Possible Occupations

With what I would learn, would I be able to find a job when I graduate? The Fortune Magazine (March 21st, 2005) cited that Environmental Engineering will be the fastest growing profession in North America over the next 10 years. The University of Waterloo’s tradition in engineering excellence and the practical job experience through Canada’s founding university of the co-operative education system position Waterloo students graduating in Environmental Engineering as some of the best trained and sought after graduates in the market place.

See what occupations some of our students enjoy and are challenged by:

North and South America Logging-While-Drilling

Employer: Schlumberger Technology Company

March 2004 - Current

NSA LWD Business Development Manager, Schlumberger Technology Company, Houston, TX, U.S.A.. Responsible for internal and external technical training for DD/MWD/LWD services across North and South America. New Technology deployment strategies, Strategic area objective development. After another assignment in Trinidad, I am back in the US. My job has larger scope than the previous ones. It is related to sales, and engineers generally haven't been developing sales skills during their lives so I find it good for personal development.

Project Engineer

Employer: Triad Engineering Incorporated

I am currently working for a engineering consulting firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My specialty is wastewater treatment and most of my projects focus on treating food and beverage industrial wastewater flows. I have performed design/build services and solved wastewater issues at several plants across the U.S. and Canada.

Research Associate

Employer: University of Waterloo, Department of Earth Sciences

After 8 years in consulting, I returned to the University of Waterloo and completed at Master of Science in Earth Sciences. Research for my thesis was on the remediation of DNAPL contamination using potassium permanganate. The decision to defer graduate studies until later in my career is one that I would encourage others to consider also, as I found that the practical experience gained in consulting allowed for a deeper understanding of the concepts taught in graduate courses.

Following a further 2 years in consulting after finishing my Masters, I again returned to the University of Waterloo where I am now employed within the Earth Science Department as a Research Associate. I enjoy the opportunities for detailed study and the advancement of scientific understanding that research allows. The research programs that I am currently involved with focus on the fate and transport of chlorinated solvents in fractured bedrock.

Principal Consultant

Employer: Ardent Innovation Inc.

Founded an engineering consulting company and am currently providing cold regions engineering consulting services to the Mackenzie Gas Project, Canada's first significant arctic gas pipeline. Directly applying to the project undergraduate and graduate work in frost heave that was done while I was a student at the University of Waterloo.

Research Assistant/Graduate Student

Employer: University of Hawai`i at Manoa

Research Assistant/Graduate Student, University of Hawai`i with the Hawai`i Group for Environmental Aerosol Research (HiGEAR). Research group activities focus on determining physical and optical properties of atmospheric aerosols. Aerosol studies include marine, pollution, volcanic, and dust influenced air masses found in continental and remote marine areas.