Can an avid outdoorsman from Montana find happiness designing and building bridges in Eastern Washington? Shaun Honeycutt would say yes. A little more than seven years ago, he listened to a pitch from a WSDOT project engineer from Wenatchee who was visiting his school – The South Dakota School of Mining and Technology. Shaun decided his engineering degree might be well invested at a public agency instead of a commercial engineering firm.

Shaun was born in Seattle, but raised in Drummond Montana, so Washington State wasn’t entirely an unknown quantity. “I’m a hunter and fisherman and a motorcycle rider, so Wenatchee is perfect for that,” he says, “If I find myself doing exactly what I’m doing today, five years from now, that would probably be okay – I’m pretty happy here.”

At 31, Shaun has worked his way from the E-1 he was in 2001 to E-3, today. “I wouldn’t be happy in a cubical all the time and this job has allowed me to both design a project and then build it,” says Shaun, “I like the variety, too. I spent six months in the Scoping office. I’ve gotten to design and construct fish passage, rock slope stabilization and paving projects.” “Right now, I’m doing two bridge replacements on US 2 and learning a lot”.

Would he recommend WSDOT to other young engineers? “Sure”, says Shaun, “The best part is the flexible schedule – you actually get the time off that they promised!” (There are Steelhead and White Tails that wish it wasn’t so…)

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