Isaac (00:09): What is up everybody? Isaac here with Civil Engineering Academy. Thanks for joining me today. On today's podcast episode, I bring a fascinating guest on today. He recently passed his PE exam in construction, and he's 58 years old. I mean, this is an awesome story. His name's Jimmy Daughtry and he comes on to share his own experience of why he wanted to pursue his PE much later in life. Most people want this in their twenties, and he got it at 58. So a huge congratulations to Jimmy. So proud of what he's done. He was a student of our course and was able to get through this exam, get through the finish line, and he has a lot of tips and tricks and kind of just general experience that I wanted to share with you. And his background is fascinating. I mean, he worked for his own company being a general contractor.

Isaac (00:54): He's worked on mega projects, everything from power plants to huge projects with bridges and, and transmission lines. And he's working mainly as a project manager, but does all kinds of fascinating work with these mega projects. And he just wanted to get this PE license. He thought it would be a great boost to his career, even at this stage in his life. So it's a fascinating story and I think one that you're gonna wanna listen to, if you need help on your own journey to pass your PE exam, you wanna check us out at civilengineeringacademy.com. We have exams and courses there you can go find. And we are there to help you. We wanna support you on this journey. It's a big deal to get this, and it's a huge weight off your shoulders once you can get it done. So we'll provide the structure and everything you need to get over the finish line just like Jimmy did. So good stuff there. Anyway, without further ado, let's get to my interview with Jimmy Daughtry. It's coming up right after this. See you in a minute. Alright, Jimmy, we're rocking and rolling. Thanks for joining me today on the Civil Interview Academy podcast. Appreciate you doing this with me.

Jimmy (01:54): Sure,

Isaac (01:55): . Well, I'm excited for you. You just passed the PE exam.

Jimmy (02:00): I did

Isaac (02:01): . That's so awesome. And it's a big deal 'cause you're taking it a little bit later in life. Most people try to knock it out, but we will, we'll kinda get there. I always like to start these out though, just kind of hearing your own remarks about what led you to this world of civil engineering. What have you been doing for your career? Why, why take the PE now?

Jimmy (02:23): Well, so to start with, I grew up in a really small town. And of course with that, not venturing out too far younger in life. You know, my, my imagination of opportunity was pretty narrow at the time, but I was in, I was in construction work and so took a, took an interest in that, decided I wanted to get into construction management, initially signed up for that, got into it and then realized I wanted to know more about the engineer design side of it. I ended up getting doing a bachelor's in both. So I studied both curriculums wanting to be a general contractor. I, I even did minor in business. Like, okay, I gotta know how to do that as well. But and so once I got into it, you know, my eyes just, you know, it is just open to a tremendous opportunity out there. Right. And of course, you know, the, the, the older you get and the, the more you do, you know, you just learn more and more about so many opportunities and available worldwide. I've, I've now since graduating, I was fortunate to kind of jump in right off the bat, kind of in sort of mega projects. So I started out work, working on power projects. Well, large pharmaceutical plant, but then power projects and went on an international assignment. So you're talking about, wow, just blowing a, a small town guy's, you know, just blowing my mind on opportunity. But I went down to Chili South America a couple years, build a power plant there. Absolutely loved that experience, but I still had my mind on being a general contractor. And I came back, I hired only a large commercial contracting company. Worked as a project manager with them for a couple years, and then I started my own business was doing well up to the 2008 recession. And that pretty well took me out. I went back into I hired back in to again, managing sort of these mega, mega projects and traveling around. I went up to Canada, did a couple of projects, and came back down. I was from North Carolina, came back down to the Carolinas for a little while after that until my company sent me over to California. And since then, got into like, heavy civil infrastructure projects. And just been a, a great experience. And wow, just the opportunity to travel and see the world while doing some of these fantastic projects has been an awesome experience.

Isaac (05:03): Sounds really neat. I'm in the utility world myself, so I kind of get what you're talking about. So has it mainly been like the power plants, these kind of projects? Or like anything utility related?

Jimmy (05:17): Oh, well, gosh, so while I've done power plants yeah, the 300 mile transmission line. Oh, yeah. But I mean, that actually has been a little further back. So more recently I've been into various projects especially with the highway transmission sorry, the highways and bridges. Of course, you build bridges. You have these huge foundations, right? Cast and drill holes, they're called in California. And you just now you know, you're punching through all these utilities. Well, you're not, because you have to do all of this subsurface investigations and design, how to modify all, every type of utility out there, right? Anything that's in the way of these these foundations. So you have to go in and dig up a lot of the roadways, and right of ways and, and have all this stuff moved in preparation in advance of these huge foundations going in. Um then another project actually was Google fiber. So that again, is a type of utility where you're just running miles and miles of Google fiber or fiber through a lot of conduits, which are underground. And then you come up above ground, you go across bridges, you go over power lines. And then when you learn about the limitations of, you know, the spacing limitations between all the different utilities, the competition for, you know, all the companies that want to cross a power line and all that. And that's pretty wild and it's pretty cool. Pretty cool stuff, .

Isaac (06:51): That's exactly right. So on all, and on most of these, are you kinda like project managing it? Are you, what's kinda been your role in

Jimmy (07:00): In these? Yeah, at this stage in my life, I'm, I'm more into project managing now, and I've done a lot of as well, I've done a bit of project controls, so dealing with cost, budget, schedule planning, risk analysis you know and a a bit of into, you know, commercial contract administration side of it as well. Yeah.

Isaac (07:24): Well, sounds like you got a ton of experience. So let's fast forward you're 58. You, you, what motivated you to get the PE done at this stage of your life?

Jimmy (07:36): Very simple. I've just thoroughly enjoyed, you know, working on these complex mega projects. I mean, it's the, the, the whole reason civil engineering exists, like it does to the depth that it goes in all the different disciplines. But you know, I, I got to a point to where it's like I, you know, I realized earlier in my career that you know, having a PE license is a credential that would certainly open the door of opportunities. However, you know, with the the desire to be a general contractor initially, I never mindedly figured that, you know, I could get by without the PE license. I went, I got a broker's license, a general contractor's license, and a loan officer's license along with a P and P certification. And I'm thinking, you know, that's, that's plenty. But, you know, as I get go into these,mega projects and, you know, I realize there's a lot of really,bright people in, in the industry that have a lot of credentials that I have along with the PE and it narrows my opportunity. I just, I realize that, and I'm like, you know what I mean, I've resisted this because I know I've gone decades and forgotten tons of of the, you know, what I learned back in,you know, three decades ago in college. Uso, you know, I resisted doing it,up until a point to where I'm like, you know what? I still have time to go in my career, and I want to be able to, at this point in life, I want to be able to be a little more,choosy ,on the opportunities. And the PE license was certainly a means to do that. Not to mention that, you know, it is kind of the pinnacle of your career,you know, going through such a difficult curriculum to start with, right? Uto come out with,a license, a testing that you're professional in the knowledge of that curriculum.

Isaac (09:34): Well, I can be more proud of you. I think it's just a monumental achievement to do that at this stage of your life. And thank you. I just, I applaud you. I think it's awesome. So I'm curious because there are other people in your shoes that wanna get this, and I'm curious what challenges you faced trying to earn your PE at this stage in your life?

Jimmy (09:54): Whew. Well, number one is time. I mean, time is our most valuable commodity. I mean, when you get my age of 58, it just goes faster every day, every year. You realize it's very limited. You know, I love my family I'm in, am involved in things outside of, of work, frankly, that are really, you know more meaningful in ways than, than the career itself. Mm-Hmm . And so to balance your, your, your family, you know, I have strong faith beliefs that, you know, I enjoy involving in the community. And and so just juggling, you know, the, the involvement with family and friends as well as your career. It's, it's, it's difficult. I mean, it's really challenging, number one, to work in a career where you're, you know, you're manage, you're overseeing mega projects that are very complex. There's just so much to oversee could be very daunting in and of itself. And so then to try to take on something like getting a PE license, you know, at that point in your career time was the number one constraint that caused me to, frankly, to resist it for a long time. Yeah. you know, and then obviously going a long time without, you know, again, you know, being on top of all, you know, keep the, the debt knowledge, the breadth of knowledge in so many different disciplines that I had not really involved extensively in, you know, more on a high level.

Isaac (11:32): Right. So it sounds like you had good support, though. It sounds like your family was supportive of getting this. Yeah. Okay. And then, you know, between everything that you mentioned, you had to balance all of that. So what did that look like in your life? How, what, where did you find time to study? What was your schedule like?

Jimmy (11:50): Well, I will say that a a a really valuable tool that you provided thankfully, is the outline of the, the study schedule, right? So being in project management, the first thing we do on a project a, a major project is we create a schedule that is a baseline of how we're gonna progress through any huge endeavor, right? . Yeah. And then we use that to gauge our progress. Okay. Am I, am I on track? Am I gonna, you know, am I gonna get this done? By the time I told my wife what I would , that we could eventually go on vacation again and do things like that. And so, you know, and then it just, it tells you sometimes, okay, I'm a little bit behind. I've got to, you know, I gotta carve out some time and dedicate a little more to catch up and stay on track. So that was a very valuable tool,hat certainly helped me get through this.

Isaac (12:48): Good. Yeah. We, we try to provide a homework planner that kind of outlines a weekly schedule goes along with homework and the lecture videos Yeah. To try to get you exposure to practicing problems and making sure it kind of falls in line with, you know, the material and specifications that you need to follow. So I'm glad you liked that. I'm curious,

Jimmy (13:08): Invaluable. It was invaluable. Yeah.

Isaac (13:10): How did you end up finding us, how did you find Civil Engineering Academy in the first,

Jimmy (13:14): I'll tell you what, really, I just, I did some word searches. I mean, being my age, you know, I've been through license and certifications and yeah. And so I just, I just dug in. I did a little research on, you know, the options and what's available out there to to get through this. And I just really liked the program. I liked the fact thatit was very focused on civil engineering mm-hmm . And just looking at the program and, and what it had to offer it, I was just convinced that that was the way to go. And you know, at my age, at 58, working overtime on mega projects and in fact on a very challenging mega project that, that frankly was fairly stressful in and of itself, but to you know, to realize that I'm getting ready to take on something very complicated. Along with that, I did my research and just researching this program, it was evident because, you know, I got through the program in four months. Awesome. you know, and it meant that I had to follow a very rigid study schedule. Like, like you provided homework schedule, I stuck to it, I did it. And and, and thank you. I was able to accomplish it. I think that in itself tells me that I made a wise decision on using the program.

Isaac (14:42): That's great. Was there anything in the course that stood out that felt like, Hey, this helped me more than something else did?

Jimmy (14:50): Yeah. it is because, you know, I was challenged with trying to decide. 'cause I mean, the program tells you kind of what the percentage of, of the, you know, each discipline was gonna be on the exam. And I'm sitting there, you know, struggling with the idea, okay, well, I need to put more study time into these areas that are higher percentages. I dug into the low hanging fruit probably, you know, what I had more experience in initially. And really, frankly, what I found myself doing later in the program was having a little more of a challenge with some of the disciplines that I did not you know, function in as much, namely traffic engineering, wastewater mm-hmm . And so I found myself really having to jump into those and so that the videos and the practice problems were invaluable. I mean, they helped me get through that and, and in, you know, a relatively short period of time and, you know, again past the exam. So the results were evident of yeah. Of the value program.

Isaac (16:05): Could you remind the audience, what depth, what exam did you end up taking? Because it sounds like PMing all this stuff. How did you choose the exam you did? Why did you choose that one?

Jimmy (16:16): Yeah, so I did like probably what most other people do. And I've talked to a lot of people that obviously had their PE license over, over the years. And you know, it's all, it's that debate over, well do I examine in the area that I have more experience in, or do I look at the pass rates and choose a different, you know, discipline. And I just decided that, you know, I looked at construction engineering that's really where I had a bit, probably a little stronger background. And you know, after I saw the pass rate was lower, I scratched my head a little bit, but I'm like, you know what I mean? That's probably where, frankly, that's kind of the area where I see mega projects struggling a little more in is certain aspects of construction engineering. So I decided, you know what, I'm gonna take that one. I'm gonna go with it. And you know, I want to be able to pick up, I wanna learn all that I can, you know, there's strengths and weaknesses in every project, and my strength is probably a little more stronger of a construction engineering background. I just decided to, you know, sort of monopolize on that and and make sure I knew all I needed to know. When I go into a project managing it, then I know I reach out to others, other subject matter experts and their disciplines. But in the end, it was about, you know, where I felt like that I would add more value in my career going forward.

Isaac (17:51): That's a fascinating take. So you, you saw pass rates, typically water resources is the highest you saw construction, which you felt drawn to as per your background and work history, and that's the one you ended up going with, which is, which is great. Was there any surprises on the exam that you felt like came outta nowhere that you could maybe give some advice to others?

Jimmy (18:15): Absolutely. , the one discipline that I really left to last and prepared the least, and frankly, intentionally, because I'm kinda weighing out the percentages and I'm like, okay, I feel real strong about all these areas, and I'm coming down to test time and I'm ready to go ahead and take the test. So wastewater you know, was the last one that I dug into. The, the ironic thing is that it turns out that that was a much higher percentage of my exam than the other disciplines other than construction engineering itself. I mean, by far, what, what else was strange about the exam for me was I went into the morning portion of the exam thinking that that was gonna be more of the breadth part, if you will, covering all the various disciplines. So I went into the morning and I started the exam, and I'm rocking through it, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I mean, I'm gonna finish ahead of time. And and when the morning session ended, I called my wife and I said, wow, honey. I said, I've passed this thing with flying colors, . So then I go back into the afternoon exam, and the majority of it was wastewater . And I struggled through some of that exam, but there again, you know, I learned enough from the program. It, it focused, its focus was on, you know, how to prepare, especially, and how to look up information you need to know, right. What sources to go to. And that part of the study and the program was again, invaluable to enabling me to pass something when it even was more heavily weighted on a discipline that I was least prepared in.

Isaac (20:09): That's amazing. So did you what was the conversation like after the exam with your wife?

Jimmy (20:15): After the exam, I'm like, Hmm, you know, I'm not, you know, I, I'm not quite as confident as I was . I'm hopeful, I'm certainly not holding my breath, but anyway, it, it all, when I, when I got their results, I was ecstatic and pleased. .

Isaac (20:33): So you know, a lot of people are intimidated by the amount of codes and standards that are required for construction mm-hmm . And so you took construction and this stage of your life, did you feel like there was anything on the exam that was very coded, you know, intense, that you had to look up stuff a lot? How, what advice would you give to somebody that's worried about the amount of codes and standards and how would they best prepare for the exam?

Jimmy (21:02): Well, I will tell you that, I mean, if you're worried about codes and standards, I think probably, I wanna say the two that you , you should, you know, look into heavily as far as what you're gonna have to deal with. And that is probably structures and construction engineering. It was, it, there was, there was a lot of codes in that. Of course, there was quite a bit you know, too in geotechnical, I just kind of researched, and I even look back on how the the, the engineering exams have evolved over time and changed. Right. And geotechnical requires more codes than it references, than it used to.

Isaac (21:42): A Lot. Yeah.

Jimmy (21:43): Yeah, absolutely. But no, I mean, you just, you have to dedicate in that study. I mean, you've got to, you gotta dedicate a lot of time to just flat out, I would say a lot of memorization too, because, I mean, yes, it's one thing to be able to, to know where to go in to, to find some of the resources, but to me it was a balance of memorizing where to find them. But as much as possible, memorizing some too, because, you know, you don't wanna spend too much time flipping around and trying to find codes. Yeah. When they're some that maybe are suppler to just go ahead and take the memory and just brush through those so you can have more time in the more difficult problems.

Isaac (22:25): And that just comes naturally. I mean, in the course, we talk about this a lot, but practicing problems is really where your head should be. And the more you do that, the more exposure you get to looking up woods and standards and yeah. You just start naturally memorizing stuff just because you're opening the books, you're solving the problems. So that's great advice. What about practice exams? How did you tackle those? I know the course provided some, but what advice would you give for people trying to take practice exams?

Speaker 2 (22:55): Yeah, so personally for me I did break them down initially by discipline, and I really just focused on each one trying to go through enough problems, you know, just to, to make sure that, like you said, I mean the, it, so, you know, you, you have the steps of every problem that you, you have to remember the steps that you've gotta go through. You gotta remember the formulas in each step. You gotta remember the where to reference and go to If you have codes, you need to look up if you haven't memorized them. So, I mean, I can't overemphasize the value or practice exams in, you know, really cementing the steps in formulas and codes and references that you have to progress through through these different problems. And I mean, there's so many, you're talking about five different disciplines and practice problems in all five of clear. I was ecstatic when I passed the first time, just because, you know, in a four month period of time, there's just, there was just so many problems. I mean, I, I will say that, you know, I'm thankful for my wife mm-hmm . You know, her, her willing, her willingness for me to get through this because she was ready for me to, you know, be through it and get more back to a little more normalization in life.

Isaac (24:25): It is a sacrifice for sure. Yeah.

Jimmy (24:27): Yeah.

Isaac (24:27): Um it makes me wonder, and, and I'm curious what your thoughts are, but if you hadn't taken the Civil Engineering Academy course, do you think your preparation and the results would've been different?

Jimmy (24:38): Yes, yes. Much different . I mean, again, it's just like, you know, working on you know, these mega projects, complex projects. I mean, you can't go into those without a tried and true structure approach. I mean, you never go into a project and try to just create you know, the processes, tools, and techniques from scratch. You never do that. You're definitely set up for failure in trying to do that. You always take a try true approach, and you apply that. And, you know, all of us have different styles. Some of us are left brain, right brain, you know, I am one of those right brain engineers pro probably, you know,

Isaac (25:21): I'm probably literally too.

Jimmy (25:22): Fewer of us. So my study techniques are a little different than others. My approach is a little different, but I always have to start with a structured approach that's tried and true. And so absolutely it would've been totally different. It would've taken me a lot longer. And, you know, there's a, there's a great chance that it would've not only taken me longer, but I may not have passed even with you know, having to spend, you know, a longer time span of preparing. Because, you know, the other balance to that is that, you know, when you do take a long time to study, I mean, parts of what you studied initially, you forget those, you gotta go back and read, learn those. So there is a little bit of a balance and, you know that structured approach of getting through it and, you know, remembering, because none of us are gonna remember a hundred percent of what we got right on the exam. You know, there's obviously, there's many studies in the industry that say, what percentage of, you know, things that we learn that we forget over time, we're gonna forget some of those things. So having that right study structure and approach and, you know, the study plan, the homework plan again, it's invaluable. Now, I it would've been totally different if I had not had all those tools in place.

Isaac (26:42): That's good to hear. I mean, we try to give you just what you need, not more, not less. We're trying to give you just the tools you need to get this thing done as quickly and as efficiently as possible. We know people's times are, you know, your time is valuable, as you said, it's the most mm-hmm . Important asset your life. So we wanna make sure we're giving you everything you need to pass this and not more. So that's the goal.

Jimmy (27:06): I believe it. Thank you, .

Isaac (27:10): So to someone that may be saying to themselves, you know, it's too late for me to take the PE, what would you say to them?

Jimmy (27:21): Goodness. I mean, I'm 58. I don't know. I mean I just say that, you know, if it's worth it, then you dedicate the time. You take a structured approach and, and do it. You know, I don't, I would say that at my age, if I can do it, anybody can do it. . It's just a matter of dedication. And and again, you know, starting off with a program, not, don't start off. I mean, yeah, I would definitely wouldn't suggest just, just taking off and trying to pick up books that you've studied, you know, from college or whatever, you know, certainly have a structured program. And, and no, I mean, I highly encourage anyone, everyone, if I can do it, you can do it.

Isaac (28:13): That's awesome. Well, there's a couple more questions I have just as we kinda wrap this up. Could you take me through the day you got your results? Walk me through that day.

Jimmy (28:26): Well, so I've set up, you know, most of my devices, like my my cell phone, my wife's cell phone, we have a shared apple account iCloud, and I have it where, I mean, she has access to all of my email accounts, my voice messages, everything she sees everything that comes in. And in fact I started that back when I was a general contractor because it was just too much to keep up with. And she, she tried to help me keep up with everything. So I'm busy doing whatever I'm doing, and my wife says you got an email she and from NCES. And I'm like, seriously? And I'm like, oh my gosh, I felt my heart flutter, you know? And I run over and grab my phone and I open it up and I log into NCES, and sure enough, the resultswas passing and wow. What an a static moment.

Isaac (29:27): Well, that's so great. It's such a, a weight lifted off your shoulders when you get this thing done. If, I mean, you are a great example to many others that are out there that want to do this or maybe on the fence of doing it. And I just love the advice that if you can do it, they can do it too. Is there any last second tips you would share with anybody about taking the construction PE exam?

Jimmy (29:54): None other than don't doubt yourself. You know that this is a valuable credential in our career. It certainly pays off. You know, it does, like, even though I'm 58, I've been through a lot of mega projects. I've worked with all disciplines and planning and managing, setting up, you know, the whole P and P thing of, you know, you initiate a project, you plan it, you execute it, control it, monitor close it out, and all that good stuff. So I've done, you know, kind of a to z on on large projects you know, initiating feasibility studies right on through, close out of the project. And so I've worked with all disciplines on these projects. And even though I've done that for years the knowledge gained through the study is, is tremendous. I mean, I just know that I can go into more meetings with a much greater confidence in comprehending some of the technical aspects of, you know, the project delivery. And I can help make decisions, you know, more quickly, informed decisions more quickly. So really you know, that's just a tremendous benefit,to anyone's career. Uso no,you know, from that vantage point, I just, you know, I highly encourage e everyone that you know to, to take this on. And even if you don't pass the first time, I, you know, gosh, I still think the credential is,you know, valuable enough that, you know, you, you still, you've got, you've learned so much and you probably have, you've got, you know, not as far to go on a second round, but certainly,yeah, give it a chance and go for it.

Isaac (31:55): Keep going. Well, it's awesome. Your work's gonna want you licensed in all 50 states now. So

Jimmy (32:01): , I'm licensed in three states so far. Applied in two more California, you have to, you have, you have a five to six month waiting to give approval to take a seismic and surveying exam before your license, so,

Isaac (32:14): Right.

Jimmy (32:14): I'm on that waiting list. And so I still need to do some preparation for that, but yeah, on the way.

Isaac (32:21): Yeah, we have some material coming out very soon on that one. By the way, ,

Jimmy (32:25): Good.

Isaac (32:26): Seismic and survey coming out too. Well that's awesome. I am just excited for you. Thanks for sharing your experience. Thanks for sharing your tips. We're glad that you were a student of our course and you found success doing it. We are looking forward to spread the word more as we are getting very close to launching the last few courses as we update the specs that they made big changes to back in April of 24. So all of that's coming out very soon.

Jimmy (32:53): Yep.

Isaac (32:53): But we're just excited that you got this one done, and thanks for jumping on and sharing all of your tips with us.

Jimmy (33:00): You're welcome. And I thank you for helping advance my career and big thank you.

Isaac (33:08): Thank you, Jimmy. We'll talk to you later.

Jimmy (33:10): All right, sounds good.

Isaac (33:12): Bye.