I will relate to you my journey in my career. Life after graduation is all about the desire, the people skills, realizing when there is opportunity and sometimes luck. Life is not always fair but you learn from it and move on.
In university my professors said that most engineers change jobs twice within the first two years of graduation. They also said most engineers do not even do engineering. These words are very true.
When I graduated back in 1979 I did not have a job waiting for me when I graduated in civil engineering. That was true for 50% of my class. I really did not know how to look for a job. I was as green as they come. After about 3 months of looking I hopped on a plane to booming Alberta to look for a job. I got one working for the City in the solid waste department. I grew increasingly homesick and after about 6 months I quit and went back to Toronto. I got a job working for a very large American insurance company. They were hiring engineers to work in their loss prevention engineering department. Some of my classmates worked for them. I lasted there for 1.5 years. I did not feel that was my future. I did not know what I wanted to do.
By chance I walked in and applied for a job in a well-known Toronto based water and wastewater consulting firm. The fact that I did not know who this firm really was tells you how green I was. Other than taking a course in university I really did not know what this field was all about. I have been in this field since. I have been happy with my choice. There has never been a day where I have been bored or hated my job. With the marks I had in university I thought I would be the last person that would practice engineering as a career. I barely passed in university. I started off on a construction site as an inspector for civil works for a large expansion at a sewage plant. I took an interest in the mechanical and electrical drawings. I had good people on site to talk to. My takeaway from working on site is that I learned how to read drawings and visualize how things are built, where the problems occur and what it takes to build things. It really does help when you in later life because you can begin to talk with authority of how things are done. My other takeaway is that now I could see how things are built and watch water flow
and really understand the concepts. If I had to I could now ace all of the engineering courses if I were back in university
. All the stuff they were trying to teach me at university now all makes sense. Eventually I moved into the office and did mechanical process design starting as a project engineer. I eventually became a project manager and also did mechanical process design. My team would include structural engineers, architects, electrical engineers, instrumentation engineers, and HVAC/plumbing engineers. I took an interest in what all these engineers designed and how to read what they designed. I learned how they did things and how to feed them the information that they needed. I questioned them...why...what if...I learned how to keep the project running. I learned to see that some team members had the required skills and some were still learning but they were all on the team. I learned how to help the less experienced people in their field to get them moving. I eventually moved on to work for other firms…one in New York City. I am able to sell myself to others extremely confidently
For the last 12 years I have been working for myself. I am well recognized and trusted by municipalities. I can talk to clients with authority and confidence. Above all I have FACE VALUE with the clients. They trust me and my skills. But it was my initiative to learn as much as I could about the other disciplines that made me who I am today. I can go into a meeting to win a project or to talk about a project and the issues with confidence. The clients look to me. If anything really detailed is required you bring in that discipline but the client recognizes me as the leader.
The bottom line is that marks are not that important. The important thing is that you graduated. At work, nobody except new graduates ever talk about their marks in school and that is because they have nothing better to talk about. If you want to do engineering I suggest that you seek a job in a consulting firm and work to becoming a project manager so that you can run a team of engineers and be in front of the client and learn how to gain their confidence and learn how to sell. Once you become a “finder” of work you will be at the top of the pay scale. At the same time develop your people skills, thinking and technical skills in as many disciplines that you can. You will be amazed how handy this becomes. The payback is that you can always fall back on these technical skills to find work in tough times. A pure manager I am not so sure he will be that successful in finding work in tough times. If you are eager, willing to show the employer you will work hard and willing to ask questions you will find work. Once you find work the pressure will be off you and you will find that you start to think differently...and for the better.
Go knock on some doors asking if you can have a coffee with the engineer that is hiring to discuss what you have to offer them...which is eagerness, willingness to learn and work hard, spend extra time in the office to learn, willingess to ask questions, willingness to be on site. Anybody can submit a resume on line. Be different.
For your information I think that the people behind this eng-tips site are from the 1978 civil engineering graduating class at my university. I recognize the names
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