Success is where you find it
Through the course of my career, I have had the good fortune, and sometimes the foresight, to obtain professional licensing as an engineer in a number of jurisdictions. Currently, I am licensed to practice engineering as a professional in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North West Territories and Nunavut, as well as Washington and California in the USA.
When Wedler Engineering opened the doors of our Courtenay office, we faced some stiff and entrenched local competition. One of the key ways that our business has survived and grown over the years is because of the fact that we can provide services in multiple jurisdictions.
Amazingly, it was a Campbell River based client who brought Wedler some of our first projects in Alberta and beyond. Since 2007, we have used our willingness and growing capabilities to do projects at locations all over Western Canada to our advantage with steady growth and profitability resulting.
Working in multiple jurisdictions also allows us the benefit of being buffered from local economic factors. For example, when the development market in the Comox Valley ground to a halt in 2010-11, we were fully engaged with projects in the prairies and the Peace River Country. Now that things are slow in Alberta and the north, we are able to shift to providing more services locally and throughout BC as the development and housing market heats up again.
Finally, the experience we built providing services throughout western Canada provided the expertise that the Federal Government needs to provide services via Public Works and Government Services Canada. Since 2010, we have been on a standing offer contract with the Federal Government providing engineering consulting services on projects all over BC.
If you want to live in a great place, don’t just look where you live for work. Be bold and get work where it is, and you can be successful no matter where you live!