Demand Up For Engineering Students

This time last year, it was a fairly bleak job outlook for engineering students looking for internships in Alberta's oilpatch amid a recession. Fortunes are changing this year, with more internships opening up and many current interns once again landing job offers before they even graduate.

Anthony Ferrise was one of the lucky ones 16 months ago when he landed his dream internship. He's currently finishing up his term and heading back to complete his last year of civil engineering, but he got a job offer last week from his employer, Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd., upon graduation next May.

"This is a company that I really wanted to get involved with," says Ferrise, a University of Calgary student at the Schulich School of Engineering. "The first eight months ... was a real eye-opener for me."

He spent the first half of his internship in the company's building science and restoration group and moved on to its structural engineering group for the last half.

"The biggest benefit of the internship is the real-world application and just seeing how it's carried out on a day-to-day basis," he says.


It was a tenuous situation when he was hunting for a position last summer. "It was quite a task getting a job," he recalls. "A lot of people couldn't get internships, so it was a difficult time."

Abe Kohandel, an electrical engineering student at the U of C currently on an internship with Pason System Corp. in Calgary, has noticed the dramatic change in internship openings among his peers now looking for jobs.

"It's definitely picking up again," says Kohandel. "We had a bit of a rough patch last year, but things are getting much better now."


He's working on embedded electrical systems for Pason and says it's been a huge learning curve, but a refreshing one from the pure theory taught in school. "When you work for a year, you get an understanding of why (the theory) is important and where you should be paying attention," says Kohandel. "It's not just math anymore."

Jack Gray, director of Schulich's engineering internship program, confirms there has been a 14 per cent increase in placements so far this year over 2009, from 220 last year to 250 -- and counting -- in 2010.

"There's been a groundswell in the overall activity in inquiries, the number of postings (and) the new employers compared to the previous year," says Gray. "Across the board, there seems to be an uplift in the job opportunities for students."

Both Ferrise and Kohandel are not just focused on what they're learning on the job, but the vital industry connections they're making during their internships.

"They're astronomically important," says Ferrise. "The industry is a lot smaller than it seems, so getting to know people in the industry really helps out a lot."