment
Bassam Albakri
balbakri@uwo.ca
ES1050 – Design Studio 011
Dr. Kreyman
December 1st, 2014
In this assignment, a practicing engineer that has experience in working in project management was interviewed. The purpose of the interview is to increase my understanding of what engineers do at the workplace and to educate future engineers on how to become successful in their fields.
Bakri Albakri is a Projects Manager at Gater Tahseen Al-Fahid located in Saudia Arabia. It was easy to have an interview with him because he is my father. On November 25, 2014, my dad and I sat down and had the interview. Multiple questions were prepared ahead of time in order to have this interview. These questions pertained to
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the interviewee’s profession and corresponded with the objectives of the assignment. The interviewee’s contact information is: Name: Bakri Albakri Company: Gater Tahseen Al-Fahid Phone: 5196734526 Email: b_albakri@hotmail.com Bakri completed his undergraduate degree in civil engineering at the University of Aleppo situated in Aleppo, Syria.
He decided to go into civil engineering because he was interested in it and the majority of the large projects surrounding his area at the time were based on civil engineering. As a young adult, he obtained jobs such as plumbing and carpentry which allowed his interest in civil engineering to flourish. He has been working for approximately 30 years as a Projects Manager. The first 3 years of his career at the company he worked as a Project Manager and later was promoted to a Projects Manager. The difference is that he became responsible for multiple projects at one time rather than one. Bakri obtained the position of Project Manager in 1980 right after he graduated. His friend advised him about the opportunity at Gater Tahseen Al-Fahid. He obtained an interview with a Projects Manager and got the job. His previous experience in a variety of carpentry and plumbing jobs allowed him to portray that he was capable of handling the job of Project Manager. Interestingly, at his interview, he told the Projects Manager that if he was hired he would work for 2 weeks with no salary and if the Projects Manager likes his work, he can keep him. Since then, he has been working at the company for over 30
years. In the first 5 years of working at Gater Tahseen Al-Fahid, the projects that he was responsible for were for the government. He worked on projects that pertained to roads and buildings. Projects were based on government needs and there were regular check-ups by advisors from the government. After this, Bakri’s work became independent of the government and became more dependent on building infrastructures for the company to sell them or rent them out. These buildings fulfilled the needs of his society. Examples of what he worked on include housing, malls, and villas. Bakri represented the owner of these buildings as Projects Manager when supervising the construction of these infrastructures. Normally, drafting was done by an engineering office for these projects. Approximately 150-200 carpenters, 75-100 steel fitters, and 3 engineers were required for each project depending on how big the project was. The material that was often used was reinforced concrete to build the infrastructures. The biggest project that Bakri worked on is building a plaza of approximately 200,000 square feet. The biggest obstacle that he faced was finding people who were creative and innovative at what they do at a low cost. Bakri learned how to use AutoCAD after 20 years of working at Gater Tahseen Al-Fahid. Often, the engineering offices would use AutoCAD for drafting. Communication is a key aspect to Bakri’s work. His main way of communication was through the telephone or his mobile. Teamwork throughout projects is also very important. Bakri highlighted that there has to be a sense of trust between everyone. Without this, projects are almost impossible. He said that it was also important to have some strict rules on employees because if strictness is not implemented, workers would get lazy and thus, would negatively impact the success of a project. Bakri supervised everyone on a project. He believed that his success came as a result of his direct communication with everyone on the job. Bakri emphasized that following up on every aspect of the project was crucial because even when he was on top of everything, there were still some occurrences of problems that needed to be fixed. He says it would definitely be a chaotic mess if you did not follow up on all aspects of a project. Bakri had to approach each person differently and understand what motivated them. He emphasized that his success was also because he gave everyone their rights and their correct pay. When there was a small error in pay he was flexible. Bakri was always on top of every project in order for there to be no big problems. He said if a big problem occurs it must be solved or removed, but more importantly his following up on the project was his focus. This way he would limit any big problems from happening because if a big problem happened it would negatively impact the performance of the team working on the project and their ability to continue with their work. Bakri said that it is very important to not be lazy and inactive with projects. Even when an aspect of a project does not pertain to his field, as a project manager, he must be on top of everything that encompasses a project. If he did not look at an aspect of a project that did not pertain to his field it might end up being the cause of the project failure. Even if the failure was not directly from him, it would still cause the project to fail and as projects manager, securing the success of the project is one of his responsibilities. When I asked Bakri about any advice that he would give to a first year engineering student he said to never miss a class because the professors will give you everything to obtain high grades. It is up to you to be active and follow up on your courses just like a projects manager has to be active and on top of his project or multiple projects. In conclusion, this interview helped me to better understand the responsibilities of a practicing engineer in project management. It also helped me understand the importance of trust between team members and to always be proactive with tasks that I face in my life. In order to prepare for this interview, I came up with multiple questions that focused around the interviewee’s job and career as a projects manager. 1) Why did you become an engineer, specifically a civil engineer? • This question allows me to understand what to look for when choosing the program that I want to go into next year. 2) Where did you work, for how long, and what was your job title and duties? • This question gives me insight on the background of the civil engineer that I am interviewing as well as the duties he was responsible for and what type of job titles that can be acquired from a civil engineering degree. 3) Did you have any experiences as a young adult that helped you obtain your current position? • This question helps me understand what type of experience is necessary as a complement to an engineering degree that would allow me obtain a good job quickly after I graduate. 4) What was the biggest project you worked on and the biggest obstacle you faced? How did you overcome this obstacle? • This question gives me incite to the real life obstacles that a practicing engineer will face and what difficulties I should expect in the workplace. This helps me because the problems that rise in a work environment are unlike the problems I face at University. 5) How important is teamwork in Project Management? • This question will help me understand the relevance of teamwork in the work life of a practicing engineer. 6) What would you attribute your success to in the field of engineering? • This question will give me incite on how to become successful in the field of engineering by identifying the attributes that an engineer should possess in order to be great at his/her profession. 7) Is your job based on routine or are you proactive in your work? • This question will help me understand what to expect from a civil engineering job as a project manager. It will give me an idea of what a civil engineer actually does on a day to day basis and whether or not they must adapt to changes in the workplace. 8) If you could give one advice to future engineers what would it be? • This question ultimately allows me to obtain critical advice from a practicing engineer. Since he must give me only one advice, he will give me the most important aspect or attribute of civil engineering and project management.
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