Apprenticeship - Traffic Engineer/Planner with Spack Consulting

Traffic engineering/planning is a field with great long term potential – congestion isn’t going away.  Instead of getting a master’s degree to try to break into the field, consider spending six intense months in my office learning how to be a great traffic engineer/planner.  You’ll save $50,000, a year or more of your life, and you’ll learn the skills to land a full-time job.  This program isn’t an internship- it’s an old-fashioned apprenticeship.  You don’t get paid, you don’t do busywork, and you won’t be on your own.  This program isn’t for everyone.  If it were, it wouldn’t be worth much.  I intend to recruit two to five people to go through this program together. 

Here’s the program I am interested in creating:

1. Five hours a week of class/dialogue.
2. Twenty hours a week working on my projects.
3. Fifteen hours a week working on your projects.

At the end of the program, you’ll get a great recommendation letter (assuming you work hard) detailing the technical and business skills you have learned.  It is also possible I’ll ask one or more people to stay on. 

Boundaries for the program:

1. You must live in the Twin Cities.
2. Have access to a car (and a valid driver's license) – work project mileage will be paid.
3. You have to speak and write perfect English.
4. No smoking.
5. You must be smart, have good people skills, and be nice - with impeccable references to back this up.
6. I don’t care what your background is.  I care what you have done, and more importantly, how you have done it.
7. You must have a head for numbers, but be flexible.  We’ll be analyzing traffic, which is like analyzing water rushing through pipes except people in cars have free will where water molecules don’t (and sometimes we’ll analyze human beings walking or riding bikes).
8. It is the information age – you must be comfortable with computers.
   

Why work for Mike Spack?  Good question.  I am a traffic engineer with thirteen years of experience.  I created my own consulting firm in 2001 at the age of 28.  We have 140 clients, with about a 90% level of repeat business.  I teach part-time in the University of Minnesota’s civil engineering program.  I believe in the cutting edge – how many other traffic engineer bloggers are out there (see MikeOnTraffic.com).  I am a regular contributor to the Minnesota Real Estate Journal and U of MN Technology Transfer Newsletter.  I am a past president of the North Central Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and was also on ITE’s district board – I have lots of connections in the industry.

Why not do a traditional internship?  Another good question.  Because they don’t work very well in my experience (I had internships in college and I have hired interns).  The interns get dumped on with busywork.  The interns aren’t always motivated.  They don’t really get taught.  They are treated as low level factory workers.

So why no pay, you’ll be working on projects in which I may profit after all?  This is a program somewhere between a master’s degree (where you pay) and an internship (where I pay).  I don’t know where to strike the balance, so I’m going with free.  There is a chance I’ll pay a bonus if we make a lot of money, but this is going to take a lot of my time (kind of intimidating actually) where I won’t be making money.

How to apply – email me a resume.  Focus on your accomplishments (I don’t like resumes that merely prove you showed up, i.e. I graduated from this college).  Also, email me a report about what you had for breakfast yesterday and how you prepared it.

Some fine print - I reserve the right to cancel the program for any reason before July 13.  All participants (including me) will sign a NDA and work for hire agreement.  College degree helpful but not required (there is no degree required to be a transportation planner). This is not an accredited program (I know, shocking we didn’t get ABET approval).  We are not responsible for unclaimed luggage or broken bug shields.  You supply books, laptops, and your own food.  Sometimes I'll cook lunch and you can pretend it's delicious.  I’ll supply the coffee pot, grinder, beans, and water.

Key dates:

1. Deadline for applications: noon, July 6, 2009
2. Open house in my office by invitation only: July 9, 2009
3. Start date: July 20, 2009

Our office is at 3268 Xenwood Avenue South, St. Louis Park, MN 55416.  Our outdated (we are having them updated) websites are www.trafficdatainc.com and www.spackconsulting.com.  My email is mspack@spackconsulting.com. 

Please - no stalking or rude interruptions to my day.  The initial cut will be based entirely on the email submissions.

 

Comments

[Brian]

Sounds like a great program. Hope it is mutually benefical. I wish more companies did soemhtign like this instead of another mundane internship program.

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