Mentoring the Future of the Engineering Workforce

It is true that women earn around 30% of engineering degrees. It is also true that only 13%—about one in six—of civil engineers are women. Maureen Merson, a geotechnical engineer at DYWIDAG, is one of those six and she ensures that part of her job consists of bringing that number up.

As someone with personal experience in architecture, engineering and construction both in school and the field, Merson understands the perseverance and nuance it takes to successfully navigate as a woman in this industry, so she is taking her wisdom to students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and SUNY Polytechnic, where she serves as a mentor—and not just to female students. Merson knows that men play a part in getting more women into construction, so she also leads regional ASCE initiatives and actively supports young professionals through the Capital Region Chamber of Commerce to expand her impact.

In a recent conversation with Construction Executive, Merson delved into her passions for engineering and mentoring, as well as her hopes for broadening the future of the construction workforce.

How did you get involved in the world of mentoring?

Part of it was that I did have some mentorship during my undergraduate while I was studying engineering. In that environment, I felt like I was well supported. I had people I could ask questions to. I had other women who I could talk to who were progressing in their degrees. When I got out into the professional world and started doing field inspection out on the construction sites, I just felt like I was thrown out there and didn’t have anyone who could mentor me through that. I learned through time and sticking with it that others had a similar experience.

And the environments are very different. Across the industry, academic and construction settings can treat people very differently, and I definitely felt that difference early in my career. When I saw that other people had left engineering or the construction profession, I did a personal gut check—did I want to stick with the profession? I realized I like doing this. I like solving problems. I got into civil engineering because civil engineering holds the health, safety and welfare of the public. The first person that you’re responsible to is the public and their safety—there is a civil service aspect of it. I realized I got into it for that reason, and I wanted to stay in it for that reason.

And then that was my impetus to go out and find my own mentors without structured programs because there were no structured programs at the time, which is what prompted me to start giving back and mentoring others.

How did you get involved with the structured mentor programs at RPI, SUNY, ASCE and the Capital Regional Chamber?

There was a little bit of a nudge from a previous boss suggesting I get involved with ASCE to enhance my leadership experience and other connections, but really it was me raising my hand and saying, ‘I’m interested. What do we have? What can we do?’

How has your work evolved since you first raised your hand to where you are today?

I think it’s become something that’s much more acknowledged and much more structured. Everyone sees the value of a mentor-mentee relationship, adding to the business. While a lot of work has been done, there’s still more to do. Unfortunately, in certain places, there are still institutional barriers, generational differences and different experiences that prevent people from advancing, but those differences are also very valuable for problem solving—and engineering is constant problem solving. It’s valuable to have those different perspectives, especially generationally, but mentorship programs are just one piece of a bigger puzzle. There is still plenty of progress to be made. Mentorship isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. And I think the best mentoring relationships often come from those relationships that you extend yourself and are less formal. It’s when you can say, “I see this person, they look like me, they’ve done this. Let me talk to them, ask them their opinions and develop that relationship naturally.” Often, those are the best mentor-mentee experiences.

What does a typical day look like as Maureen Merson’s mentee?

Students are about to graduate with their engineering degrees, but there are things they have to learn in a real-world setting. So, they’re working on a capstone project where they try to solve a real-world construction problem with up to 30-60% design completion in an actual design firm. What I do is step in there and help the students understand how that process works, what to expect and what are the biggest problems they’d have to think about in that environment, rather than the technical problems.

These students, they’re sharp, they’re good engineering students. They know how to solve the actual calculations and the problems. It’s more about going back, trying to frame the problem; it’s a very people-oriented part of the design. It’s figuring out that early stage of what has to happen, where we are, who’s involved; guiding through that design process is critical to being able to succeed in the actual industry. So, my role is to help them work through it with questions, ideas, and design concepts, and to prepare them to recognize the challenges they’ll face in the real world before having to deal with them in the real world.

Do you work with only women?

I work with any of the students who are interested in the geotechnical aspect of civil engineering. I think it’s important for everyone to be prepared for the challenges that they’ll face in the profession. Because even though it might be harder to deal with certain aspects of construction as a woman, there are universal challenges that a young man or young person of any background will also face.

Are there other mentors you work alongside?

The professors are the ones who match the mentors to the students, but that’s only in one capacity of structured mentoring. The other half is through the American Society of Civil Engineers, which has a student chapter on campus and I am their professional practitioner advisor for that organization. That offers a much less structured mentorship.

Why do you think it is important for women to not only see other women like you in the industry, but also to be mentored by men in the industry?

It is incredibly important to both find mentors who look like you and to find mentors who don’t look like you, because if you find someone who looks like you, has your experiences, that person has extra insight into what your exact experience might be like and the barriers you may run into. When you’re with someone who doesn’t look like you, it is initially more challenging because you don’t have that instant connection based on shared experience, but I think that it’s valuable in the long run because you can both expand each other’s way of thinking about things, way of seeing problems, way of handling things.

Are there any particular mentoring moments that have stuck with you?

For me, the most valuable piece of the whole thing, and why I do it, is that it feels really good to see someone be able to handle a problem that they hadn’t been able to handle before. It feels really good to enable someone to go out and find information where they didn’t think they could find it before.

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