She took the midnight train goin’… regional?
The Insight
Up-and-coming engineers who want to make their mark tend to set their sights on big cities. That’s where there are multitudes of major projects, and major projects mean major opportunities, right?
The thought process is logical. The bigger the project you can work on, the better the professional development you will gain. Surely, if you can tie your name to major, successful projects (no matter how small your role), your CV will sit at the top of the pile.
This aspiration is perfectly reasonable. You have dedicated years to studying and earning your place in the industry, now you want to pick up the pace. The problem is major projects in major cities won’t give you the experience you actually need to succeed as a young engineer.
While the skills you develop in these roles are valuable, they can be very niche. A message that we often don’t learn quickly is that the measure of your experience is not tied to the title of the project, but more to the skills dotted underneath.
The Impact
Let’s explore the road less travelled.
Working in regional areas means working in a smaller team. In these areas, the availability of engineers with highly specialised experience is limited. While the projects may scale down, the duties you take on are much larger and more varied.
Young engineers who learn in regional areas are exposed to a variety of technical fields in a short period of time. They gain a very broad technical skillset and deal with a variety of project sectors.
Engineering aside, those in regional areas are exposed to a wider skillset necessary to successfully run projects altogether. Job management, financial management, client management and business development are all highly desired skills that are often missed in big cities. These are the roles that develop the skills required to effectively communicate with clients and stakeholders which leads to a better, more complete understanding of the business of engineering.
When combined with less time spent commuting, regional work produces not only adaptable, broadly-experienced engineers but engineers who are a few steps closer to the ever-elusive “work-life balance”.