Hey, it’s Collin. Welcome to Engineering Echelons, a newsletter full of ideas and insights to help engineers excel at management.

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week.

• New and noteworthy news

• A management perspective to consider

• Leadership insights to delve into

• And more…

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Alright, let’s get into it.

Noteworthy Headlines

1Q2026 Cost Report (ENR)

Highlights:

• While executive compensation at construction firms remains historically higher than average, companies are rapidly reducing annual pay increases. This is dropping from 5.6% increases in 2023 down to 4.5% in 2025, and 2026 is estimated to slow to 4%.

Construction hiring drops in February to lowest rate on record (ENR)

Highlights:

• Jobs in the construction industry declined by 28,000 in February to 202k, which is a decline of 53,000 from February 2025.

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Management Perspective

From an operational standpoint, there are strong parallels between a professional kitchen and an engineering firm in the way staff get things done.

In the kitchen, there are chefs and there are line cooks. The chefs have a mastery of food science and create recipes to develop a menu. The line cooks understand food science and can follow recipes to prepare dishes on demand in a timely manner.

Chefs direct, line cooks execute. And both are important to the proper function of a professional restaurant.

In engineering firms, senior engineers are the chefs. They set the direction for projects by using their expertise to navigate the complexities of developing a project program. Enforced codes, local climate, budget, facility operations, and many other factors must all be considered by an experienced engineer to set the initial direction.

The Engineers-in-Training (EITs) and designers/drafters are like the line cooks. They have a more academic education and can follow guidance from the senior engineers to deliver real-world projects.

For many line cooks, that role is a stepping stone towards a chef position. Through lots of repetition and mentorship from chefs, their experience grows and their capabilities expand.

The story is similar for many EITs and designers/drafters. Which means there needs to be proper alignment on project delivery between the different groups of professionals.

A senior engineer who holds the reins too tightly won’t leave enough room for the junior staff to take responsibility and grow (and the project budget will likely take a hit as well).

Conversely, a junior EIT put in a project lead role without senior oversight adds risk to the project. And the stress of being responsible for parts of a project they aren’t ready to handle will probably negatively impact that staff member.

Therefore, it’s important to encourage your staff to think of themselves in terms similar to chefs and line cooks: there are distinct, important responsibilities that align with levels of experience to deliver high-quality projects while also developing staff into more capable professionals.

Management Insights

T.E. Lawrence (British military officer and diplomat) on dreams:

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.”

—

Peter Thiel (cofounder of PayPal and Palantir) on how to find secrets to gain a competitive edge:

“The best place to look for secrets is where no one else is looking. Most people think only in terms of what they’ve been taught; schooling itself aims to impart conventional wisdom. So you might ask: are there any fields that matter but haven’t been standardized and institutionalized?”

—

Robert Greene (author) on the difficulty of confronting reality:

“What limits individuals as well as nations is the inability to confront reality, to see things for what they are. As we grow older, we become more rooted in the past. Habit takes over. Something that has worked for us before becomes a doctrine, a shell to protect us from reality. Repetition replaces creativity.”

Management Resource

Who sets your agenda (Seth’s Blog)

A quick read reminding you that you have at least some authority over your time.

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• Let me know if you’ve found something worth sharing.

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Looking forward to hearing from you. See you next time.

Collin

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