Staff Bio – Erika Keohane

Erika Keohane, EIT

Engineer in Training

Even though I’m just two years into my career, it already feels like engineering is the career for me. One of the exciting parts about my job is that each day brings a different challenge. It never feels repetitive; something always happens that keeps you on your toes.

In engineering school, we learned textbook ways of doing things, but that’s not the way it works in the real world. We always see many ways of doing things, so we have to think through options to find the most effective way of achieving a goal. For example, on my current highway project, I communicate with the contractor to ensure the roadway is constructed to a standard that minimizes future maintenance.

Another great part of being out on construction sites are people in the field are always willing to explain what is going on. I have the opportunity to see the project from the contractor’s perspective and understand the phases of construction.

One thing that has most surprised me about this work is that it’s one thing to see a design on a piece of paper – it looks so small. And then you go out in the field and see how big it is – it’s mind blowing. I’m looking forward to learning all the end-to-end processes that make it get from people’s minds to paper and then out into the world.

I chose Qk4 because I had friends in classes who cooped there. When I got here, it felt like a family on the first day. It’s a close-knit group where people like working side-by-side to achieve something big for a client.