That was the TikTok trend we hopped on during my internship, capturing the personality of engineers in a short video that made people stop scrolling.

“I’m a marketing intern for a Structural Engineer, of course I…”

But what comes after that? Before this summer, I wouldn’t have known what to say.

The summer going into senior year of high school, I was lost. It seemed like everyone knew exactly what interested them and who they were going to become, future doctors, engineers, lawyers, and athletes. And then there was me, I was no athlete, nor was I good at math or science. Public health? Ew, blood. Engineering? My dad does that and he’s a total math nerd. Political science? I didn’t even know who our current local representative was.

I had no idea what I wanted to do but I knew what kept me entertained. Social media. In my free time, I would edit fun YouTube videos, scroll through TikTok and Pinterest, and I would get excited about social media trends. That’s what made me happy. So, as I scrolled through the list of majors, one caught my eye: marketing. It wasn’t as intimidating as the others; it was just up my alley.

Now here I am, working a summer internship at a structural engineering firm. That girl who once said, “ew, engineering” is now sitting in meetings about engineering projects, drafting proposals, and creating social media posts about engineers and what they do. And surprisingly, I love it.

I’ve learned that marketing isn’t just for beauty brands or movies. It’s about storytelling, even when the stories are hidden behind those concrete buildings. This role has taught me that it’s finding creativity in a place most people don’t look at, and adding light to a place that’s dim. So no, KPFF might not be as flashy as Netflix, Coca-Cola, or Apple but it’s what’s behind all that, the spaces where people dream, work, and create the brands we all know. And I’m getting to help tell that story? That’s a pretty cool job I have.

At first, I was intimidated by the world of engineering, as it felt so grey to me. Plans, measurements, calculations, and terminology I have never heard before. But I’ve realized that even in the precise world of engineering, there’s room and a need for creativity. Many Gen Z, including me, have little awareness of this industry, with less than a third even considering a career in engineering. Trust me we’re missing out on seeing how creativity and impact can merge in unexpected places. And I get to help tell this story to inspire others, and to market a company like KPFF, who are dedicated to bridging the gap between visionary design and the reality of building it. This internship has opened my eyes to how marketing can elevate industries people often overlook, and I’m excited to take these lessons into whatever story I help tell next.

And this is what I’d say if I had to finish the TikTok:

“I’m a marketing intern for a Structural engineer, of course I help tell the stories that are hidden behind those concrete walls.”

@kpff_la

We’re structural engineers…of course we’re late to this trend. #BetterLateThanNever #OfCourse #StructuralEngineers #StructuralEngineering #kpff #kpffla #kpffoc #losangeles #orangecounty

♬ original sound – KPFF LA & OC Structural

Julia Orue is our 2025 Structural Engineering Marketing Intern. She is attending Santa Clara University with an estimated graduation date of 2028.

The post KPFF builds structures, I build their stories appeared first on KPFF Greater Los Angeles Structural.

I don’t mean that I was born for this. Some people have this sense of destiny or fate, or they just really know what they want to do when they “grow up.” They just seem to know what they want to do (insert shrug here). Not so with me: it took me a while to figure “me” out – to make me.

As I look back on that process of making me who I am now, the most impactful, life-changing moments were the most subtle.

EDUCATION

I grew up with little means but with well-resourced schools and teachers who recognized a kid with an insatiable appetite for learning. After school, my dad would take my sister and I to the library where we devoured as many books as we could get our hands on. I didn’t discriminate; I read Reader’s Digest, To Kill a Mockingbird, books on entomology, and the backs of cereal boxes. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn, the more possibilities there were. I remember filling out college applications thinking, “How am I supposed to choose just one thing to study?” Engineering seemed like the best way of taking what I enjoyed (math, physics, and art history) while allowing myself to be useful.

I chose to study structural engineering.

TRAINING

At KPFF, I have been blessed with generous teachers and mentors. I learned not only the technical aspects of structural engineering, but also how to plan, how to deal with stressful situations, how to use conflict to reach resolution, how to dialog. This work often feels hard because it is hard. But I have been trained to do hard things, and I can face them with both courage and creativity – this is what I hope to pass on to others I am training.

I choose to do hard things.

LOVE

It’s not what I was looking for when we met, but I cannot stress enough how important my partner has been to my career. I found a real partner in life, someone who celebrates my choices and supports my effort and ambition. Though I feel blessed, I don’t feel lucky. I don’t think of love as being discovered, fated, or completely up to chance. I think of love as a choice and a habit.

I choose to love him, and I choose to love my work.

MOTHERHOOD

I appreciate my parents much more now that I have children of my own – my parents had almost sainted levels of patience to have kept their cool as much as they did! Even so, I know my path to and through motherhood is more comfortable than my mother’s was and her mother’s was before her. My mother didn’t have a choice but to work, and she didn’t have many options on what her work would be (she stopped going to school at age eight). By contrast, I know the time I take away from my children and partner has to be meaningful enough to warrant the opportunity cost. My work as an engineer adds to society and saves lives.

I choose to be a working mother.

I am proud of the work I do and the person I am. My life made me for this. My work made me for this. I made me for this.

The post “I Was Made For This” – Celebrating International Women in Engineering Day 2022 appeared first on KPFF Greater Los Angeles Structural.

I’ve had the opportunity to spend the last six months scoping out the place, and I can honestly say the buzz still gets me every day. I take the Metrolink in for an hour to Union Station. Everyday a full train of professionals come off the train, some in suits, some in scrubs, some in construction shirts and hard hats. I am surrounded by people energized for the day. We get off the train and head to our next mode of transportation, for me it’s the Metro Redline. I scan my Metrolink app QR code to let me through the turnstile and we are off. At the 7th Street Metro station, our stop, a significant portion of the train exits, as this is a central transfer hub and location to offices. I head through the BLOC tunnel to avoid the crosswalk and pick up the Starbucks coffee I ordered on my app two stops ago, and then off to the 21st floor. Every day it feels like I’m in a movie; I even feel the need to dress the part.

Being up on the 21st floor makes for great views and better opportunity. KPFF LA Civil is one of our friendliest clients. I mean, they have let a lonely structural engineer crash their floor for 6 months. I didn’t mistype that, KPFF Civil is our client. They provide us with work and opportunity. I get approached at least weekly if not daily about a project. Some of them have been large projects and some smaller, but I’m getting the work because I’m ten steps away. It’s a true sign that location matters. The work Civil is approaching me on would have come to our office one way or another, but it’s coming to me because I’m close. Let’s now broaden our vision, what do you think our architectural clients in Downtown Los Angeles are doing? Are they more likely to call the engineer one hour away to get their feedback on a perspective job or the engineer two blocks away? Hopefully, they are calling us either way, but they will be more likely to call us when we are the engineer two blocks away. It’s the nature of relationships.

Here’s another example of where we can better our practice and create opportunity. Leo A Daly was the architect-of-record for Universal Project 831 I was working on last year. They are located 3 blocks from our new office. We had bi-weekly coordination meetings during the design phase of the project. Several times we would pull up the Revit model and work through some issues. Now, I’m no expert at Revit. The whole time we were meeting I kept thinking “I wish Simon was here right now to walk through this,” and now he can be!

Since I’ve been here, I was asked to propose on jobs with DLR Group because I took the elevator up to the 21st floor with an architect. I’ve run into clients while grabbing lunch and I’ve had the opportunity to attend marketing events and SEAOC meetings without the commute to worry about. I can hear the buzz getting louder as the KPFF Structural Office move is approaching. I can imagine needing ear plugs as we all get here and shake up Downtown LA. Welcome to the land of opportunity.

The post Downtown Los Angeles…A Structural Engineer’s Perspective appeared first on KPFF Greater Los Angeles Structural.