What is the 1st and most important that you must have as or survive as a consultant engineer? Technical knowledge ? Or a lot of engineering reference books? Nope, none of above is correct answer. The answer is simple, the most important thing that must have is a notebook! Yup, nothing else but a notebook. Why? I will explain later what so important and essential of having a notebook.
Before we start, first we have to accept the fact that human brain memory is limited. We can learn a lot of thing one go, however how many we can remember? Especially those technical or theory knowledge which is very crucial and important for a consultant engineer. Apart from that which you can learn from books, another source of knowledge is experience that you gain from site, which can’t gain it from books. Those site experience can help improve our design as there are a lot of thing that you can’t see or predict from the design paper or layout. Design on a paper is easy, but whether it can work or install at the site is another issue. For example, designing an underground soil piping is very simple on the paper, just simply draw a line connecting from water closet to a manhole. However, when come to site, the designed soil piping might can’t lay as per designed, it might have other thing which block the way, or the way that we designed on the paper unable to discharge the waste water effectively. That why we need a proper notebook to record down those knowledge or experience that we learn from site so that we can refer it back next time. Engineer is not to memorize all the knowledge but is to know where to find or reference back when we needed it. The above is the first reason why we must have a notebook.
Another reason is..is actually nothing to do with engineering works, is more to function as your protective device or bullet proof armor, why say so? You must be wandering as consultant engineer is doing design work and not go for war why need it? Actually as a consultant engineer sometime we go to “war”. Not actual war but is war during meeting, especially when problem occur everybody start to throw the bomb around. Some of the fancy client might forget what they instructed or required during last month and end up questioning you why the thing turn up like this? Here come the important of the notebook, write down any instruction or requirement from the client together with date and time. So that with this black and white you can proof to your client what he has instructed if he questioning in the future.
If you haven have your own notebook, quickly grab one good quality leather notebook and start record down what you learn and anything related with the work, make it a habit.
