Geotechnical Engineer Responsibilities

[swaiteen]

Two years ago I obtained an engineering degree (Geotechnical) and gained employment as a Geotechnician. Now I am currently looking for Junior Geotechnical Engineer positions.

The experience I have is with initial geotechnical investigations, ground improvement and hydraulics. My question is: what are the major and minor responsibilities of a Junior GTE in the first one to three years of employment? For example; What are the field tests and laboratory tests performed? What important concepts are paramount to a GTE?

Thank you for your help in advance.

 

[BigH]

In our company, you did site investigation after site investigation - along with compaction control, pile driving/bored pile inspections, some factual report writing - also routine design report writing (reviewed of course), hand calculations of slope stability situations, hand computations of settlements and consolidation, parametric analyses for pile capacities and also for slope stability problems, some routine lab testing - perhaps for a special investigation - like separating varves of a varved clay and doing the Atterbergs on each part - did this for 4 to 5 years - then gradually weaned out of the field into report writing and directing newbies as they started their field careers - and more involved design work such as for tailings dams and the like.

We didn't have "codified" position responsibilities and duties, etc. Oh, and we learned to draw up stratigraphic sections with the structures put on them in order to develop the design criteria, learned to use the blue print machine, oh,yeah, and when the load was great, learned how to write notes on drawings, boring logs and that . . . .

didn't have computers doing all these things for us!

 

[Ron]

BigH's experience mimicks that of the company that I worked for earlier in my career. I was a structural materials engineer who incidentally ran the geotechnical lab for our group which had 6 to 8 geotechnical engineers, so my experience was slightly different (less heavy on the purely geotechnical stuff), but very similar. Lots of field work, lots of hands-on experience in field and lab, analysis, and report writing. On the geotech side, my work was closely reviewed. On the structural materials side, not so much since I was the only one in the group. We were one of 20+ branch offices in an international geotechnical and materials engineering firm.

Bottom line is that your experience will be varied depending on the needs of the company. You might get stuck on a large project for an extended period of time or you might grow up on the ubiquitous "three holes in a cloud of dust" geotechnical projects that are the bread and butter of many geotechnical firms. If you're lucky, you'll get a range of experience like that of BigH.

 

[swaiteen]

What about a Geotechnical Engineer working in mine planning? Would the responsibilities be similar?

 

[Patgeotech]

I would agree with the above comments - lots of field and lab work, report compilation borehole log editing, etc is usually the area where the geotech guys learn about the various soils/rocks - I would suspect that the soil profiling/borehole logging is the next step, focussing on the test scheduling, assessment and interpretation. Sometimes the various elements have a habit of occurring all at once - depends on the diversity of the geotech company you are with and people you work for. It is important that you have a senior guy above you who is willing to train so that your skills can be enhanced - funny thing is that as a geotech you never really finish with your training (even when you retire).

 

[fattdad]

I'm just so thankful I didn't have too much compaction control in my early years. For me it was BIG field programs, field camps, and far from home (not that I was married). hard on the social life, but it truly built character. Then again, I started out as a geologist and returned for my engineering degree after my wondering 20s were over.

Strive for as much diversity as possible, even if means changing jobs a few times.

BigH's descriptions are quite true and I hope you get such experience in both the field and office.

f-d

¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

 

[jgailla]

Wondering or wandering? Both seem applicable to my 20's.