By Deborah H. Lee, P.E., P.H., ENV SP, BC.WRE, F.ASCE
I wish I’d known early in my career that what I thought were career setbacks actually set me up for career success. I had thought that professional success followed a predictable formula: work hard, perform well, earn promotions, and advance steadily. Experience has taught me otherwise.
My first major setback came immediately after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. At the time, engineering remained a nontraditional profession for women. Despite graduating near the top of my class at a Big Ten university, I didn’t receive any job offers.
One company stated directly that it did not hire women engineers. Rather than abandon my goals, I returned to graduate school and earned a master’s degree. Two years later, I entered the job market with stronger credentials and multiple employment offers.
Several years into my career, while working at a federal government agency, I encountered another obstacle that many women of my generation will recognize: the glass ceiling.
After earning my P.E. license, receiving promotions, and consistently performing at a high level, I sought a developmental supervisory opportunity.
Instead, the position was given to a less experienced male colleague, and I was informed that I would never advance beyond my current grade level.
What felt like a professional dead end quickly became a turning point when a federal research laboratory — one I had worked with previously on a joint project — offered me a research position. This made me their first female research scientist.
The move also introduced me to an outstanding mentor who encouraged me to pursue doctoral studies and expand my research experience.
Life intervened once again when my husband’s career required our family to relocate. It was a tough decision for me, but through networking, I found another position.
However, I had to accept shift work, take a reduction in grade, and forgo completion of my dissertation while raising a young child and having my second child — sacrifices that felt like significant professional setbacks.
In retrospect, they were investments in my future. The operational experience I gained in that assignment complemented my engineering and research background and made me uniquely qualified for a senior leadership position years later.
Eventually, I returned to the government agency where I had begun my career, adding business and project management experience to my skill set. There, I advanced well beyond the limits that others had once set for me. A final career move led me back to the research laboratory where I had worked previously, but now I was the director, with national and international responsibilities.
Ultimately, I learned that the experiences that initially seem to be setbacks may actually help you gain the qualifications that distinguish you from your peers.
Deborah H. Lee, P.E., P.H., ENV SP, BC.WRE, F.ASCE, is a technical society director on the ASCE Board of Direction.
This article first appeared in the November/December 2026 issue of Civil Engineering as “Wish I’d Known.”
