Last week’s guest speaker was Stephan Parker, who works for TETRA TECH, and primarily deals with environmental restoration for the U.S. Navy. I found the restoration part of the discussion very interesting and packed with information, but I will focus this blog on the first part of lecture. The first part of the discussion was geared towards our career development and what specific variable could change your career for the good or possibly for the worse. Mr. Parker pointed out four key changes that could affect a civil or environmental engineer’s career:
1.) Political
2.) Technology
3.) Societal
4.) Natural resources
A political change is very important for all environmental engineers because majority of them work for local or the federal government. The engineers work for the government because their jobs were created by the government due to the regulations and laws that were issued by a certain administration. More regulations mean more jobs; fewer regulations mean lesser jobs. Technology plays a huge role because if there is a new technological development that allows solar cells to be more efficient and batteries able to store enormous amounts of energy, than renewable energy would create an incentive for power companies, politicians, and the private industry to push for infrastructure that can implement this new technology, which in return, means more jobs for environmental engineers. Societal changes have been proven to show how it can determine an environmental engineers’ career before, because in the 1960s – 70s, there was an environmental movement that pushed for laws and initiatives like the Clean Air Act. This movement gave a bigger demand for environmental engineers. Although, if there was a movement from the society that involved people complaining about too many regulations on industry, than they might slow down the movement, and therefore slow down the growth of careers that are within the movement. Natural resources are the most obvious change that can determine the career of an engineer. If the world’s reserves in coal, petroleum, and other hydrocarbon fuels start to deplete, than they will look for an alternative. Most of the alternative forms of energy derive from renewable energy, which could increase the market for environmental engineers 10 fold, if there was a need for drastic changes in our infrastructure.
What You Need To Do?
1.) Remain flexible
2.) Find your core strengths
3.) Determine your weaknesses and figure out how to compensate them
4.) Keep training after graduation
5.) Get certifications
Mr. Parker continued to discuss about career development but changed his approach a little bit by opening a discussion about career opportunities. I will list a few of them with a short explanation.
1.) Bioremediation
– This is a growing field because of the many sites in American that are contaminated either in its soil or groundwater. Some of these sites are known as Superfund, and this is when the federal government chooses some of the most contaminated sites in the country, and pays companies to clean up the contaminants. Injections of supplement nutrients into groundwater to create a reaction that will safely eliminate certain contaminate are a perfect example of what a person might be doing if they worked in a career that deals with bioremediation.
2.) Mines and Minerals
– This industry is growing immensely as well as more and more countries around the world are demanding more energy and more manufacturing. This means there needs to be massive amounts of extraction of raw materials to support this energy and economic growth.
3.) Site Investigation
– An engineer will investigate a site to see what utilities are used or were used there, to see if additional sewers or piping will be needed, and to determine if there ever was a spill or something that could have contaminated the soil or the groundwater.
4.) Sustainability
– This is currently the new buzz word and the main philosophy for the environmental movement, which is balancing energy against cost, and making sure that the development effects the environment as least as possible.
5.) Ports and Harbors
– Ports and harbors are growing all over the world, which means that environmental engineers are needed to assess if new development will destroy or effect the local coastal environment, and determine if construction are within the bylaws and regulations for that specific region.