If you're considering engineering jobs as a career path, consider the EDC industry.
What is EDC?
EDC stands for Engineering Design & Construction. This industry is crucial to almost every aspect of modern society. These industries include chemical manufacturers, petroleum companies, and food producers — companies necessary for the survival of our way of life. You could be a part of that with your engineering careers.
In EDC, your job would involve the designing and building of new plants for these industries. You might be the next one to create plans for a new offshore drilling rig in the ocean or for a chemical plant making important products that could improve the world, including pharmaceuticals and even environmental treatment plants.
Getting Involved in EDC
If you choose to accept the challenge of these engineering jobs, you'll be stepping into an exciting adventure where you are the mind behind billion-dollar projects. These are big industries, and their projects aren't cheap. These are large-scale operations. And your job will be to take the ideas and wishes of your clients and turn them into a reality with the help of a construction crew, of course.
You'll also be traveling around the world. These industries don't focus all of their projects in a single area. You can find their rigs, their plants, and other factories in almost every corner of the globe. For you to do your job, you'll also need to visit these locations so you can have a clear picture of what you'll need to do for your client.
The Further Impact You Can Make
A major part of what engineering careers in this area are doing is improving the environmental standing of many of these plants and industries. As awareness grows about the dangers caused by some of these industries to air, water, and land, engineers are being called in to make ''green'' improvements and to make more environmentally-friendly industry buildings when new ones are constructed. Whether you're an active part of the environmental movement or not, you'll find few engineer jobs that will put you so clearly into the media spotlight.
Qualifying for EDC
If these engineer jobs appeal to you, the next step is to start preparing yourself to be desirable to employers in this line of engineering. You should always discuss your engineering career goals with a mentor or advisor at your college, but the good news about EDC is that graduates from a wide range of engineering areas are needed for these projects. As you might imagine, these projects are complex and require diverse skills, so no matter what area you've focused in, you should be able to find a place in EDC.
Of course, you should realize that your education won't end after you earn your degree. Most of the industries in EDC do have training programs for you to complete to ensure you understand their needs and can meet them. With projects of this magnitude, there's no room for errors.
