Last day as a State Employee...
 

After 4 years of student Mechanical Engineering work for the Dept. of Water Resources, I'm finally leaving and starting a career in the private sector with Caltrop Corp., one of the engineering consultants currently working on the Oakland-Bay Bridge East-Expansion.

The office is in Emeryville, so I'll be relocating to the area eventually. Bay area Pelicanites - any advice? I've been looking at a lot of rental condos, but very few have personal garages. Between all of my tools and my bike, It's a necessity.

Following several months of training, I'll be traveling extensively to Shanghai, China, where the suspension portion of the bridge is being fabricated, to perform inspections and other related tasks.

Very excited about this opportunity.

Whooo!

Wow, very cool! I'm jealous of the travel.

I just saw a show on the Bay area. Apparently there are lots of places built with a "soft story" where the bottom floor has no diagonal bracing and is basically weak. When a quake hits, the bottom floor collapses. I would suspect that most places with a ground floor garage and a story or two of living space above that would be "soft story".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_story_building

http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/info/damag...soft_story.jpg

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~braile/ed...s/image006.jpg

Might want to check into that when you're moving in.

BAP (bay area pelicans) will review your application upon arrival.. good group of guys up here that have all kinds of porsche fun & games. track, dinners, sleepovers, work parties, and more track driving. did i mention track events? let us know when you get up. check with cliffy (vash here) he is a bridge engineer for CALTRANS and is working on another project (devils slide by pass on hwy 1) as a resident engineer.

by the way, i hate engineers...... see what i do fer a living.

congrates on the graduation and looking forward to seeing your BAP app.

T$

It's your last day as a state employee?

Steal your body weight in office supplies.......

Can you pick me up some food to go?:D

Sound like a great job, do they need any architects?

Eh, its not worth the effort with all the requisition paperwork you have to go through to get a pack of pens. ;)

On which part of 'steal' were you unclear?

Good luck and enjoy the free travel.

They have a supply room security guard!!

Where are you planning to relocate? There are BAPS in Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Napa, San Francisco and Solano counties. Take your pick, we've got you covered.

good luck in your new endeavor, congratulations

:eek:

Is that really a good/safe idea? Not the bit about your travel, but that a vital portion of the bridge is being entrusted to Chinese production?!

Look, I'm Chinese by descent. But (ask my wife) even I try to avoid purchasing Chinese-made products due to the fact that so many of them are just junk. Hope you and your colleagues will be keeping a close eye on the work being done, both over there and over here.

Happy Trails to you Serge. I know this new job really came down to the wire for you. Be careful in Emeryville, the bums are much more aggressive than SacTown and they don't have name tags.

I hope you're kidding...this reflects badly on our civil servants...:rolleyes:

Are you kidding me? State workers have a reputation to uphold!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1226118101.jpg
"Boy, that 2 hour lunch is making me so sleepy."

Taken right outside the dept. entrance. :D

Some funding crisis, eh???

Good luck on your journey into the real working world...

Have you checked your orthotropic box girder lately?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1226698564.jpg