Ep. 2 - A Career Reinvented at CEI

Career paths rarely follow a straight line. Kevin Hall's journey from aircraft mechanic to Director of Technical Services at CEI Engineering demonstrates how unexpected detours can lead to remarkable professional growth when paired with curiosity and determination.

After being laid off from his job at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, Kevin faced a critical decision. Rather than relocating, he chose to stay in an area he had grown to love. Through an unconventional connection at the unemployment office, he found himself interviewing at CEI despite having zero background in surveying or civil engineering.

The early months proved challenging as Kevin navigated unfamiliar terminology and concepts. However, through supportive mentorship and his own persistence, he gradually built expertise. A pivotal moment came when the birth of his first child prompted a transition from field work to the office, opening new avenues for career advancement. From CAD technician to project manager to department head, Kevin's progression showcases how personal drive coupled with organizational support creates powerful professional development.

What makes CEI special, according to Kevin, is its blend of structure and entrepreneurial freedom. Department managers operate with significant autonomy while following the company's strategic vision, creating space for innovation and personal leadership styles. This approach, combined with a collaborative culture where resources and expertise flow freely across departments, fosters both individual and organizational growth.

For those beginning their careers or considering a change, Kevin offers straightforward advice: "Don't be afraid of what you don't know" and "keep learning every day." His story stands as compelling evidence that with curiosity, persistence, and the right organizational culture, remarkable career transformations are possible at any stage. Ready to discover your own unexpected career path? Kevin's journey proves that sometimes the best destinations aren't on your original map.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Well, hello and welcome to today's podcast of
Plans to Places with CEIEngineering and Associates.
I'm Debbie Jones.
I'm your host for today, wherewe explore all aspects of design
and development.
Today, we're focusing on thepeople behind the designs and

(00:26):
how they got their start.
I've invited a special co-host,kristen Suave, hr Manager for
CEI, to join us today to help usdelve into what it is like to
build a career at CEI.
So great to have you here,kristen.
Let's get you introduced to theaudience.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Thank you, debbie.
I'm glad to be here Again.
My name is Kristen Zwalf.
I am HR manager with CEI.
Been with CEI for about sixyears, moved up from a HR
specialist to HR manager,excited to watch everyone grow
within their learningdevelopment, and I'm excited to
be here today.
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Welcome.
So tell us, Kristen, who haveyou brought with us with you
today?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yes, today I have brought Kevin Hall.
He has been with CEI for 21years and he is currently our
Director of Technical Services.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
We are excited to learn about his experiences.
Excellent, well, I think so.
Let's get to it, kevin.
Well, let's start with somequestions.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Perfect.
So tell us how you got startedwith CEI.
Tell us your role.
Tell us just how you got withCEI.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Arkansas.
I was an airplane mechanic,moved to Arkansas to work at XNA
, the Northwest ArkansasRegional Airport, worked there
for about nine months and gotlaid off.
The company went under, lost acouple contracts and so I was

(01:56):
kind of stuck here.
I didn't really want to move.
I liked the area, liked BeaverLake, liked the outdoors and
things like that.
So I decided to stay and lookfor a job.
I had three options.
The first one was ArkansasWestern Gas.
At the time they told me I'dhave to go underneath people's

(02:18):
houses and deal with alive anddead animals, and so that wasn't
an option.
The second one was to be anelectrician, which I was kind of
intrigued about, but uh, justthe pay wasn't right and the
length of time to be ajourneyman, you know, being out
of work and on my own, like Ineeded a job.

(02:38):
So, um, actually the umunemployment agency had a lady
there that helped me out and gotme an interview with CI, I
guess she worked there as areceptionist and so she
recommended, you know, if youlike to work outdoors.
I was like yes, yes, ma'am, andshe said, see, I might work out

(02:59):
for you, and so got aninterview, went through the
interview and, you know, beforeI got out of the interview they
offered me the job, and sothat's kind of why I have a bad
habit of doing that that HR kindof gets on to me about.
After 20 years, 21 years, Istill have that habit, so that's

(03:19):
funny.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
So after so, seeing that that's how you got started
and it was kind of anunconventional start, what kept
you there?

Speaker 3 (03:28):
So I mean, honestly, the first couple of months was a
little rocky, you know, becauseI didn't know anything about
survey or civil engineering orconstruction.
So you know, all the conceptswere new, all the jargon, all
the acronyms, I had no idea whatthey were talking about.
So the first couple months wasrough.

(03:49):
But then I was able to kind ofwork with some other party
chiefs and kind of they was ableto explain a little bit more on
my terms, you know, that Icould understand, and so I
started picking those things up,um, and then after about a year
or so, um realized you knowthey had licensed surveyors and

(04:11):
you know they were kind of theleaders of the team and, um,
they had a career and salaries.
And so you know, at that time Iwas probably about 23 or so and
I was looking for a new career,you know, coming out of the
aviation industry.
So that's kind of when I waslike, well, you know I'm here
and I like what I was doing andwant to learn more, so I decided

(04:33):
to stay, make a career out ofit.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
So what were some of the?
I mean, I love the journeybecause it really, really starts
at the most basic blocks.
You came into it, yourecognized opportunity and then
you kept growing from there.
But, what are some of thethings or key steps or
opportunities that you receivedalong the way that helped you as

(04:57):
you developed your career path?

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Sure.
So one of the major transitionswas probably moving from the
field to the office.
About that time my first bornson, jordan, came into the world
, and so I needed to spend moretime at home, and probably my
wife kind of suggested ordemanded that really, and so
that gave me opportunity to be acad tech, and so that allowed

(05:23):
me to learn more about theoffice, learn more about what it
is to be a licensed surveyor,and so that was probably, I
guess, a major milestone inbecoming a licensed surveyor.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
It's funny it's been so many years and there's been
so many changes in the workforce, but even 20 years ago we had
remote work, work from the field, work from the office work from
home.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Original remote worker.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, we were.
So if you had somebody that wascoming, we were talking about
some of the development hurdlesthat you had.
It sounds like you've had a lotof training and support along
the way through your career.
How would you describe theculture to someone that was
considering CEI?

Speaker 3 (06:16):
So CEI is is a corporate structure, but it's
more like entrepreneur driven,like I.
I like the idea where, you know, you have separate departments
and different sectors and thosedepartment managers are
ultimately responsible for theirbook of business, um, and so
they are able to have thefreedom to, you know, look at

(06:39):
their work, uh, project it, hirefire if needed to, and so, um,
I like the entrepreneurship umaspect of ci, um we, we still
have a strategic plan to follow,but within that plan, you're
able to, you know, make yourteam your own put your own stamp
on it.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
yeah, yeah, I like that, and you know even though I
think you know, hopefully wedon't always lean in the
direction of firing, but I dothink that it is really, really
critical that you get the rightpeople and the right mix on each
of your teams.
That is something that I thinkis really really interesting and
unique about CEI is differenttypes of teams that we have and

(07:24):
how it accommodates so manydifferent kinds of people,
regardless of what their skillset is.
And so what do you thinkgenerally, having worked across
all the departments and nowsupervising and leading all of
our technical specialties, whatare some of the characteristics,
do you think of a person thatcould thrive at CEI?

Speaker 3 (07:46):
Um, yeah, so somebody that is, uh, you know, driven,
um, um, wants to make you knowthe best out of themselves, um,
and somebody that is willing tolearn.
I think another good thingabout our culture is, uh, is the
resources of people we have.
You know, even though you're ina department or a certain team,

(08:09):
you can always reach out toleadership, to a marketing
director, to HR.
I mean, there's plenty ofresources for people to get
advice on their career and howto handle certain situations and
things like that.
So, just being able to you know, you know, to know that, even
though you don't know thatperson, you are able to reach

(08:30):
out to them and talk to them.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Perfect.
So diving in on that and justthe resources, when you moved
from survey department managerto your executive role, talk
through how, the help, all thestepping stones you got.
Talk how you were able to makeit to that role.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
To my current role.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah role.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Shift to my current role.
Yeah, so, um, I've been, I'vebeen director of technical
services for about eight or ninemonths now.
So, um, you know, I guess aftermoving into the field and and
moving out of the field into theoffice and learning those steps
and actually becoming a projectmanager, you know, you learn
how to start dealing with people, you learn how to meet client

(09:18):
expectations and things likethat, and then from there I
moved into a department managerrole, so now you're leading a
whole department of people.
When I started, I think we hadabout seven or eight people and
then when I became director oftechnical services, I grew that
department to about 30 peopleand so, just, it was really

(09:41):
critical for Survey to stand ontheir own, you know, have their
own clients.
Of course we're serving all ofof our internal clients, but
also growing that book ofbusiness.
To have have other clients thatwe could count on, that we
could get repeat work from, umwas critical in that role.
And then, um, I guess now youknow it's that's being a

(10:05):
surveyor.
You know I've always dealt withengineers, um, but never really
did that kind of work, and soyou know that that will.
That is a learning curve for me, just learning more about what
civil engineers do, what kind ofcalculations are behind their
decisions and things like that.
So, but you know, that's howyou grow your career right, you?

(10:28):
You can't always be complacentand you're going to have to
learn new things, and sostepping into that role has
really broadened my knowledgeand helped me be a leader at CEI
.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
I think the thing that speaks to me about what you
said is continual learning in aleadership role.
I think the most successfulleaders of people in general are
ones that set out to learnevery day right do you approach
it with the same curiosity thatyou hope that your staff do well
?

Speaker 3 (10:56):
because you know if, if you get in the mindset that
you know everything, it's you'reprobably a little.
You're not going to be wellrespected and and you're going
to get bored honestly.
So you're not going to be yourbest every day.
So there's always a new thingto learn.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Well, we're also work with an awful lot of big brains
, so it's really really hard tobe the smartest person in the
room.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
So it's nice that there's room for the other
skills to bring in.
From my perspective, I love theentrepreneurial piece.
I love the entrepreneurialpiece.
I think it lets the DMs andproject managers also really be
part of creating a company thatthat matches what they're trying
to accomplish as long asthey're bringing school

(11:50):
districts.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
You've gone and spoken to colleges.
You're talking to youngprofessionals, young students
that aren't even thinking abouttheir career.
Yet what would you tell someonethat was in your shoes 21 years
ago today?

Speaker 3 (12:06):
What's the biggest advice you'd give them?
Yeah, so, I do speak at a fewhigh schools locally around the
area, but, uh, you know, justdon't be afraid or scared of
what you don't know.
Um, you know that that sayingyou know there's never a dumb
question is is actually true,like you know.
Ask questions, um, but alsoretain the information that

(12:30):
you're being taught, or or thequestion you asked about, um,
and just keep building on that.
Um you you're gonna have tostart new somewhere at some time
, um, and sometimes you have todo that multiple times over your
career, um, and so, you know,just be ambitious and um, have
that thirst for knowledge andkeep learning every day.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
I love it uh, what is so kind of thinking back over
your career?
I'm sure there's a lot ofreally funny stories.
I guess we'll have to get tothat in a whole different
episode, maybe a differentco-host.
We'll work on that.
Um, but what is one of youraccomplishments?
That, when you really look backin your career that you are
most proud of what sticks outfor you?

Speaker 3 (13:17):
Honestly it's.
It's probably just you knowkind of what I talked about just
stepping into a new career thatI had no idea I would end up in
, that I had no idea I would endup in, and just continuing
learning and to to be a surveyorat the at the level I am at an
engineering company.

(13:38):
I think is is pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
I that is pretty cool .

Speaker 3 (13:42):
And it just speaks to the opportunity at CI.
You know you can make yourcareer what you want it to be.
With hard work and you knowdedication, anything is possible
.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
So, as a wrap up, kevin, whenever you think about
the future, the future of CEI,the future in general, either
personally or for the company,what excites you most?

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Right now.
I mean there's a lot ofopportunity at CEI to grow and
to be a leader.
You know we have a full book ofwork, there's not a lack of
work, there's only opportunity.
And so, you know, training newwe're in a real growth mode
right now.

(14:24):
So training new hires and toinstill kind of our culture into
them, I think to me is exciting.
And then watching, you know, Iguess, the new crop of people
coming in and being part oftheir success is really

(14:45):
enjoyable for me.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Well, I really, really appreciate your time
today and congratulations onbeing part of a big team, a
great team, and also theleadership and the impact that
you've made on CEI.
I appreciate your time todayand great job picking your
people.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Thank you, debbie and thank you Kevin.
Thank you both.
Thanks for watching.