Mentorship isn’t a new concept.
Established civil engineers guiding budding professionals has always existed in engineering firms, said Michelle Perry, senior principal and chief human resources officer at Walter P Moore.
“Managers, peers, and other employees help show others the ropes, share best practices, collaborate, etc.,” she said. “All of these are forms of mentoring that help employees develop their careers and be successful in their role.”
As the industry has evolved, firms have realized that more formalized mentorship programs can be important to project success.
“Both younger and experienced engineers need to develop their skills to keep up with the changing demands, and the civil engineering industry has taken notice that we need to guide our professionals in growing and adapting through their careers,” said Kris Salvatera, P.E., M.ASCE, an aviation civil engineer at Primera Engineers.
Creating a space for personal and professional growth can provide a wide range of benefits when done right. But making sure things run smoothly takes significant time and effort.
Benefits go beyond the surface
Some of what mentees receive through mentorship programs might be obvious: career guidance, expanded knowledge, and exposure to new ideas. But the benefits often run deeper than that.
Mentorship programs, when successful, can provide connections in which mentees feel comfortable asking questions and receive “undivided time and attention,” said Wendy Presler, P.E., a senior associate at Shannon & Wilson.
“One of the biggest benefits of these relationships is that they can last months or even years when two people really connect,” she continued.
These programs can also provide pathways for those from underrepresented populations to establish themselves in the field, noted Jackie Patterson, P.E., CCM, QSD, QSP, M.ASCE, CEO and co-founder of Zephyr Rail.
Patterson, who recently published a dissertation on the underrepresentation of women in rail engineering, emphasized that mentorship programs are a great way to provide women with support for navigating a male-dominated culture.
For Zephyr, mentorship isn’t “an HR checkbox,” but an “intentional strategy.”
“We’ve paired senior engineers with emerging professionals across disciplines and cultural backgrounds,” she said. “These relationships don’t just pass on technical knowledge; they build confidence, foster a sense of belonging, and often become the spark that keeps someone in the profession.”
When mentees are put in touch with career seniors outside of their direct supervisors, it gives them the chance to “see a different side of things” and ask questions they might not feel comfortable asking their direct supervisor, said Mike Riccitiello, P.E., PMP, president and part owner of Atlas Engineering.
“If you’ve established this mentorship relationship, the mentees have another avenue to learn and to grow and to ask questions without fear of going to their direct supervisor,” he said.
Mentees aren’t the only ones who benefit from these programs. Mentors might not receive career guidance from mentees, but they get to see things from a fresh set of eyes and find new ways to explain concepts to others.
“In some cases, it’s the age-old saying: If you really want to know something, try to teach it to someone else,” said Riccitiello.
“So, on the technical side, it has caused mentors to dig deeper and really know the material because they realize, ‘It was one thing for me just to do it, but now I have to teach someone else how to do it,’” he said.
Thinking through questions from mentees can help mentors break their own established thought patterns and consider new ideas that might change the way things are done for the better.
Sharing their knowledge and experiences can also drive mentors to reengage with their work, or “find themselves in a leadership position that was previously unfamiliar to them,” said Presler.
Through these pairings, mentors gain experience “coaching, training, and motivating someone,” said Perry.
Mentorship programs can also help industry veterans get more familiar with emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, that a younger civil engineer might be more knowledgeable about, Riccitiello noted.
According to Perry, the idea of “reverse mentoring” is gaining popularity. In these programs, a younger, less experienced person is paired with someone more established in the industry to share knowledge “on topics such as technology or how to best use social media or how to best motivate the younger generations” to bridge generational gaps.
“For both parties, all these benefits accumulate to developing technical and social skills that can help each person thrive in their career,” said Salvatera.
“This leads to a positive interpersonal relationship between mentorship partners, but the skills can also translate how both mentee and mentor develop professional relationships with other colleagues, clients, and the public community,” he added.
Challenges with mentorship programs persist
In a sea of complex projects on tight deadlines, company leaders don’t always see mentorship programs as a priority. Riccitiello noted the extensive amount of paperwork that goes into program applications and the matching process – which can be too much for many individuals to handle – as one potential setback.
Patterson said that sometimes, leadership may even “view mentorship as a ‘soft’ initiative.”
But the toughest challenge isn’t launching a program – it’s keeping one running.
Mentorship programs can have a “good amount of traction and excitement” early on, but participation and commitment often decline over time, Perry said.
Amid project demands, it can be difficult for mentors to find the time to commit to these programs.
“Agreeing to be a mentor requires an additional time investment in an already busy schedule,” said Perry. “Ensuring this is a valuable program for both mentor and mentee is key to success.”
Patterson said mentorship “must be supported structurally, with time allocated, mentors trained, and success stories shared.”
Without enough support, the amount of work involved in a mentorship program can become overwhelming as the initial buzz starts to die down.
Program leaders must establish and review guidelines, accept feedback from participants, and consider how to improve the program based on that input, said Riccitiello. For a program to last for years, firms must take the time to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t.
“You might know what you want in a mentorship program, and you may have an idea how to start one, but it’s the maintenance of the program in the long term,” he said. “I think that's the hardest piece to crack.”
There is also the process of pairing people together.
If programs are not carefully managed, they can lead to “mismatched pairings, especially when cultural or gender dynamics aren’t considered,” Patterson noted.
“It takes careful planning to create an exciting program for people to want to join, but it also takes consistent focus to make sure the program runs smoothly and check in with mentorship pairs that the collaboration is benefiting both parties,” said Salvatera.
Firms are exploring new ways to address these issues as they invest more heavily in mentorship.
When Shannon & Wilson revived its mentorship program, the organization had trouble “finding individuals willing to participate on the committee, which was a duty beyond their typical job responsibilities,” said Presler.
As a solution, the firm allowed employees to bill time on mentorship activities and recognized individuals who took on program roles to “show employees that the program is important to the organization and that their participation is appreciated.”
Attitudes are changing
Although mentorship – formal and informal – has always been around, the approach has “evolved tremendously in the past few years,” said Salvatera.
What this change comes from, he said, is “the necessity for the younger generation to join our industry due to more infrastructure projects, a higher demand in the complexity of services within our profession, advances in technology, and an adaptation of how we communicate.”
In the past, said Presler, “we hoped mentoring relationships would evolve organically.” But with this method, “many young professionals were not fortunate enough to connect with a more experienced engineer.”
Presler’s experience has shown her that mentorship is “something young professionals are hungry for.” She sees these programs as a need to stay competitive in today’s market.
Patterson said in her field of rail engineering, there has been a “deliberate shift” in which companies have begun to “embed mentorship into professional development and succession planning.”
“A decade ago, mentorship was often seen as a personal favor or informal courtesy,” she said. “Today, it’s increasingly viewed as a strategic imperative, especially as firms compete for diverse talent and strive to meet equity goals.”
Riccitiello has also seen plenty of enthusiasm from those who have entered the industry in recent years.
“It’s really just incumbent upon the leadership to match those hungry young engineers with the right people who are in their career,” he said.
Mentorship programs can be cyclical, falling in and out of popularity then “back to the forefront again,” said Perry. But mentoring can be “a powerful piece” of finding, engaging, and retaining top talent if done right.
