Written by Laila Smith and Isabelle Egizio
Before they were engineers out in the field, they were editors in chief of the Wisconsin Engineer. To learn more about their experience with the magazine, and how it’s helped them in their careers, we interviewed two of our former editors in chief.
Erin Clements, a 2020 graduate who studied civil and environmental engineering, first joined the magazine as a writer before becoming a writing head and then editor-in-chief. Throughout her time at UW–Madison, she spent four years with the Wisconsin Engineer. Now, Clements is a senior design engineer at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, where she works with 3D modeling software to design highway improvement projects. Her team collaborates with federal agencies, local municipalities, tribes, and local businesses to ensure each project meets the needs of the surrounding community.
Harley Hutchins graduated from UW–Madison in 2009 with a degree in nuclear engineering and had initially joined the magazine as a staff photographer to earn college credits for his humanities requirement. He found that he enjoyed being part of the team, and he returned as a photography department head before becoming an editor in chief. After graduating, Hutchins worked as a nuclear safety engineer for URS Corporation, a mechanical/nuclear engineer for Amec Foster Wheeler, and is currently a nuclear manager at Sargent & Lundy.
How has your experience as an editor in chief (EIC) helped you in your professional career?
Erin Clements: WEM really helped teach me about teamwork and how to work in a group. Even though I’m not a project manager or in a leadership position now, it was really important to learn how to work with different personalities and collaborate to make a final product, whether that be a magazine or a highway project.
Harley Hutchins: It was my first experience managing a team of people, and it was a great learning experience in terms of working in a team and managing resources. Engineering is a multidisciplinary field, and knowing how to work with people from different backgrounds, even on a small scale, is a skill that I continue to use today.
As an EIC, not only are you in a position where you’re teaching people, managing their work, and coordinating resources from different disciplines, but you also learn a lot of communication skills. People always have this idea of an engineer as being someone who’s always working on a computer or crunching numbers, but I spend around 60% of my time communicating with other people in some capacity. Being pushed into the communications side of the magazine is a skill that I still appreciate today, and it’s something I look back on fondly.
How did your experience with the magazine impact your job search?
EC: I brought one of our magazines into my job interview for WisDOT, and I’d highly recommend other members do the same. They were so impressed that I had a tangible piece of evidence that proves I could effectively work with a team and produce a final product.
HH: People will have co-ops and internships on their resume, and those are great from a technical development perspective. But being able to put “editor in chief of a magazine” on your resume is a great conversation starter, and it’s a great opportunity to talk about your development as a new professional. It was a highlight of my college career, and it definitely propagated through to my professional career.
What goals did you try to accomplish during your time as EIC?
EC: My time with the magazine was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which also happened to be the same time that our faculty advisor, Steven Zwickel, retired. It was stressful to find a new faculty advisor while also navigating the pandemic, and during this process some of the faculty within the College of Engineering suggested that the magazine had run its course and that we were reaching the end. I thought, “I’ll be damned if I’m the one that this magazine ends under!” It was such an important group and such an amazing opportunity for people that I just wanted to make sure that the magazine held on. We ultimately managed to pull through, and I’m really glad to see that the magazine is still running after the lockdown.
HH: Our main goals were always stability and stewardship — you want to leave the magazine in a better place than where you picked it up. At the time, we had focused on the website and digital aspects of the magazine: we knew we had to have an online aspect of the magazine, so we worked on publishing our articles on the website and learning the ins and outs of having a media website. We definitely had a vision for a more digital version of the magazine.
How has your experience with the magazine set you apart from other engineers?
EC: I’ve found that a lot of engineers hate writing! That’s something that makes Wisconsin Engineer members different from other engineers — we’re good writers. Writing can sometimes be difficult, but we have a technical background and we know how to write well, and I think that makes us stand out from others.
HH: The kind of engineering that I fell into was a lot of analytical work. There’s the “fun” design sides of engineering, where you’re laying out machines or making drawings, but there’s also a lot of math behind those designs that proves they actually do what they’re supposed to do. You also have to write a report that explains the math behind these designs, shows the results, and proves that the results meet a certain objective. I found that I excelled at writing these reports because I had spent a lot of time focusing on communication and using clear, concise language during my time with the magazine. It set me apart from my peers, and was a huge advantage for my professional career.
What’s one piece of advice you have for current students or our magazine staff?
EC: One thing that really helped me when I was a writer in WEM was making an outline. An outline helps so much in giving you a solid structure for your article. Understanding basic grammar is also super important! Whenever I see someone use the wrong there/their/they’re, I can’t help but think, “Are you serious?” Like I said before, we stand out as engineers because we’re also writers.
HH: As much as engineering appears to be this science-focused endeavor, at the end of the day it’s still a human thing; it’s still people working together. You need to understand how to work as a team and communicate with a team. You need to understand the human aspects of engineering as much as you understand the science side. It doesn’t matter how right you are; if you can’t convince anyone else that you have a good solution, it’s not a good solution! I think it’s important for people to appreciate the humanity aspect of engineering.
