Bossnass

On monday I start a new job, a summer position. I decided on my interest in civil engineering in January, and I managed to get this position through a strong resume in other fields and a pair of interviews that went quite well.
I still don't know for sure what my day to day job will entail, but it is on site work, and I phoned to nail down some details. I thought I would be doing some surveying and yelling at high school students to get their shovels moving.

I just learned this morning that I will be a crew leader, in charge of tradesmen and civil technologists. I have no doubt that they all have more expereince and more knowledge than I do. I see this as a potential problem.

Sure I can tell you a pretty solid estimate of the forces acting on the boom and the stick and the bucket of that backhoe, and I should be able to get pretty close with a differential calc equation. But when it comes to literally getting my hands dirty, I just don't know what to do.

I think I could identify the difference between a dozer, a grader, and a scraper. But I don't 100% which is the grader and which is the scraper. I don't know which machine is used in which situation. Ectetera and so on.

Help. I don't want these guys to eat me alive.

Thanks. Anything would be helpful.