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Job Shadowing Experience

I spend a couple days job shadowing Shara, an (Transportation) engineer-in-training at Mott

MacDonald over in Vancouver. At first, I was nervous about the trip there. I’m not a frequent

traveller and Vancouver is a place that I visit only about once each year. Taking the bus then the

sky train made me worry if I was on the right ride. After arriving at my destination, I exited

Burrard station and sat on an outside bench. I was an hour early, worrying if my attire was

suitable, what things to say, how to start the conversation, etc. From a distance, I was able to

see the tall, blue-glassed building.

Five minutes before the meeting time, I was sitting in the lobby by the Blenz Coffee shop. I

looked around at all the Christmas décor when Shara greeted me. We headed outside for some

sushi and began an interview. Here’s what I learnt during the week:

At first, I was most curious about her high school and University life and began there. She told

me that upon arriving in Canada, she started of shy. However, she was in Student Council, and

although her grades weren’t over-the-top, she had a really strong background in volunteering.

She suggested that I take Electives that would help with the program I take in University. She

also told me that the basics are really important. For example, (in calculus) Derivatives and

Integrals are what I should pay attention to. One thing she mentioned was that Universities

love volunteering, job experience, and going out of my way to do things regarding my future

career, like job shadowing. Also, show them “what makes you different”.

Eventually we moved on to the topic of university. The first thing I asked was, “how much free

time did you have?”

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She shattered my hopes and replied that she didn’t really have much free time as she spent

most of it studying. Her class schedule was as follows: Her classes were 3 months of lectures, 3

hours/week. University classes were said to have been much more flexible than in high school

so I can decide a schedule that works for me. When I brought up professors, she said that many

of them are very busy people and don’t really have much time to help you out. Some were

interested in helping but many don’t bother. She suggested that I make good friends and work

with them to solve problems, get notes I missed, etc. Her co-op program extended her

university life but it offered lots of networking opportunities to help her get jobs, close to

people that may hire her, and so forth. In her early co-op program (very early in university,

before she learned much) she was assigned to count cars. It was a very simple and dull task but

her statistics were used by actual engineers to work with and fix problems like congestion.

Soon, she graduated UBC with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering.

At some point, I met Lewis (unsure if spelt correctly), one of Shara’s friends and co-workers. We

shook hands and he started with his story in the UK. He took a two-year program and received

a diploma. Then, he decided to start working on-site as a technician. With more experience, he

said that it’d be easier if he were to come back and finish school for a bachelor’s.

When I asked Shara about job hunting, she said that she always found it exciting. It was also

important that I make myself stand out. In her case, she was able to give them (her employers)

a woman’s perspective in a field generally dominated by men. When she started working, she

told me that it’s always good to have good communication with her supervisor. I also asked

how her workplace is like (this was before I entered) and she said that it was a good
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environment. Her coworkers were nice, and she also said that her company values the mental

health of their workers by giving paid vacation hours (which I thought was a nice aspect).

Soon enough, we started to talk about what she does and wat her work is like. We began with

the topic of street signs. I was surprised to see the amount of analytics and science that goes

behind each sign. Font size, height placement, distance (factoring in people with 20/20 eye

sight), etc.

Soon, we started to talk about her first project: a speed bump. I learned that it typically starts

with a resident’s complaint about having too much people speeding. She would then go on site

(where the speeding as reported to keep happening) typically during school hours with a radar

speed gun. If she found that 60-70% of people that drove past was speeding, then it would be

valid proof for there to be a speed bump. She would daw a plan view of what it would look like

and sent that to a Senior Engineer to get sealed. Work orders would then be given to

construction workers about where the speedbump should be, where the (speedbump) sign

should be, etc. Finally, she would visit the place again to make sure that it stopped people from

speeding.

When I visited her workplace, I was amazed at the interiors (since I wasn’t used to such a

modern environment) and fount that it was very quiet. Even Shara was whispering so I felt

nervous and tried my best to stay quiet. When we met up with some of her co-workers, she

introduced me as her “Mentee”. I shook a few hands (and being taught to shake hands firmly, I

wasn’t aware of my grip strength). Hopefully I didn’t squeeze anyone’s hands too much. Her

workers seemed very nice and open. One of them welcomed me saying, “Hi, hope you don’t
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mind the mess”. I didn’t say much (and realizing it now that I interacted with everyone in an

awkward manner) as the silence made it really hard to speak.

Shara decided to show me AutoCAD and explained to me how it worked. Although it looked

complicated (and I didn’t really get what was happening), I saw that she used it to make and

edit maps and plan views. Shara said that it was a very powerful tool and that it can do plenty

of things that they needed. I saw that she was able to take a picture from Google Maps and

convert it into a file for AutoCAD. Soon, it became a bird’s-eye view of the area and she

mentioned that the North Arrow was very important.

We moved on to talk about how she works with others. She taught me that each project is a

group effort and they communicate with different people. For example, they would include

geological engineers, speak with architects, etc. One important thing was that they engaged

with members of the First Nations in their projects, even though members already know about

the Stakeholder Engagement. They understand that the land wasn’t theirs to begin with and

know the importance of showing Diligence.

Over all, I believe that it was a very good experience and that I learnt things I would not have

otherwise considered. I thank Shara for taking time out of her day to let me job shadow her.