Hi,

A little about me: I graduated with a Bachelors in Chemical engineering degree in Ontario in 2009. After struggling to find engineering work in Ontario, I got a job in environmental consulting. I have over a year of experience in environmental consulting, however I'm not finding the work interesting. I'd like to transition myself back into engineering.

I've been applying for chemical engineer positions in process engineering, safety engineering in Alberta especially Fort McMurray. However the jobs I've come across are mostly mid-level opportunities, and not entry level. Any advice on what I can do to make my search more efficient and which companies hire entry level engineers would be greatly appreciated

Thanks,

Boom industries tend to want mid-level people. In fact, everybody wants mid-level people these days, to the point that the Engineers Canada/Randstadt Canadian Engineering Labour Market Conditions 2009-2018 concludes that there is a "chronic and serious under-supply of junior engineer jobs" (p. 133). http://www.engineerscanada.ca/etlms/conditions/e/

I'm sure the various firms also hire fresh grads. Others who work locally in the Fort may have better advice on which ones to target as a young engineer with little experience relevant to their field.

Best of luck to you-

Slightly different point of view from an Alberta resident engineer. There is such a shortage of people in Fort Mc, and the number of unfulled positions is so large , I dont think I'd want to hire a fairly recent grad who doesnt have the skills or iniative to do his own job search without external assistance

We do a lot of work up there - fairly lucrative IF YOU CAN STAND the WINTERS. Often 40-50 below F or C - doesn't really matter at that point!!

I'm with miningman on this one.

However, that said, to look for entry-level jobs, you'll need to get back in touch with your college recruiting office. Most companies hiring new-grads do that through the college recruiting offices. Very rarely are they posting their new-grad jobs.

You might actually have better luck applying to one of the EPC firms in Calgary. Look through the postings that they have to find the recruiting contact. They, initiate direct contact with them.

Most companies are also recruiting on LinkedIn...

miningman

Thanks for your input but that's a lot of assumptions on your part. I've been doing plenty of my own job searching . I'm only asking for advice from Alberta residents on which specific companies to target for someone in my situation because I live in Ontario. I've applied to CNRL, Suncor, Syncrude and others. I haven't heard anything back. I'm also trying to network with people who live in Alberta thorough Linkedin.

I think you hit the big three!! Good luck and pick up that 2,000 lb phone and give them a CALL!!

habh is showing initiative by asking for assistance here because the obvious approach has failed. They've applied to the majors but have received no responses. That is very typical from what I hear, which baffles me when I also hear about these extreme labour shortages.

The disconnect is spelled H-R. I was looking to fill a job once and all resume's came into HR. They would look at the good ones and reject them (too expensive, format problems, etc.) and send me the slugs (I got one printed on green and white tractor feed paper with the tractor pieces still attached, it was printed on a dot-matrix printer in all caps). It might have just been that one HR lady who didn't want anyone around who was smarter than her (which actually would have cut the staff from 70,000 to about 6). I only found out what was happening when the son of a co-worker called me and asked if I'd seen his CV (I hadn't). I went looking for it and found it in the "reject" stack. I asked HR why it was rejected and she said "it had a misspelled word" (it didn't, she just didn't know the correct spelling). We hired the kid onto another project and I got her boss to force her to send me all the CV's and I filled the position pretty quickly.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.

HR generally sucks...........

David,

I agree with your comments about selective rejections by HR. In my new position, I experienced a similar situation,but also that a few plant Managers were hand in gloves. They were thwarting every single new applicant to form their own caucus.

I have now taken over their function and in 2 months, all the positions are filled and those selected are doing well.

_____________________________________
"It's better to die standing than live your whole life on the knees" by Peter Mayle in his book A Good Year

Once a company gets big enough to need an HR department, it's generally too big for me to consider working in anyway.

From what I've seen around here the last 9 months or so, it's not just HR. In my mind we're being ridiculously picky about potential hires, much of this driven by engineers/engineering management.

The reality is we could make good use of almost any competent warm body, but we're busy trying to find purple squirrels (I believe that's the term).

I'm with zdas04. Identify the individual in the corp who can read your resume with interest, not the one who throws back at you giving the contact details of HR. Once you know the interested advertised position, pick the department, and look for recruiting manager or director in that section. You can even post the question here (Eng-Tips) and you may get an answer. Bingo, contact by phone, follow up and send your targeted resume. Gradually our HR department is getting better and web site applications are (relatively) properly screened, though mistakes still happen.

I'm an inspector in Alberta. The oilsands are tough to get into with zero contacts. Find an ad on Jobshop.ca/kijiji/radio station/etc. Email your resume, leave your phone number. Try your HARDEST to get a phone number. They hire and fire on the spot up there so you can catch them on the right day and be flown in over night. Emailing resumes USUALLY net in a response after 4-6 months. You have to remember how many THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of resumes they get. When I was at Suncors Millenium site, there was 8000 men.

Linkdin is a good resource aswell, for you. Once you get in and get it good with people, make your new contacts. You should be golden.