By Deborah Sus, ENTRUST Solutions Group Principal Engineer – Gas Consulting
In my 20 years with ENTRUST, I’ve witnessed immense growth in our Engineering sectors, especially the Integrity team. When I first joined in 2004 as a Senior Project Engineer, I was at the epicenter when Integrity was developing. At the time, there was no dedicated Integrity department. For a while, Integrity was only a specialty one or two of us practiced within Corrosion. A couple of months after I started, people began to realize we needed staff to oversee rules, regulations and compliance. Since then, ENTRUST has grown from 100 to over 3,000 staff members, and Integrity has grown alongside it.
I have a Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science & Engineering and an MBA, but my career journey started in R&D. After a few years of working in R&D, I worked in engineering consulting in the nuclear world before leaving to become a project manager for a manufacturing company. By far and away, consulting roles were what made me the happiest. I realized then how much I enjoy the collaboration that’s part of consulting. In consulting, there’s so many new and different challenges and ways to apply your knowledge. So, after two years in manufacturing, I returned to consulting and discovered ENTRUST through a job ad. I joined the Corrosion side as a Project Engineer. Here, I was able to use my corrosion knowledge from the nuclear world and witness the Integrity department come into its own.
As a current Principal Engineer in Gas Consulting, I devise solutions as problems arise. Day to day, I also coach, mentor and guide people using technical knowledge. My fellow engineers and I each specialize in different areas, such as design and electrical. In my role, there’s always a new, exciting challenge with each day, which keeps my work interesting and fresh. Whether it’s for our long-term clients or more assignment-based clients, I enjoy working in all those capacities. It’s incredibly rewarding to see processes in place today, knowing I had a hand in their creation five, 10, or 20 years ago. It’s also been rewarding for me to see the next generation come up. I now know how my previous bosses felt when me and my cohort were coming into our own and how proud they must’ve been. Here, I’ve seen people, who started as new grads, work their way up into becoming managers.
To any newer engineers and managers, I would encourage you to think outside the box. Even if you think you have to do something one way because you’ve experienced it before, there can be multiple right answers. Navigate what calls to make based on what’s best for the client. It’s important to be eloquent in expressing your rationale, to present your case as best you can, and to graciously lose if someone has a better argument. It’s important to maintain your integrity as an engineer, and to work within the compliancy rules and understand why your methodology is not always the one selected. Interpreting those choices for the client, explaining pros and cons, and learning from those situations are all challenges. You must read situations and understand the role you play in the bigger picture.
Listening skills and exercising attention to detail are vital in Integrity Management and consulting. Being a consultant means being on top of what your technical specialty is. You should be able to articulate and bring ideas to the table. Another key skill is being open to new challenges, whether it means taking an assignment requiring travel or learning something new. In this role, I’ve learned a lot by listening and retaining information to apply it in new ways. The more you say “yes” to new challenges, the more well-rounded you become and the more value you bring to everyone working with you.
As we look ahead, our industry will have to navigate advancements in technology. AI is going to affect our industry. With those tools, people will need to be cautious in vetting information. However, there are major opportunities ahead in management and compliance. That’s the key factor in Integrity as we move forward: making sure our pipeline systems and personnel are operating safely.
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