Sharon Tsay talks about life at M&E as a modeling specialist

One of the best ways of learning about the culture of a company is to talk with someone who works there. For job seekers without an "inside track" to a current M&E employee, we offer the following wide-ranging interview with Sharon Tsay of our Wakefield office.

Q: So what’s it like working for M&E, on that sliding scale between “I can’t believe they pay me to have so much fun” and “I pay friends to call me every ten minutes to help me stay awake”?

 

Sharon: Well it definitely isn’t boring – for one thing it’s very challenging from a technical perspective. Plus, I feel very lucky to be making a living doing something that I really enjoy.

 

 

Ok, that response is based on how many years at M&E?

 

Sharon: Eight. I came here after finishing my Bachelors and Masters at MIT in Environmental Engineering.

 

 

That’s a strong academic credential. Mind you, could you have done as well if you’d joined M&E with just the Bachelors?

 

Sharon: Could I have coped with the work? Probably. But I had this strong sense that there was more to learn from MIT than what I’d taken in as an undergraduate. I’m glad I stayed on. It gave me a bit more confidence, perhaps. And, while some people work weekends on a second degree once they’re here, by Friday night I personally prefer to unwind.

 

 

So there’s something to unwind from, then. A hard road to travel at M&E?

 

Sharon: Yes, but in a good way. It’s a very demanding place, though I suppose many of those demands are personal choices. You want to do everything you can to win more work, satisfy existing clients, and make your colleagues think well of you. Sometimes that means staying late in the week, but I try very hard to balance my professional life with my personal life. I appreciate that there’s not a culture of weekend work at M&E.

 

 

Tell me a bit about the modeling? Do you ever get out from behind your computer?

 

Sharon: Oh definitely. I do have some serious time working by myself, but there’s a lot of collaboration and interaction with other project staff. Modeling is a huge part of our planning work – which in turn is what underpins our designs. And at the planning stage, you’re often sitting around a table with colleagues. The project managers need computer simulations so they can play out their “what-if-this” and “what-if-that” scenarios.

 

 

And this would be in connection with what sort of project? Water? Wastewater?

 

Sharon: There’s a lot of variety, but I mostly do modeling for collection systems, stormwater, and water quality studies. Generally, modeling is conducted to see if specific solutions will work in terms of hydraulics and regulatory performance. For instance, with a water quality model, we may be want to see if proposed changes at a treatment plant will lead to violations of water quality standards in the water body where the plant discharges . For a flooding study, we’ll work with engineers to develop solutions to flooding that won’t make things worse in other areas.

 

 

What are you working on right now?   Sharon: I’m specifically working with M&E’s master planning efforts in San Francisco and Georgia, but I support our modeling projects in other offices as well. So, lots of projects throughout the country.     Do you get to go to San Francisco?   Sharon: Absolutely. I’ve been to San Francisco several times over the past year. The trips generally last a week at a time. I like a bit of travel. You get to see different parts of the country and meet other people in the company. Plus, we’re doing some very exciting work throughout the company and it’s nice to be part of it.     So are we talking a good deal of autonomy here?   Sharon: It depends on the size of the project and how much experience you have. When you first start there are people there to guide you and show you how to do things. As you gain more experience you’re given more independence. I often work independently for smaller projects, though my work does get reviewed by others. For large projects there are several people working together and in those cases you are part of a team.     What’s next for you?   Sharon: Well I’m hoping it’s the Great Bay project in New Hampshire. This is a major study to develop wastewater management alternatives that will help preserve and protect the state’s coastal waters. There’s a lot of business and residential growth in the region. Plus, it’s a popular tourist destination, so they need to ensure the growth doesn’t end up jeopardizing the quality of the natural environment that brings people there in the first place. There should be a lot of modeling work involved in this project.     Let’s end by going back to how you got started. How did you get interested in this field in the first place?   Sharon: Well, my dad is an engineer and I got my love of science from him. Plus my mom always had this very strong sense of social responsibility. So in a way those two things are playing themselves out in my career. I‘m sure there are more glamorous careers, or careers with a higher salary, but I enjoy what I do. As I said earlier, I feel really lucky to be working at something that I really like. Not everyone gets to do that.