A week ago, my best friend from high school, who now works at the Army Corp of Engineers in Washington D.C. imed me on aim. We were talking randomly at first about what's been going on. After a while, he started telling me about this side job he was offered. Apparently, there is a church in Baltimore that wants to renovate a few of their buildings. The buildings consist of a defunct church, which has now become a soup kitchen, and several other buildings that serve the community in various capacities. The church is now shutting down various parts of their organization in order to cut costs and save money. The owner of the three buildings and church area is trying to renovate the buildings in order to save them from being on the chopping block. My friend was offered a side job as a consultant for them in order to find a way to cheaply renovate the buildings and come up with possible financing measures through grants, etc.
My friend told me that he was interested in creating a mock consulting firm composed of close friends and other engineers he knew. He was running the idea by one of the architects he had on board, and he offered me a position on this job if I was willing. There is just one problem. The job does not pay. Because it is a church, they can offer tax rebates by writing to the government about our contribution of time and energy, but they could not really pay for our work. He told me that I should be looking at this as an opportunity to build a network and gain experience. I agreed. If there is one thing that is really doing a number hindering my efforts to get that bridge engineering job I want, it's the lack of experience. Although this does not give me experience in bridge design, it does give me design and consultancy experience. Plus, it is always beneficial to build a strong network of contacts. I still need to get back to him regarding this offer, but I am definitely up for it. You have to start somewhere, afterall.