EngSpotlight Interview: Electrical Engineering

How can Electrical Engineering students better equip themselves for the professional field?

I was resourceful. So I will always advise engineering students to be resourceful. Don't always depend on the infrastructure that's already set for you, because there's a lot of you. The biggest part of what we look for in hiring is the students themselves. Sometimes when we're hiring new grads, even when we're looking for summer students, we're looking if that student is open to learning, collaborative, and willing to ask questions.

A lot of companies understand that when you're hiring and looking for new students, you're bringing these students in to basically mold them to the needs of your organization and your industry. In today's time, there's a lot more opportunities that exist in different diverse industries. So one thing about electrical engineering itself is that it has the ability to take you in different fields.

So for myself, I went from telecommunication, data centers, wireless and this could be two different industries. Electrical engineering is a diverse field, right? You can get into computer networks, you can get into computer systems, you can get into electrical systems. So, there's a lot of opportunities out there for, I believe for any engineering grads.

Current workplaces: SunGrid Solutions and Colm Engineering

SunGrid Solutions is a renewable energy space. Our focus is to create better energy for tomorrow. We have our own manufacturing, right? We do projects turnkey, end to end. So we take on a project with a client, we conceptualize it, engineer it, manufacture it, manufacture the components, the systems, integrate it.We have our own unique software to do that.

Strategically we acquired a consulting firm called Colm Engineering, which has been around for 20 plus years. Some of the largest developers, home developers in Ontario. At that time, I was basically, I had an executive oversight and operations from a board level, where I took over and grew the company from nine employees to 40. And basically, I'm taking that business plan, as President of Colm, to deliver on growing the business and go nationally, and potentially growing into the US.

The expertise that we have, we’re a power engineering company. We focus on engineering, power distribution, power systems. So we help developers bring power to subdivisions or homes. And we also work with utilities to basically distribute, and design substations and basically deliver that power infrastructure as well.

What challenges do you see on the horizon?

I always like to think of challenges as opportunities, because I think, to your point, the challenge is creating opportunities for us to be innovative, to find solutions for it, right? Engineers are problem solvers.

But sometimes when they tell us, “We're problem solvers,” they focus on the solution without listening to the customer's needs. So the industry requires that bridging. Now, engineering can seem like technical expertise, but like I said, engineering is a diverse field. If you start doing what I did, which is jumping industries, jumping specializations, you become a master of none. So, I would like to say what I mastered is engineering management. And that's okay. But as an engineer, you always have the ego in you that you feel like you should always have a technical ability. So you might develop your own passions, you might devote your own interests.

How do you see tools such as AI affecting your industry?

They make you more efficient. Tools make you more efficient, allow you to do, in a business sense, they allow you to do more, with less. Not less people. That allows your people to do more. Yeah, AI, ChatGPT. You know, I might be a bit more technical than other people, because for me AI, and for most engineers, it's really algorithms.

The only limited experience that I had in some of the organizations I work in, was, one of my software developers in Vineland showed us that he can use ChatGPT to basically do some basic code to help him with some calculations that he doesn't need to focus on for some niche programming. So there are aspects of ChatGPT that you can use to be more efficient at the stage, but can you depend on it? Now, maybe not.

I can tell you for highly experienced engineers, professional engineers with 10 plus years of experience, they tend to be a bit careful with what they use for their work day in, day out, because they’ve spent 10 plus years developing their career depending on certain skills, to deliver those, to deliver what you're doing. Now, you need innovators to take on new opportunities. But I think if people are going to be innovators and start using new technology tools, they're going to become more entrepreneurial with them. So there's opportunities with these tools.

What are some important skills that aspiring engineers should have?

I think some of the basic skills that I will say this, not only engineers, but any new junior roles, you have to have the willingness to learn, you have to be open minded. You have to try to understand that, it's okay to make mistakes. We expect you to make mistakes. Depending on the technical roles, depending on the job, if you look at engineering companies, you know, we look for some of those basic skills.

Some companies might get into technical questions to see if you know basic, some of the stuff that you've learned, but really, we care about the specific things that we can use for the job that you're coming into. So for example, like I said, if you're coming to a design role in the power industry, do you know AutoCAD, because if you're going to use AutoCAD, I think coming in with AutoCAD is very important, unless the manager is willing to teach you on the job.

I think being resourceful and also just like you're looking for a job, you're researching and building your resume, I think you should research the needs of the job. And if you get the interview, you should be open about what you know, and what you don't, but that you are willing to learn it on the job. And I think that could stand out very well with your interviewer.