Turning Plans into Places: A CEI Podcast
Turning Plans into Places is a podcast by CEI Engineering Associates, where we explore the people, projects, and perspectives shaping the future of civil engineering, land surveying, landscape architecture, and site development across the United States.
In each episode, we dive into the real-world challenges and creative solutions behind the work we do, whether it's retail, fueling and convenience store development, outdoor recreation, municipal transportation, or sports facility engineering. Our expert guests break down the details, share industry insights, and highlight how CEI's integrated approach delivers smarter, more resilient places.
But this podcast is more than just technical talk. We also shine a spotlight on CEI's company culture—the people behind the plans. From entry-level stories to leadership journeys, remote work experiences to mentorship moments, we'll explore what makes CEI a dynamic, connected team that values innovation, collaboration, and community.
Whether you're a client, industry partner, future employee, or just curious about the infrastructure that supports everyday life, this podcast is your invitation to go behind the scenes with CEI.
Subscribe and follow as we turn plans into places, one conversation at a time.
Turning Plans into Places: A CEI Podcast
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.
Well, hello and welcome to today's podcast of Plans to Places with CEI Engineering and Associates. I'm Debbie Jones. I'm your host for today, where we explore all aspects of design and development. Today, we're focusing on the people behind the designs and how they got their start. I've invited a special co-host, kristen Suave, hr Manager for CEI, to join us today to help us delve into what it is like to build a career at CEI. So great to have you here, kristen. Let's get you introduced to the audience.
Speaker 2: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 six years, moved up from a HR specialist to HR manager, excited to watch everyone grow within their learning development, and I'm excited to be here today. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Welcome. So tell us, Kristen, who have you brought with us with you today?
Speaker 2:Yes, today I have brought Kevin Hall. He has been with CEI for 21 years and he is currently our Director of Technical Services.
Speaker 1:We are excited to learn about his experiences. Excellent, well, I think so. Let's get to it, kevin. Well, let's start with some questions.
Speaker 2:Perfect. So tell us how you got started with CEI. Tell us your role. Tell us just how you got with CEI.
Speaker 3:Arkansas. I was an airplane mechanic, moved to Arkansas to work at XNA, the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, worked there for about nine months and got laid off. The company went under, lost a couple contracts and so I was kind of stuck here. I didn't really want to move. I liked the area, liked Beaver Lake, liked the outdoors and things like that. So I decided to stay and look for a job. I had three options. The first one was Arkansas Western Gas.
Speaker 3:At the time they told me I'd have to go underneath people's houses and deal with alive and dead animals, and so that wasn't an option. The second one was to be an electrician, which I was kind of intrigued about, but uh, just the pay wasn't right and the length of time to be a journeyman, you know, being out of work and on my own, like I needed a job. So, um, actually the um unemployment agency had a lady there that helped me out and got me an interview with CI, I guess she worked there as a receptionist and so she recommended, you know, if you like to work outdoors. I was like yes, yes, ma'am, and she said, see, I might work out for you, and so got an interview, went through the interview and, you know, before I got out of the interview they offered me the job, and so that's kind of why I have a bad habit of doing that that HR kind of gets on to me about. After 20 years, 21 years, I still have that habit, so that's funny.
Speaker 1:So after so, seeing that that's how you got started and it was kind of an unconventional start, what kept you there?
Speaker 3:So I mean, honestly, the first couple of months was a little rocky, you know, because I didn't know anything about survey or civil engineering or construction.
Speaker 3:So you know, all the concepts were new, all the jargon, all the acronyms, I had no idea what they were talking about. So the first couple months was rough. But then I was able to kind of work with some other party chiefs and kind of they was able to explain a little bit more on my terms, you know, that I could understand, and so I started picking those things up, um, and then after about a year or so, um realized you know they had licensed surveyors and you know they were kind of the leaders of the team and, um, they had a career and salaries. And so you know, at that time I was 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 was like, well, you know I'm here and I like what I was doing and want to learn more, so I decided to stay, make a career out of it.
Speaker 1:So what were some of the? I mean, I love the journey because it really, really starts at the most basic blocks. You came into it, you recognized opportunity and then you kept growing from there. But, what are some of the things or key steps or opportunities that you received along the way that helped you as you developed your career path?
Speaker 3:Sure. So one of the major transitions was probably moving from the field to the office. About that time my first born son, jordan, came into the world, and so I needed to spend more time at home, and probably my wife kind of suggested or demanded that really, and so that gave me opportunity to be a cad tech, and so that allowed me to learn more about the office, learn more about what it is to be a licensed surveyor, and so that was probably, I guess, a major milestone in becoming a licensed surveyor.
Speaker 1: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:Original remote worker.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were. So if you had somebody that was coming, we were talking about some of the development hurdles that you had. It sounds like you've had a lot of training and support along the way through your career. How would you describe the culture to someone that was considering CEI?
Speaker 3: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 those department managers are ultimately responsible for their book of business, um, and so they are able to have the freedom to, you know, look at their work, uh, project it, hire fire if needed to, and so, um, I like the entrepreneurship um aspect of ci, um we, we still have a strategic plan to follow, but within that plan, you're able to, you know, make your team your own put your own stamp on it.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, I like that, and you know even though I think you know, hopefully we don't always lean in the direction of firing, but I do think that it is really, really critical that you get the right people and the right mix on each of your teams. That is something that I think is really really interesting and unique about CEI is different types of teams that we have and how it accommodates so many different kinds of people, regardless of what their skill set is. And so what do you think generally, having worked across all the departments and now supervising and leading all of our technical specialties, what are some of the characteristics, do you think of a person that could thrive at CEI?
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, so somebody that is, uh, you know, driven, um, um, wants to make you know the best out of themselves, um, and somebody that is willing to learn. I think another good thing about our culture is, uh, is the resources of people we have. You know, even though you're in a department or a certain team, you can always reach out to leadership, to a marketing director, to HR. I mean, there's plenty of resources for people to get advice on their career and how to 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 that person, you are able to reach out to them and talk to them.
Speaker 2:Perfect. So diving in on that and just the resources, when you moved from survey department manager to your executive role, talk through how, the help, all the stepping stones you got. Talk how you were able to make it to that role.
Speaker 3:To my current role.
Speaker 1:Yeah role.
Speaker 3:Shift to my current role. Yeah, so, um, I've been, I've been director of technical services for about eight or nine months now. So, um, you know, I guess after moving into the field and and moving out of the field into the office and learning those steps and actually becoming a project manager, you know, you learn how to start dealing with people, you learn how to meet client expectations and things like that, and then from there I moved into a department manager role, so now you're leading a whole department of people. When I started, I think we had about seven or eight people and then when I became director of technical services, I grew that department to about 30 people and so, just, it was really critical for Survey to stand on their own, you know, have their own clients. Of course we're serving all of of our internal clients, but also growing that book of business. To have have other clients that we could count on, that we could get repeat work from, um was critical in that role.
Speaker 3:And then, um, I guess now you know it's that's being a surveyor. You know I've always dealt with engineers, um, but never really did that kind of work, and so you know that that will. That is a learning curve for me, just learning more about what civil engineers do, what kind of calculations are behind their decisions and things like that. So, but you know, that's how you grow your career right, you? You can't always be complacent and you're going to have to learn new things, and so stepping into that role has really broadened my knowledge and helped me be a leader at CEI.
Speaker 1:I think the thing that speaks to me about what you said is continual learning in a leadership role. I think the most successful leaders of people in general are ones that set out to learn every day right do you approach it with the same curiosity that you hope that your staff do well?
Speaker 3:because you know if, if you get in the mindset that you know everything, it's you're probably a little. You're not going to be well respected and and you're going to get bored honestly. So you're not going to be your best every day. So there's always a new thing to learn.
Speaker 1:Well, we're also work with an awful lot of big brains, so it's really really hard to be the smartest person in the room.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 1:So it's nice that there's room for the other skills to bring in. From my perspective, I love the entrepreneurial piece. I love the entrepreneurial piece. I think it lets the DMs and project managers also really be part of creating a company that that matches what they're trying to accomplish as long as they're bringing school districts.
Speaker 2:You've gone and spoken to colleges. You're talking to young professionals, young students that aren't even thinking about their career. Yet what would you tell someone that was in your shoes 21 years ago today?
Speaker 3:What's the biggest advice you'd give them? Yeah, so, I do speak at a few high schools locally around the area, but, uh, you know, just don't be afraid or scared of what you don't know. Um, you know that that saying you know there's never a dumb question is is actually true, like you know. Ask questions, um, but also retain the information that you're being taught, or or the question you asked about, um, and just keep building on that. Um you you're gonna have to start new somewhere at some time, um, and sometimes you have to do that multiple times over your career, um, and so, you know, just be ambitious and um, have that thirst for knowledge and keep learning every day.
Speaker 1:I love it uh, what is so kind of thinking back over your career? I'm sure there's a lot of really funny stories. I guess we'll have to get to that in a whole different episode, maybe a different co-host. We'll work on that. Um, but what is one of your accomplishments? That, when you really look back in your career that you are most proud of what sticks out for you?
Speaker 3:Honestly it's. It's probably just you know kind of what I talked about just stepping into a new career that I had no idea I would end up in, that I had no idea I would end up in, and just continuing learning and to to be a surveyor at the at the level I am at an engineering company. I think is is pretty cool.
Speaker 2:I that is pretty cool.
Speaker 3:And it just speaks to the opportunity at CI. You know you can make your career what you want it to be. With hard work and you know dedication, anything is possible.
Speaker 1: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:Right now. I mean there's a lot of opportunity at CEI to grow and to be a leader. You know we have a full book of work, there's not a lack of work, there's only opportunity. And so, you know, training new we're in a real growth mode right now. So training new hires and to instill kind of our culture into them, I think to me is exciting. And then watching, you know, I guess, the new crop of people coming in and being part of their success is really enjoyable for me.
Speaker 1:Well, I really, really appreciate your time today and congratulations on being part of a big team, a great team, and also the leadership and the impact that you've made on CEI. I appreciate your time today and great job picking your people.
Speaker 3:Thank you, debbie and thank you Kevin. Thank you both. Thanks for watching.