This chapter offers useful advice for graduate engineers and geoscientists entering full-time employment, and answers basic questions, such as: When should I obtain a licence? How do I document my experience? What are reasonable salary expectations? When do I use my professional seal? What working conditions should I expect? This chapter also discusses a key decision that almost all professionals must make: whether to become a specialist in your discipline, or to develop the “people skills” needed for management.
E N T E R I N G T H E P R O F E S S I O N A L W O R K F O R C E
Graduating from university and entering the professional workplace is usually exhilarating: you move to a new location, meet new colleagues, and partici-pate in new projects. You apply your knowledge to real problems and you see your ideas taking shape on the computer screen, on the construction site, in the test laboratory, or on a production line. But, unless you had very good work terms at university, your first professional job may prove to be a challenge.
Your first surprise may be how little supervision you receive, and how much responsibility you get, because you are “a recent graduate and familiar with the theory.” You may have to work harder to justify this confidence in your ability. Ask for help if you need it.
A second surprise may be the apparent lack of order and structure.
University courses usually have well-defined objectives, but real projects may be “open-ended” and can change drastically at any time. If a crisis arises, you may suddenly be asked to take on a new project. New projects may be chaotic at the start, but they are usually interesting. And anyway, as a professional, it’s your job to create order from chaos.
A third surprise may well be the strong emphasis on obtaining useful results. Products must perform as promised; if they don’t, the engineer or geo-scientist must “find out why and correct it.” If you need information, you must be aggressive in getting it. The focus has changed—your goal in univer-sity was to get an education, but your employer wants results.
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Finally, you may be surprised at the importance of deadlines. Late deliv-eries cost money—especially when contracts have penalty clauses for lateness, or when “just-in-time” assembly lines have narrow windows for delivering components. Personal time management is much more important in the pro-fessional workplace.
Most engineering and geoscience graduates easily overcome these chal-lenges. However, the following hints may help to start your employment on a professional note:
• Licensing. As soon as you receive your degree, apply to your Association to begin the licensing process.
• Experience. Start to document your experience. It is easy to document experience as you go, but very tricky to remember details later. Follow your Association’s criteria.
• Prepare for advancement. Eventually you will want to be promoted, so think about your next step. Do you have the knowledge and ambition to be a specialist? Do you have the management skills—especially the
“people skills”—to lead the organization? Are you sufficiently self-confident to succeed in private practice or entrepreneurship? These topics are discussed in more detail in the following sections.
A P P LY I N G F O R A L I C E N C E
As soon as possible, apply to your provincial or territorial Association for a licence to practise (also called membership or registration). Some graduates mistakenly believe they must satisfy the experience requirement first, but this is not true: applicants can apply as soon as they graduate from university. A simple letter, e-mail, fax, or phone call will get the process started. (The Web address of your Association is in Appendix A.)
Every Association has an internship program that you may join as soon as you receive your degree (or otherwise satisfy the educational requirements).
When you are accepted into the Association’s internship program, you will receive one of the following titles (depending on your province and disci-pline): Engineering-Internship-Training (EIT), Engineer-in-Training (EIT), Member-in-Training (MIT), Geologist-in-Training (Geol.IT), Geophysicist-in-Training (Geoph.IT), ingénieur junior (ing. jr.), Junior Engineer (Jr. Eng.), or Geoscientist-in-Training (GIT). These titles may be used on letters, memos, e-mail, business cards, desk plaques, and so forth. As explained in Chapter 2, graduates must not use titles that would imply that they are licensed, so avoid internal company titles such as Assistant Engineer, Assistant Geologist, Plant Engineer or Sales Engineer. These titles imply that you are licensed.
As an intern, the Association will guide you through the next step, which is documenting your experience for licensing. You will also be invited to attend Association meetings, and you may be able to participate in group insurance, investment plans, and similar benefit programs. Internship mistakenly believe they must satisfy the experience requirement first, bututt t thihiss is not true: applicants can apply as soon as thheyyy graduate from univvveerersisisisitytytytyy. AAAA si
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simplifies the licensing process, both for CEAB-accredited university gradu-ates, and for foreign-educated applicants, even those with many years of experience.
D O C U M E N T I N G Y O U R E X P E R I E N C E
As soon as you begin working, start documenting your experience. You need four years of documented professional experience to satisfy the licensing requirements (except in Quebec, where the requirement is three years).
However, you can shorten the experience needed by as much as one year. As explained in Chapter 2, each Association allows credit for up to one year of pre-graduation experience. Prepare your experience summary in the form of a per-sonal résumé. This format satisfies the Associations, and is also useful for future job applications. Engineers Canada publishes a guideline for documenting experience, which has been adopted by most Associations.1,2,3,4The guideline suggests that your experience should satisfy the following five quality criteria:
• Application of theory. This is the best form of experience. It includes analysis, design and synthesis, testing methods, and project implementa-tion. Most Associations expect a sizable portion (typically 20 percent) of your experience to be in this category.
• Practical experience. Practical experience helps you appreciate the capabilities and limitations of the theory, equipment, systems, proce-dures, and standards that are typically used in your discipline. For example, you are much more competent if you are personally aware of the capabilities (and limitations) of manufacturing equipment, toler-ances, operating procedures, maintenance schedules, equipment relia-bility, computer software, safety codes, design standards, and so forth, that are commonly used in your discipline. Fortunately, many activities that do not fall under the other headings would likely qualify as practical experience.
• Management of engineering/geoscience. Management experience includes planning, scheduling, budgeting, supervision, project control, and risk assessment. New graduates are not usually assigned management duties, so document this experience whenever you have the opportunity.
• Communication skills. Professionals must be able to communicate effectively. Your experience résumé should include evidence of effective writing (formal reports, design specifications or standards, contracts, or similar documents), drawings or sketches (where appropriate), and oral presentations to supervisors, management, clients, or the public.
• Social implications of engineering/geoscience. This typically includes any experience that heightens the professional’s awareness of the responsibility to guard against conditions that are dangerous to life, health, property, or the environment, and to call any such conditions to the attention of those responsible. Most of the topics in this book concern the social implications of technical decisions.
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L E V E L S O F P R O F E S S I O N A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y
Your future will likely involve many challenging projects, and you will assume greater responsibility as your experience increases. The following list shows the typical levels of engineering and geoscience responsibility. Several Associations publish salary statistics based on these levels.5
A word of caution: The average number of years at each level varies slightly, depending on the discipline and the location. Also, managers and specialists have different but equivalent career paths. The higher levels are therefore based on either management responsibility or technical responsi-bility. Levels often overlap, and some companies may recognize more (or fewer) levels, depending on company size. Most companies (especially in manufacturing) employ more managers than specialists.
LEVEL A—ENTRY LEVEL A bachelor’s degree in engineering, geoscience, or applied science, or its equivalent, is usually required. Recent university graduates—usually with little practical experience—receive on-the-job training in office, plant, field, or laboratory work, or (rarely) in classrooms.
Level A employees work under close supervision, preparing simple plans, designs, calculations, costs, and bills of material, in accordance with estab-lished codes, standards, or specifications. This stage may last one or two years.
LEVEL B—ENGINEER/GEOSCIENTIST INTERNSHIP After the first two or three years of work experience, the employee will be assigned tasks of increasing variety, although responsibility is still limited. Typically, the work involves parts of larger projects. Such assignments provide continuing training and develop-ment. During this period the employee is usually registered with the provin-cial Association at the internship level (with the title of EIT, MIT, Geol.IT, Geoph.IT, ingénieur junior, or GIT, depending on the province and discipline).
Level B employees may give technical advice to technicians or to level A grad-uates. This stage lasts at least two or three years.
LEVEL C—PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER/GEOSCIENTIST Level C is the first fully qual-ified professional level. The engineer or geoscientist carries out responsible and varied assignments in a broad field of engineering or geoscience, and is also expected to understand the effects of decisions on related fields.
Combinations of standard methods are used to solve problems, and the Level C professional participates in planning. Typically, this stage requires a min-imum of five to six years of related work experience after graduation. Level C professionals make independent analyses and interpret results without super-vision, so they must be licensed, of course.
LEVEL D—FIRST SUPERVISORY (OR FIRST SPECIALIST LEVEL) Job titles at this level have many variations, such as project leader, team leader, lead engi-neer, site geologist, or engineering/geoscience specialist. This is the first level that involves direct and sustained supervision of other professionals, larger projects. Such assignments provide continuing training and deveveeloop-pp ment. During this period the employee is usuuallly registered with theee p pprorororovivvivivin-nnn ci
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or the first level of full specialization. This level requires mature knowledge of planning and conducting projects, or of coordinating difficult and responsible assignments. To reach this level, engineers or geoscientists typi-cally require a minimum of seven or eight years of experience in the field of specialization.
LEVEL E—MIDDLE MANAGEMENT(OR SENIOR SPECIALIST LEVEL) Job titles at this level include chief project engineer, chief project geologist, group head, and senior specialist. This level (in management) involves supervising large groups, containing both professional and nonprofessional staff; alternatively, this level (in specialization) involves authority over a small group of highly qualified professional personnel engaged in complex technical applications.
Level E typically requires knowledge of more than one field of engineering or geoscience. The incumbent participates in short- and long-range planning and makes independent decisions on work methods and procedures within a general program. Originality and ingenuity are required for devising practical and economical solutions to problems. The engineer or geoscientist may supervise large groups that include both professional and nonprofessional staff, or may direct a small group of highly qualified professionals in complex technical applications. This level normally requires at least 10 to 12 years of engineering, geoscience, and/or administrative experience.
LEVEL F—SENIOR MANAGEMENT (OR SENIOR CONSULTANT LEVEL) Job titles at this level include director of engineering or geology, plant manager, and senior consultant. Levels F and F+ may overlap, depending on company size (that is, a chief engineer in a large corporation may have essentially the same duties as the vice president of engineering in a medium-size corporation). The incumbent is usually responsible for an engineering or geoscience adminis-trative function, directing several professional and other groups engaged in interrelated responsibilities; or may be a consultant, recognized as an authority in a field important to the organization. The Level F professional independently conceives programs and problems to be investigated, deter-mines basic operating policies, and devises ways to reach program objectives economically and to overcome problems. The job requires extensive experi-ence, including responsible administrative duties.
LEVEL F+—SENIOR EXECUTIVE LEVEL Job titles at this level include president;
vice president of engineering or geoscience; vice-president of manufacturing;
general manager; and partner (in a consulting firm). At this level, the person receives general strategic guidance but conceives independent programs and problems to be investigated. He or she plans or approves projects that require considerable amounts of human and financial resources. This level requires many years of authoritative technical and administrative experience. The incumbent is expected to possess a high degree of originality, skill, and profi-ciency in the various broad phases of the profession.
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S A L A R Y E X P E C TAT I O N S F O R P R O F E S S I O N A L S
Salary is not the only motivator for a professional, but it is still important.
Several Associations conduct annual surveys of their members’ salaries and post summaries on the Association websites. As an example, recent salary data for Alberta engineers and geologists is summarized in Tables 6.1 and 6.2,
TA B L E 6 . 2 — Alberta Employer Salary Survey, 2007: GEOLOGISTS (All Industries)
Change Lower Lower Upper Upper
Number in Mean Mean Decile Quartile Median Quartile Decile
Number in Mean Mean Decile Quartile Median Quartile Decile