Simpson Strong-Tie’s Engineering department held its annual engineering summit, giving our engineers across the country an opportunity to gather together for some team bonding and fun activities. Hear from branch engineer Phillip Hui about his experience at the summit and his thoughts on being an Excellence in Engineering award recipient. 

Growing up, I always liked to tinker with stuff, such as Legos. I would start by building something per the kit’s instruction and then try to build something else. This may be partially because I would lose the instructions and put all the different sets together in the same box. During junior year of high school, when the topic of picking a career path came up, I didn’t know what the heck I wanted to do. I mean, who really does know what they want to be, at that age? I talked with my high school counselor at the time, and she recommended that I look into a career relating to architecture or computer science, based on my interest at the time. I quickly realized that I was not great at drawing up buildings and didn’t want to sit in front of a computer all day, so she recommended civil engineering.

I ended up following her advice and had a college major in civil engineering. A few years later, in 2013, I joined Simpson Strong-Tie, and I’m currently a branch engineer based in Seattle, Washington, providing technical engineering support for our sales team and external clients.

Every year, Simpson Strong-Tie’s Engineering department hosts an engineering summit where all our engineers can catch up and share what they’ve been working on. I was excited to attend this year’s three-day summit, especially because this was the first one, we’ve had since the pandemic. This summit was a chance to connect with fellow engineers and learn about the wide range of activities and projects that are happening within the department. During the summit, it was great to hear from engineers, product managers and other guests about updates in codes, products and the various industries Simpson Strong-Tie is providing solutions for in the construction space.

During the summit, I was one of the recipients of the 2023 Excellence in Engineering award. The award was created to honor the outstanding contributions of individuals within our Engineering department. I was thankful and honored to receive this award. To me, this award is the fruit of teamwork and not a personal award. It lends to the success that we had as a team and that I was fortunate to be involved in. I see this award as an opportunity to recognize the efforts of the many people involved in various projects, including people from the Engineering, Sales, and Manufacturing departments.

The prominently theme displayed at the summit was our seventh company value, “Risk-Taking Innovation.” This value sums up the Engineering department as we develop products and solutions to help our customers solve problems. As for advice on figuring out a career path, I say choose a career path that will bring you joy and work at a place with a mission that you personally believe in. Simpson Strong-Tie’s stated mission, “We provide solutions that help people design and build safer, stronger structures,” is something I personally believe has a positive impact on humankind.