I was wondering if you could tell me a little about how you got started in water resources and how you were able to get into field work.

Let’s see… I think I got my first internship about 2 weeks before the end of the school year. A lot of companies are super busy that they don’t put the resources on looking for candidates even though they have a need to hire them. Because of that, I’d make sure you go to the career fair. It always seems like a bore and that no one is hiring–“go apply on our website, we don’t take paper resumes”–but occasionally it comes up with something! Especially because the internship position is inflated. There’s a lot of people looking for internships but employers tend to be looking for full time employees.

It can’t hurt to try to find jobs this early. I think for entry level, when you have limited experience along with all the other candidates, quantity of applications goes far. It’s good to be open to many possibilities but if you sorta know which discipline interests you, that will put you ahead with a company looking to hire for that particular discipline. They just want to see that your’e motivated and enthusiastic. Our HR person likes to say “We can teach you anything on the job”.

As far as my field work opportunities go, I got into field work by working on environmental engineering projects. Groundwater remediation, stormwater sampling, etc. I work with geologists who spend A LOT of time in the field (so much that they are never home!). I know if you look for mining engineering or petroleum engineering companies, you‘d be looking at working at the field site in the office and going out on site to look at stuff. As far as transportation, structural, etc…. I have no idea what they do… :/ I don’t think they do tons of field work, but it probably just depends on the opportunity and their willingness to travel. I generally jump on travel jobs which is why I get because none of the other civil engineers want to be away from home or working out in the heat. Never be afraid to tell people exactly what you want–it actually puts you a step in for an opportunity they might not have thought you available for!