Environmental Scientist
How would you describe the current stage or most recent stage of your career as a Environmental Scientist?
I’m currently an Environmental Scientist under the Environmental Assessment and Remediation Group at an engineering/professional services firm, providing environmental consulting services to various private, municipal, and governing body clients. The projects I’m primarily involved in are related to excess soils management under O. Reg. 406/19, and Phase I/One and Phase II/Two Environmental Site Assessments (ESA) under CSA Z768 and O. Reg. 153/04, respectively. Generally speaking, I assist clients in determining the potential if soil, groundwater, and/or sediment at their site is contaminated by current or past activities that either occurred at the site or at surrounding properties off-site, then conducting further investigations to document the environmental quality, and helping manage any excess soil or other contaminated materials leaving off-site. My daily tasks include a mix of technical report writing, data QA/QC checks, coordinating and managing field programs, and proposal preparation.
One thing I appreciate about both my company and team is the emphasis on professional development and collaboration. For example, though I work on many projects associated with O. Reg. 153/04, I personally have not worked on very many regulatory Phase Two ESAs or Records of Site Condition (RSCs) compared to excess soils projects. One of my development goals over the past couple of years is to gain more exposures to these types of projects and with the help of my mentor, team lead, and other senior staff, I find that I’m actively made aware and given the opportunity to participate in any of these projects as they come up. Additionally, I’ve also had the opportunity to work with other teams and disciplines, such as conducting groundwater monitoring for the Hydrogeology group. Not only do working on these projects help me develop my technical skills, but it also helps introduce me to other employees within our large organization and grow my network, as well as increase the number of opportunities I have a chance to participate in.
I enjoy being involved in many different types of projects where my days may not look the same on a day-to-day basis, contributing to the protection of natural resources and the environment, and working in a collaborative and supportive team. There’s a fulfilling sense when I see my projects to completion and knowing that the projects are contributing to something bigger, such as the twinning of an existing highway to support increasing traffic volumes or the development of a residential subdivision to support growing communities and increasing population. However, candidly speaking, consulting can be a tough industry. There are days where it feels like you don’t have enough time to address what you need to, or there’s so much going on that it feels overwhelming. It’s important to be able to take time for yourself to decompress and knowing when to ask for help to avoid burnout – trust me, I’m speaking from personal experience. Like every industry and career there will be hurdles, but how both you and your team handles it is important.
What was your first ‘real’ job after graduating?
My first “real” job after graduating my post-graduate certificate program was a contract position as a Waste Auditor to conduct a waste audit for a municipality. It was a stinky job, and I quickly became desensitized to waste fast, but I can look back and see this position was the start to my career in environmental consulting.
The contract position was only for 2 months and involved sorting through residential and institutional/commercial waste to identify what wastes were thrown into the garbage, recycling, and organics waste streams to help develop future education and other resource recovery programs. Luckily my supervisor at the time saw value in my work, which then led to me being invited to help supervise and coordinate waste audit/spot checking programs for the City of Calgary. Over the next few years my time was spent in between both Ontario and Alberta; who would’ve thought sorting garbage would lead to me living out west and seeing the mountains every day?
I eventually realized that the work I was doing and the company I was employed at was not for me, which is when I started applying for positions back in Ontario. It was an intimidating process as a lot of the positions I was interested in were not related to waste or waste audits, which I had very specific experience in at the time, and it got discouraging when I wasn’t scheduled for an interview. There was a lot of trial and error in learning how to communicate my skills from a specific type of environmental consulting were transferrable to another.
When I was first hired at my present company, I was hired as an Environmental Technician to support field programs. I was trained to do more fieldwork such as drilling oversight and soil sampling, however on “down-times” I would get involved in data QA/QC, then helping writing reports, then preparing proposals to which these strengths of mine were shown. Eventually my role has evolved to what it is currently. Looking back at when I first started in consulting, my experience at both consulting firms has helped me develop technical skills immensely, but also transferrable soft skills. You learn how to communicate clearer with both colleagues and clients, your writing becomes technical and concise, you learn how to manage your time and prioritize tasks to balance the many projects on your plate, and you become more organized when having the coordinate various staff and subcontractors for different field programs that are occurring.
There’s much more to my journey than I spoke about above, but based on my experience I’d like to emphasize that you never know where an opportunity can take you. Even if you know it might not be what you want in the long run, it could provide great experience (both professionally and personally).
What’s the most valuable or impactful piece of career advice you’ve received that you’d like to pass on?
“Just do”. A simple piece of advice yet it gets the point across quick. I’ve slightly touched on this in my other response, but you never know what an opportunity can bring. Yes, it might not be what you want in the long run and yes, it can be nerve-wracking or a big change, but you never know what it will bring unless you take it.
And this isn’t career advice I’ve gotten but witnessed first-hand: women can thrive in STEM.
Which degree(s) did you complete during your education, either at McMaster, or at another institution? Please add any degree program details you think are relevant to understand your academic path (e.g. specializations, minors, post-graduate certificates, etc.)
- BA (Hons.) Geography & Environmental Studies – McMaster University
- Environmental Management and Assessment Post-Graduate Certificate – Niagara College Canada