Co-ops Help Alumnus Discover Interest in Structural Engineering
Richard Horowitz, E’74, civil engineering, led an impressive career in the structural engineering industry, including co-founding an engineering company that is still thriving today. He credits his co-ops for helping him discover his career interests and understand interoffice politics.
If there was a throughline to the career journey of Richard Horowitz, E’74, civil engineering, it would be a firm desire to seek new experiences out of every opportunity he pursued. That’s partially what drew Horowitz to Northeastern, who, after learning of the school through his high school guidance counselor, saw co-op as an educational tool that aligned with his learning style. “I’m not a real book person, so I learned from my experience,” he says.
When he started his Northeastern journey, Horowitz was convinced he would end up in the environmental field. His first co-op reflects this intent: a position at Hoffrel Industries in Connecticut in air pollution testing. Horowitz got the job through his father, a local baker who convinced a frequent customer and Hoffrel employee to take on a co-op. Although this relieved the worry of securing a job, Horowitz says it added pressure to perform well. “When your father recommends you, you can’t mess up and make him look bad,” he says.
At Hoffrel, Horowitz worked on a team that source-tested emissions from power plants throughout the country, from the flat desert of New Mexico to the mountains of Denver, by collecting and analyzing samples from their smokestacks. As a 20-year-old, he could not have imagined a better job. “What more could I ask for? It was the best job to have, and I learned about the good and bad parts of air pollution,” he says.
But Horowitz quickly realized that despite enjoying his duties at Hoffrel and the camaraderie between himself and his coworkers, a career in environmental engineering would not suit his skill set in the long run. His enhanced knowledge of his career interests allowed Horowitz to switch gears while searching for his next co-op, eventually leading him to take a civil engineering role found for him by Northeastern’s co-op department in the City of Scarsdale, New York’s engineering department.
The Scarsdale Engineering Department was Horowitz’s first time in an office after working primarily in the field during his Hoffrel co-ops. Although unlike any environment he’s worked in previously, Horowitz soon learned how to navigate the political landscape of his office, growing to understand internal power structures and how to interact with his colleagues in a formal setting. Those foundational skills came in handy when Horowitz eventually opened his own company. “I knew how important inter-office interaction was to keep people working together as a team,” he says.
Still looking to experience other avenues in civil engineering, Horowitz sought a structural engineering position for his final co-op. He found this opportunity at UOP’s air control division, where he helped design support systems for the company’s electrostatic precipitators and the surrounding ductwork. For Horowitz, the structural work at UOP aligned with his career preferences, solidifying the avenue he wanted to take after graduating. He returned to UOP after graduation, with an above-average salary for postgraduate engineers due to his experience from his co-op jobs.
“It felt like I was doing something constructive,” Horowitz says. “I was keeping these ducts from collapsing in on themselves, so it was very rewarding.”
As he continued at UOP, Horowitz realized his role offered little room for a diversified workload or growth within the company. Hoping to find new experiences in his career journey, Horowitz decided to take a leave of absence from the company after just two years of work there. After finding a motorhome for sale at a gas station, he and his wife began a life-changing journey zigzagging westward across the country.
The two left their home in Stanford, Connecticut, in September 1976 and reached San Diego that December. While browsing through a store in San Diego and speaking with the person who worked there, Horowitz was given the phone numbers of structural engineers in the area who could be looking to hire engineers. He called one of those numbers the following February and was quickly hired by the engineering firm SB&O.
“I was interviewing with the bosses, and coincidentally, their engineer had left that same day,” says Horowitz. “The engineer had given his two weeks’ notice earlier and left that day, so they offered me a job on the spot.”
It was an opportunity Horowitz could not have imagined falling into his lap months earlier but altered the trajectory of his career. He remained at SB&O for over a decade, eventually being named a junior partner at the firm before departing in 1991 to start his own company.
At the root of his successes were co-op experiences from his time at Northeastern, which, along with teaching him engineering basics, helped Horowitz discover his interest in structural engineering and understand interoffice politics.
“I didn’t know how much influence the co-op program would have on my career path,” says Horowitz. “I didn’t realize until I started getting different jobs and realizing that… structural was my path.”
As Horowitz’s postgraduate career progressed, he continued to redefine what he wanted out of his career through new working experiences. While a junior partner at SB&O, Horowitz realized he had learned how to run a business while observing the department meetings but was not given any decision-making power by his superiors. This realization became the catalyst that led Horowitz to start his own business, called HTK Structural Engineers, a venture he and his business partner grew out of their garages into a booming company with 25 employees at its peak.
Horowitz’s business is still operating today, managed by a third partner who joined Horowitz and his co-founder in 2001. Now retired, Horowitz takes pride in the company’s continued success. “It feels good,” he says. “It feels real good to have a legacy.”