TCEP 151: Everything Civil Engineers Talk About Doing, but Never Get To Do

In this episode of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk to Maysill Pascal, P.E., Regional Senior Engineer and Sales Manager at USW, a MENARD Group USA Company. We talk about her career journey and her traveling around the globe, and how that has helped her career, but also how she has dealt with it emotionally. She then also talks about the importance of pursuing your dreams by getting out there and doing what you always wanted to do.

Engineering Quotes:

Here Are Some of the Questions I Ask Maysill Pascal:

Can you talk about when you realized that sales and business development are things that you wanted to do?

Engineers are known to be introverts. With the exposure you had to business development, was there a specific time in your career when you realized business development was something that you wanted to do, and did you develop your skills by going out and talking to people?

You have worked in many different locations in the world; can you talk about that experience?

What was the decision-making process like for you when you started working internationally?

How would you say your international experiences have impacted you beyond your career?

Where were you born and when did you come to the United States?

As a woman coming from outside of the United States, it must have been difficult to start your career in engineering. How did this affect your career?

With everything going on in the United States, do you feel that you need to go out and do STEM work and show young Black girls that they can do these things?

Would you say that doing STEM work has had a positive impact on you?

For engineers who are thinking of doing something different in their careers, what advice do you have for them?

When you retire, what would you like your legacy to be?

Here Are Some Key Points Discussed in This Episode About Maysill Pascal, P.E.’s Career:

Maysill's goal is to educate as many people as possible about ground improvement. She also opened the USW office in Florida, which involved making people aware of their presents and managing the team.

Maysill realized that she wanted to go into the sales and business development field when she was working at Haley & Aldrich. She would accompany her boss at some of the meetings he went to and started to see the sales aspect of engineering. Later, at Golder Engineering, she started spending time doing business development, accompanying her boss when he met prospective clients, and making presentations for different owners. She went to a conference and started talking to people, one of them being the President and CEO of Menard Group USA who offered her a job at Menard as a business developer right there and then.

It is always good for people to get out of their comfort zones and meet new people. It broadens your horizon by learning and expanding yourself.

Conferences have started to include more women attendees, but there are still very few people of color and minority represented. A positive point to this is it is easier for everyone to remember you when you attend different conferences.

People are fighting for a change and putting their lives on the line. This made Maysill feel that she was not doing enough, and that she needs to get back out there and be more visible. She sees this as a privilege and a way to give back to the people who look like her. Color or country of origin should not be a determining factor in where they can go in life.

There is a volunteer group that would go yearly to different NGOs for two weeks. Maysill would go with a group to an orphanage in Durban, South Africa, where they showed the children their support and taught them different things. Most of the children were orphaned due to HIV and TB. This was an incredible experience for her.