Drafting Her Start: Engineering Grad Begins Career at one of Alabama's Largest Firms

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Posted on September 30, 2024

Thomas Becnel

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#MyFirstJob is a series focused on recent graduates of the University of South Alabama.

For Mia Sarafijanovic, the University of South Alabama offered a smooth career path into the field of civil engineering.

She became active in the American Society of Civil Engineers and was elected president of the campus chapter. That led to several college internships. The final one was at Thompson Engineering, which offered her a full-time job after graduation in May.

“I was very excited to work with ASCE for three years,” said Sarafijanovic, 23. “It’s one of the reasons I met so many people and had these opportunities.”

At the Thompson Engineering office in Daphne, she’s an engineering associate working with Nick Combs, who graduated from South in 2019. They’re part of a job pipeline crossing Mobile Bay. She does a lot of computer-assisted design work for construction projects in Baldwin County.

“Most of my days are spent with Nick,” she said. “He’ll show me how to do something and explain everything along the way.”

After work, Sarafijanovic spends a few hours each day studying for the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, a state licensing test. That’s part of her job, too. When she completes that test, she’ll begin preparing for the Professional Engineering exam.

“I’m hoping to do that one next year,” she said. “To get it out of the way.”

Sarafijanovic’s family is from Bosnia, but her parents left Sarajevo when war broke out in the 1990s. She was born in Detroit and lived in California, Missouri and Florida.

“My parents always wanted to do something new,” she said. “They loved it in America. St. Louis was full of Bosnians when we lived there. English is my second language, but we always mixed it in a lot. We still do that. In one sentence, it’ll be half-English and half-Bosnian.”

At East Lake High School, north of Tampa, her mother encouraged her to try an engineering program. It was a good fit. After visiting her older sister in Mobile, she decided to study engineering at South.

Sarafijanovic never planned on joining a sorority, but a Bosnian friend led her to Phi Mu, which became her second home during the Covid pandemic. It helped round out her college experience.

“I loved staying busy, doing sorority stuff, intramural sports and things on campus,” she said. “You had your own room, but you never had to be alone, and I kind of liked that. I have my engineering friends, and my friends from Phi Mu, and we all hang out. They all kind of know each other.”

Sarafijanovic went on to become the first member of her family to graduate from college.

“Fourteen people, including family friends from Atlanta and St. Louis, came to my graduation ceremony,” she said. “They all stayed at my house, which was crazy, but it was a lot of fun.”

After graduation, she spent two months traveling through Italy, Slovakia and Croatia, where her parents retired. Then she returned to work in Daphne, where Sarafijanovic spends most of her day working with drafting software such as Bentley and AutoCAD.

This helps explain why she jumps at any chance to do field work. She’s learning that you can’t always trust maps and surveys. There’s value to walking a job site and making sure everything is where it’s supposed to be. 

“Every time we start a new project, I want to get out there,” she said. “I’m very excited about that. Seeing things up close.”

 

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