Moving up in Your Career Takes Confidence
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So far for Annahid (Anna) Dastgheib-Beheshti, P.E., M.ASCE, her professional journey has been a mix of traditional engineering consulting, learning, working to make successes out of setbacks, and networking.
She began her career at Bohler, where she worked on various large-scale commercial and residential projects in the Boston area. While there, she gained experience providing technical design and consulting services to developers and their partners. In 2019, Dastgheib-Beheshti joined Arup’s Boston office in a junior position. By April 2021, she had been promoted to senior civil engineer, where she has had the opportunity to work on some “amazing, transformational projects” that will help facilitate more connected, sustainable cities. Dastgheib-Beheshti is the recipient of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers 2021 President’s Award, and this year she was named as one of ASCE’s New Faces of Civil Engineering-Professional.
What does your job as senior civil engineer at Arup entail, and how does it differ from your role at Arup before the promotion?
Prior to my promotion, my title was simply civil engineer. I think like most people working in consulting engineering, your role does not always change significantly with a new title. However, I would say a significant difference between that role and this one is simply the expectations. While I still work on the same projects, as a senior engineer I am expected to not need as much supervision, be able to lead small projects or groups, and manage project outcomes as well as be able to solve more technical/complex issues than junior staff are.
My day to day differs based on what project I am working on. Some days it involves reviewing construction submittals and RFIs (requests for information) or going on site visits. Some days I am working in AutoCAD, drafting and designing site and drainage layouts. And some days it involves mainly project management such as coordinating workflows, task deadlines, and team resources.
