1. Go to the ACEC website to research firms doing the kinds of things you are interested in.

2. Find a relative, friend or neighbour that knows a consulting engineer, then exploit that contact. Ask that person to introduce you to others. Remember, they were in your shoes once, and someone did them a favour. They owe an obligation to society to pay it forward.

3. Be persistent. Remember the salesman’s rule: 100 cold calls to get 10 leads, 10 leads to get one sale. It’s the same for job hunting. Each unsuccessful cold call gets you 1% closer to a job offer.

4. Take any job to get your foot in the door, then use the opportunity to prove how great you are. Many firms have openings for non-engineering, technical positions such as survey assistant, CAD operator, materials testing assistant, or construction inspection assistant, and are willing to hire engineering grads into them with the idea that the good ones will progress into engineering jobs.

5. Be prepared to travel, relocate, and work long hours in return for time off. If you demonstrate commitment and flexibility, the firm will value you, and look for ways to keep you.

1. Be the best entry-level employee ever. Before going too far with any new task, show your supervisor what you’re doing, and make sure you’re on the right track. Ask questions. Take the menial tasks and find a better, quicker way to do them. Find a short-cut, create a template, develop a quality control system. Do reading and research to find out why you’re doing what you’re doing, and what it will be used for. Offer to teach others what you’ve learnt. Tell your supervisor when you expect to finish a task, then beat that deadline and ask for more. In the rare case when you are not able to finish on time, make sure there’s a good reason (NOT ‘I had tickets to the hockey game’), tell your supervisor before the deadline, and offer a new deadline. Offer to help out with related work. Hang around after work occasionally without being asked, to help clean and calibrate equipment, compile notes and reports, and find out what else goes on that you can learn about. Every evening think about what you’ll be doing next day, plan your time, and schedule your activities: for example, if you know you will need to ask your supervisor some questions, let him/her know first thing in the morning and schedule a time, rather than expecting him/her to be available whenever it happens to cross your mind. Every single thing you learn, even about menial tasks, will eventually make you a better engineer, a better manager, and a better business person.

2. Develop and use your people skills. Network with colleagues, managers, receptionists, contractors and suppliers to learn about what they do and build relationships.

Yes, once you’ve spent several years involved in delivering projects and learning the technical, financial, client relationship, and business development aspects of the work. It is important to develop the skills and experience you need to be a good manager – one who is grounded in the fundamentals and who commands the respect of his or her staff. If you don’t enjoy the project work, and aren’t interested in learning that part of the business, then consulting engineering is probably not for you.

In consulting engineering there are two main career paths – management and specialist. Very few people are good at both, and even fewer have time for both.

1. To progress into management, you need to develop people skills and business skills – everything else is simply a derivation of one of those two things.  You can start developing people skills early by participating in campus activities. Reading Dale Carnegie or joining organizations like Toastmasters can also help. Once you graduate (or even before), become involved in industry associations, business associations, and industry networking events.  Many venues provide people skills and business development opportunities such as council meetings, and charity and political fundraisers. For business skills, take courses in project management, accounting and leadership.

2. To progress as a specialist, you still need people and business skills, but to a lesser extent. Attend specialised courses and technical conferences. Present technical papers at conferences. Network with other specialists in your field. Persuade your clients to consider research projects and design innovations. Hold client workshops. Submit your projects for awards. At some point you may want to take a post-graduate degree, but it’s not always necessary.

You don’t need to. Chances are that unless you have some work experience it hard to know exactly what it is you want to do. You will find that you don’t really start learning what it is to practice engineering until you get into the workforce - so what you majored in doesn’t have to be a barrier to your career path. I suggest you try to find work in a firm that does a variety of things, including both geotechnical and transportation. They might only hire you as a geotechnical engineer initially, but then after you’ve demonstrated your value and your keenness to learn, ask for some cross-training in transportation engineering. That will give you the opportunity to see if you really like it.

While a second major or graduate school could be of value, only consider returning to school if you are genuinely interested in the subject matter and in the theoretical aspects of engineering.

No, in fact your outside interests and your family obligations can be an asset - providing you with a social context that will enhance your effectiveness as an engineer. Consulting engineering firms are all different, but by and large they recognize that they need to be flexible in order to attract and retain the best and the brightest. Firms use a range of ideas to make the workplace more attractive to employees with other obligations and interests. These include flex-time, reduced work-weeks, work-share and sabbaticals. Some have day-care arrangements, gymnasium facilities, and in-house cafeterias. Consulting engineering encompasses a wide variety of activities because consulting is so varied, it can accommodate various ways of working depending on your role and responsibilities.

Changing jobs once or twice, early in your career, is not a bad idea as long as it genuinely helps you to diversify your experience. But be careful not to do it too much. A person that has had 5 jobs in 10 years suggests that this person is either unable to settle down anywhere, or is simply not good enough to establish themselves. This is not attractive to a firm hiring for the long term.