Organization of Engineering and Geoscience Work

Engineering and geoscience work is organized in many different ways in Canada. Some work, particularly operation or maintenance-oriented work, will have people assigned to it for an indefinite period of time. Other work will be organized on a project basis with a defined beginning and end.

While many organizations, such as government offices, utilities and manufacturers, will have their own staff of engineers and geoscientists, other companies (usually consulting companies) compete with each other to do work for other organizations. For example, as the diagram to the left shows, a municipality that wants to build a new water treatment centre will not have the engineers and geoscientists required within its own staff. It will contract one or more private (consulting) companies to complete the water treatment centre on its behalf. In most cases, the municipality will issue a request for proposals. Companies who are interested in the project will submit a proposal (sometimes called a bid or tender). The municipality will review all of the proposals and select the proposal best suited to their needs. They will then contract the company to complete the work. In turn, the company contracted to do the work may sub-contract services it needs but does not have on staff. Any type of work may be sub-contracted. Some common examples include drilling, laboratory work, and specialty engineering or geoscience services. Jobs that require engineering and geoscience skills are available in both public and private companies.

Entering the Job Market

Most engineers in BC work in large and small private companies such as consulting firms, construction firms, and manufacturing and processing companies. Engineering positions are also found in federal, provincial and municipal government offices, crown corporations and agencies.   Many internationally trained engineers will first look for a job in a government office or a large company and miss opportunities that may be available in small companies and construction firms. The career paths of recently immigrated ITEGs often resemble those of new graduates. A new engineering graduate's job will often focus on his or her technical skills and may be initially limited to the performance of one task, such as design or cost estimation. As the new graduate gains experience, his or her duties will expand and he or she will become more involved in tasks such as proposal writing and evaluation, and client, contract and project management.

According to Canada Geoscientists, most geoscience graduates begin their careers in the petroleum and mining industries (about 60% and 20%, respectively); however, more geoscientists are becoming involved in the environmental sub-professions of waste management, water, remote sensing interpretation, construction and natural hazard prediction. Most new geoscience graduates spend some time working away from urban centres, often in northern areas or on location at mining or drilling sites. Like engineering graduates, new geoscience graduates start out working in a fairly narrow role on specific projects. As they become more experienced, their responsibilities increase and their work becomes more diverse, both technically and geographically. Given the large amount of geoscience work Canadian companies do in the developing world, particularly in South America, geoscience work can involve international travel. Like engineers, geoscientists will find work in large and small private companies and various government offices.

The Engineering and Geoscience Teams

As you learned on the previous page, most engineering and geoscience work is completed by a group of people with different skills and knowledge who work together. Groups of people working together on an engineering or geoscience project are often referred to as an "engineering or geoscience team". Sometimes, all of the people working on a given project will work for the same employer; other times, more than one company may be involved and several teams, each employed by a different company, will work together to complete different parts of a very large or inter-disciplinary project.

Many individuals in the group will have engineering and geoscience skills and knowledge but not all of them will be Professional Engineers and Professional Geoscientists. Some team members have engineering or geoscience degrees but are not Professional Engineers or Professional Geoscientists, some are technicians and technologists, some specialize in field, lab, drafting or other work. On larger projects, administrative people will help the group by completing research, coordinating the work of different team members, word processing or editing reports. Professional Engineers and Professional Geoscientists supervise and take legal responsibility for the engineering and geoscience work completed by the team. The following document, General Job Categories and Types of Positions, will provide more detail on individual roles within the engineering team.

Career Development and Job-Search Plan

Individuals compete for jobs in Canada. At this time, in most parts of BC, there are more people looking for engineering and geoscience jobs than there are jobs. There are two steps to getting a job:

1. Become exactly what employers are looking for (career development);
2. Market yourself to the right employers (job-search).

The following webpages will help you do just that. Each webpage provides a basic introduction to a topic. Each webpage is also connected to a worksheet in this Career Development and Job-Search Document. If you have not already saved this document to your computer or to a CD or memory stick, do that now. It is a Microsoft Excel document. If the computer you are working on does not have Excel, find one that does. The document will not work well in other software programs. If you have never used Excel, this is a good opportunity to learn. It is a software progam that you will use in most jobs.

To Complete the Document

After reading each webpage, you will open your copy of the Career Development and Job-Search Plan and go to the associated worksheet. You will complete the worksheet by returning to the webpage and following the links provided. The webpage introductions are short. To learn about each topic and answer the worksheet questions, you will need to follow the links and thoroughly review the information you find. In most cases, each link provided on these webpages will lead you to many more links. Keep following the links. The more information you collect, the more successful you will be.

When You are Done Completing the Document

When you have completed all of the webpages and their associated worksheets, your document will form your customized Career Development and Job-Search Plan. Your completed plan will tell you where you should focus your job search, whether it is important for you to apply to APEGBC at this time, the skills you need to improve and how to improve them, the skills you are strong in and should market to employers, the employers you should contact, the amount of money you should expect to make, and more.

Take Your Time Completing the Document

You should spend several hours working through each webpage. You may decide to work on one webpage and associated worksheet each day or even each week. It may take you several weeks to work through all of the webpages and their associated worksheets. Before getting started on your first webpage, you might want to do a preview of all of the pages and associated worksheets to get an overall idea of what you are working towards.

Always Update Your Document

Your Career Development and Job-Search Plan document will never be fully complete. You will find that you often return to worksheets you had already "completed" to add new information. You will also need to update your document when you have completed a training or job-search activity, such as completing a course or applying for a job. It has been proven that keeping all of your information organized and in one place, and following a written plan increases your chance of success.

Complete All Parts of Your Document

It is important to put time and effort into your career development. There is no point in presenting yourself to an employer if you cannot offer them what they need. In some cases ITEGS may need to adapt or upgrade their skills and knowledge to fit the Canadian marketplace before they can be successful in finding employment. Like Canadian-trained engineers and geoscientists, you will have to continue this process to keep your job. Do not undervalue the career development portion of your job-search. It is essential to your success.

You may decide to read the information in this online resource and not complete the Career Development and Job-Search Plan. Your chance of success will increase if you spend the time to develop a career and job search plan.

Go to the next page to get started.