Welcome Emil Baccash
Our Latest Purple Squirrel
Hiring talent can be one of the hardest tasks a company faces. Many factors go into hiring a candidate who has a positive attitude, will be a good fit with the team, and will have a meaningful impact on the bottom line.
Smith Engineering works on many projects with NYSERDA and Con Edison, helping find rebates and incentives for their customers to take advantage of on the road to becoming more energy efficient. Emil Baccash is an Energy Engineer who has worked on the utility side of these programs and conversely brings us a fresh approach and a new perspective to that side of the business.
Smith Engineering is proud to announce the addition of Emil Baccash to the team. Emil answered some questions on why he chose Smith Engineering and gave his thoughts on the important work engineers do.
Why did you select Smith Engineering?
Out of all the companies I had interviewed with while making my transition, I felt I would be able to grow and develop as an Engineer at Smith Engineering more than other companies I had spoken with. This has a lot to do with the size and talent within Smith Engineering and the quality of clientele we do work with. With there being under 20 employees, you are required to wear many hats which allows you to develop at a much quicker pace. The growth potential was also a big selling point which I have been impressed with thus far as new, high-quality employees are being added at a quick yet healthy pace. In addition, the depth of projects I would be working on was exactly what I was looking for in my next position.
Describe your role at Smith Engineering.
As an Energy Engineer at Smith Engineering, I am involved with providing several services including but not limited to, investment-grade energy audits, energy modeling, and retro-commissioning for large commercial customers. Due to the size of the company, each engineer is assigned their own buildings to work on with supervision from upper management which allows each engineer to really own their projects.
What is your background in Engineering?
I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Industrial Engineering from Northeastern University. During my time at Northeastern, I completed three 6-month co-ops, two of which were at ESCO firms. This opened my eyes and gave me a great introduction to the energy efficiency space. Post-graduation I worked for an energy consulting firm in NYC for 2+ years and earned my EIT and CMVP-IT certifications along the way.
What within Engineering excites you to wake up each day and do it again?
I enjoy the fact that our work and the energy efficiency industry as a whole has a purpose in helping solve serious issues that are impacting our ever-evolving world. The engineering space consistently brings and discovers new problems that need to be solved every day allowing the industry to constantly improve and grow. Also being able to watch your model or design develop from soup to nuts is both exciting and rewarding and allows you to watch the improvements and changes that you engineered firsthand.
Can you share a moment in your professional career that has stuck with you or taught you a life lesson that you still use today or that has helped you be successful?
During my time in energy consulting, I was a contractor for various utilities throughout the Tri-State area, working with a lot of smaller businesses and residential units, and interacting with a high volume of buildings that each had their own set of problems and people. Each building brought a unique set of customers who were not always cooperative along the way. This allowed me to develop my customer-facing skills, both by being patient and trying to work with every customer’s specific needs and wants to meet the end goal while keeping all parties happy.
Welcome Emil, we are proud to have you as our teammate.