Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - November 2003
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Perceptions and misperceptions of the consulting engineer
By Anita Smith, P.Eng.
Executive Vice President,
MacViro Consultants Inc.
I have been an environmental consulting
engineer for almost 20
years and greatly enjoy what I do.
When asked “what would I
change”, other than higher salaries,
greater professional recognition and
fewer working hours, I wouldn’t
change a thing. However, there exist
certain perceptions and misperceptions
on which I offer my comments.
The first misperception held by the
general public is the notion that engineers
are rowdy, beer-drinking slobs
or, even worse, calculator-toting geeks.
Engineers provide tremendous value to
society, as we see everyday with
advances that improve our quality of
life – magnificent buildings, everimproving
modes of transportation,
powerful computers, hi-tech communication
systems, automation, etc., just
to name a few. Many of these advances
have been designed by engineers, yet,
the engineering profession still struggles
for the recognition and status
given to other professions such as
lawyers and doctors. We must do a better
job of promoting the engineering
profession and be deservedly proud of
our contribution to society.
The second issue is the dirty word
“consultant”. Engineering consultants,
in many cases, are lumped into the
generalized group of all consulting
services, many of which have nothing
to do with engineering. The consultant
term has been “devalued” through a
few bad consultant experiences, again,
many of which may have had nothing
to do with engineering. Consulting
engineering companies provide specialized
engineering services, with
experts in particular fields. They exist
to help clients with technical issues
and, in many cases, provide an essential
public service. It is, therefore, disappointing as a consulting engineer to
sometimes be treated as a commodity
rather than being viewed as a partner
working with the client to solve problems.
On the issue of value-based consultant
selection, recent improvements
have been noticed in the public sector
consultant selection process. However,
there are still too many municipalities
that award engineering consulting
services based on price. As with most
things you purchase, you get what you
pay for. If you award consulting engineering
services based solely on price,
you likely will not receive the best
engineering value. High quality engineering
can result in a better design,
which significantly reduces the capital
cost and lowers the overall project cost.
In any case, shouldn’t a fair price be
paid for a job well done?
The environmental industry is now
booming, and it is expected that this
will continue for sometime. Accordingly,
as a consulting engineer in the
environmental field, the future looks
very bright - we should enjoy and be
proud of the profession we have chosen.
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