Ignite your own passion

On September 29, engineering undergrads and alumni packed the 8th floor of the Donadeo Innovation Centre for Engineering to hear four top experts reflect on the value of graduate studies. The forum, hosted by the Canadian Graduate Engineering Consortium-five member schools, including U of A-highlighted the opportunities available to engineers with post-graduate degrees.

Engineers Canada currently estimates that over 25,000 engineers are poised to retire in the next five years. Nearly 4,000 of those new openings will be in management positions-jobs that often require a PhD or Master's degree. In short, Canada faces a looming crisis in innovation unless our universities lure more students into graduate studies.

Panellist Alexandra Trovato, who is currently pursuing a PhD after working in industry and completing an MEng, provided a relatable face for those in the audience (who were only a few years younger). Like many of them, she struggled at times as an engineering undergraduate. "I don't think I was an A+ student in any of my years as an undergraduate, to be honest."

In graduate school, that difficult groundwork finally paid off, said Trovato. "In grad studies, all of a sudden you get to focus on something you truly do love."

Stephen Stanley, Senior Vice President, EPCOR Commercial Services, echoed this sentiment. "To be honest, I didn't really like engineering when I started. I took a year off after my second year." Stanley said that his graduate degree turned everything around.

As an executive, Stanley looks for young people with a similar spark. "I know, in our hiring, that a Master's degree, especially, is a standard requirement for many positions," he said. "And it's not so much the specialty that they're pursuing-it's the fact that they've gone through and spent a lot of time focusing in an area, and really had to solve a complex problem. The skill set that you learn through that is really important."

Aminah Robinson Fayek, Civil and Environmental Engineering professor and NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Strategic Construction Modeling and Delivery, urged the students to stick around for a graduate degree, even if it means enduring a bit of financial sacrifice in the meantime. "It's certainly not a money-making experience. You're lucky if you can get out of it with no debt. But, your earning potential at that point is huge-huge, huge, huge."

Gord Winkel, chair and professor with the Engineering Safety & Risk Management Program, heartily agreed about the value of the skills and knowledge acquired in graduate programs. "When you take that second degree, it opens up a new horizon in terms of understanding," he said. "That broader perspective is very powerful in an industry setting."

Winkel said it makes sense to build graduate credentials rather than rushing out to compete in today's constrained job market. "Strategically, what better time?" Having lived through four downturns over the course of his career, Winkel predicted the economy will soon rebound. "This too shall pass," he said.

When times get better, said Winkel, engineers will want to be equipped to seize the opportunities that inevitably follow. "There are five or six defining moments in your industry life that suddenly change the course of what you do," he said. "If you prepared for that opportunity, and people see in you the skill sets necessary to propel forward, you're going to be the choice."

The key to a successful postgraduate program, said Winkel, is to follow your heart. "Don't look for that miracle thing that's going to suddenly ignite your passion. Ignite your own passion. If you do things well, and you like what you're going to do, that in itself defines your future. And it'll be a bright future."