Essay on Professional Experience and Career Progression

During my 15+ years of experience in the civil engineering field, I have worked in three different organizations under different capacities. These organizations are SAAED for Traffic Systems, Abu Dhabi Municipality, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company Masdar. The experience gained from the different positions has been instrumental in my career growth, and progression, as well as, expanding my management skills.

When I started working in September 2000, I was a Project Engineer at Abu Dhabi Municipality. This role helped me gain a lot of experience in managing people. In particular, it was my responsibility to manage all project stakeholders in the projects undertaken by the organization in order to ensure they were completed in time. During this period, I also gained experience in resolving conflicts and issues in projects since it was critical for the effective achievement of project milestones.

In June 2005, while still at Abu Dhabi Municipality I received by first promotion to Head of Contracts and Quantity Surveying. This role also played an important role in improving my work experience in managing people and resources since as part of my job description I led, assigned tasks, evaluated performance, and provided guidance to a team of six engineers. As the Head of Contracts and Quantity Surveying also gained knowledge in influencing strategy since it was my responsibility to review tender documents, offers from bidders, and provide recommendations on the awarding of contracts. My decisions greatly influenced the

I received my second promotion in 2007 while still working at the Abu Dhabi Municipality. After the promotion, my new job title was Head of Projects Execution Division. Working in this new capacity provided me with the much-needed experience in leading significant projects, and managing people. The main reason for this observation is that as the division head I was in charge of managing a wide range of civil engineering projects that included the construction of roads, pavements, bridges, tunnels, drainage systems, and landscaping works. I also gained experience in defining strategy since I ensured that all projects completed were compliant with the approved designs and project specifications. Lastly, I also increased my knowledge of managing budgets since I was in charge of aligning all projects, plans, and resources to the municipals budget.

In October 2009, I left the Abu Dhabi Municipality and joined Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company Masdar. At the new workplace, I was the Senior Infrastructure Project Manager. During this period, I engaged in different activities that involved leading significant projects. My job description included managing infrastructure projects for the MASDAR City that were both in the design and tendering stage.

In June 2010, I left the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company Masdar and rejoined the Abu Dhabi Municipality. The move included a promotion to Mega Projects Director. At this job capacity I was responsible for providing overall support for all mega projects under the Abu Dhabi Municipality. This involved ensuring that the goals set out for the projects were achieved in time and ensure that they met the overall quality and cost as required by the stakeholders.

In March 2013 to October 2014, I was promoted to the head of roads and infrastructure for the Abu Dhabi municipality. In this role, I was responsible for the management and implementation of strategies and plans related to roads and infrastructure creation and maintenance. This was meant to meet the objectives of the Abu Dhabi Municipality and I provided direction to the execution of all the road and infrastructure projects in the municipalitiys portfolio.

Lastly, in November 2014, I left the Abu Dhabi municipality and joined SAEED for Traffic Systems as the chief operating officer. As the COO, I was responsible for all operations of the company overseeing 1300 employees. This role also involved improving the performance of the organization as a whole in order to meet the key performance indicators and goals of the company.