Selena Wilson is part of a team at McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd. working on the east segment of the Port Mann bridge/Highway 1 project on the Lower Mainland in British Columbia. Educated at the University of British Columbia and Camosun College in Victoria, Wilson is vice-chair of the young professionals’ steering committee at the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC).
Civil engineer Selena Wilson, who is active in young professional (YP) circles both in Canada and at the international level, got her feet wet in the industry at McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd. while still in college.
“I was home for the summer,” recalls the native of Campbell River, B.C.
“I opened the phone book one day to check out engineering firms. The timing was good. As it turned out, McElhanney was looking for a student.”
Now a highway designer in the firm’s Surrey, B.C. office, the 31-year-old Wilson joined the firm’s design-build division after obtaining a bachelor of applied science degree from the University of British Columbia.
She had previously completed a two-year civil engineering technology program at Camosun College in Victoria.
Wilson currently is part of the McElhanney team working on the east segment of the Port Mann bridge/Highway 1 project on the lower mainland.
“You have to be quite flexible working on design-build projects because things change quickly and there is usually a tight time-line involved,” she says.
“This type of project tends to be a little more fast-paced than the traditional design-bid-build approach.
“You find yourself juggling designing a road that meets the client’s expectations while trying to be innovative and meeting the contractor’s needs and getting the project done on time and on budget.”
Wilson, currently vice-chair of the young professionals’ steering committee at the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), completed the organization’s online young professionals’ management training program in 2008.
“It’s basically a great overview of the business side of consulting,” she says noting that development of leadership skills is also a focus.
The steering committee, which includes young engineers from a number of countries, is responsible for organizing the YP program at the annual FIDIC conference, including lining up speakers and arranging technical tours and networking events.
The committee also provides guidance to young professionals interested in setting up chapters in their home countries.
Involvement at the international level and attendance at FIDIC conferences “opens your eyes to the industry on a much broader scale,” says Wilson. “You get to interact with your peers from other countries as well as with senior engineers from around the world.
“From a business perspective, the learning aspect is huge.”
Typically, some 80 to 100 young engineers attend the conference, which is being held this year in early October in Switzerland.
Wilson, who is also active in the YP group of Consulting Engineers of British Columbia, says such organizations are a growing force in Canada.
“The majority of provinces now have groups in place,” says Wilson, who moderated a YP session at the recent 2011 convention of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Canada.
“Each year, they grow in what they have to offer.”
For its part, the B.C. group hosts breakfast seminars and social and outreach events to help young engineers develop the networking and business skills necessary to succeed in the industry.
‘We hone in on the skills that perhaps are not taught in engineering schools or at your company,” says Wilson, who views a transition into project management as the next step in her career.
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