This project was one of the first assignments I worked on when I entered the industry in 2012. The construction phase had started around that time, possibly a year or so earlier. The overall goal was to build a city-level capability to control, monitor, and manage multiple traffic-related points, including:
- Signal-controlled intersections
- CCTV surveillance locations
- Traffic violation monitoring and recording points
- Traffic guidance / information display points
- Highway vehicle intelligent monitoring and recording points
It was one of the first project batches I took on as a newcomer. Before joining this role, I had worked across several industries, which gave me some familiarity with different working environments—especially when it came to dealing with different types of clients. Because of that background, I was assigned to the delivery team as a trainee assistant. My main responsibilities were to support the project manager with day-to-day coordination and to communicate with clients as part of the project’s ongoing delivery work.
A Shift in Communication
At the beginning, I was still getting used to this type of work. I had general communication skills, but I lacked experience in professional, project-specific communication. Once, I submitted a report that did not meet the required standards, and that caused the client to form an inaccurate understanding of the on-site progress.
However, I drew on communication practices from my previous jobs and used the right approach to recover the situation. By the next day, I delivered a revised report that the client was satisfied with.
That was the first time I realized something important in this field: being “good at communicating” doesn’t automatically mean your communication is effective in professional delivery work. When working with clients, meeting the required standard comes first; communication style comes second.
(Years later, I revisited and refined this belief—but at the time, it was a critical lesson.)
Cross-Disciplinary On-Site Supervision
Even today, this kind of project is hard to classify under a single category. It was initiated as an information systems project, but in practice it included substantial roadside civil works. Most of the core work happened outdoors—along roads rather than in an office.
This was also my first time supervising construction activities in an information-systems context, covering the full on-site process—from excavation and foundation work to the complete installation of roadside poles and structures.
The project manager intentionally used this as a development opportunity for me. From the start, I was assigned tasks I wasn’t familiar with. Before sending me on-site, he told me the purpose was to help me understand how complex it can be when civil engineering work and information systems work are combined.
I already had some understanding of managing software development and system integration. But I had never been involved in civil works. In this project, everything started from field conditions: building the physical foundation, installing intelligent devices, transmitting data to the control-room servers, integrating those devices into the platform, and enabling the system to manage and adjust traffic operations.
This end-to-end workflow was very common in large-scale projects at the time. And while it was complex, it wasn’t overwhelming—because the team was highly experienced. People constantly reminded each other of the next step, and I was able to get up to speed quickly.