Alumni spotlight
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Linda Clary, MSc’10 (Civil Engineering)
The “twists and turns” of an engineering career
Schulich Masters grad appreciative of education that demands curiosity
Linda Clary, a manager at Suncor, had zero intention of becoming an engineer. But after working as a heavy-duty mechanic and cabinet finisher in manufacturing she decided, in her thirties, that she wasn’t happy with where her career was taking her. She wanted to “make a change,” and go back to school.
“I had no prerequisites for engineering,” she says. “But I recognized that the people that I was admiring in industry were mostly engineers. And so, it made sense to me that that would be a path to take.” Her new plan was to do a BSc in civil engineering at Schulich School of Engineering and get back in the workforce. But those plans also changed after her team won the inaugural third-year design competition in civil engineering in 2005.
We were all huddled around,” she says. “And this fellow—an external judge—looks at my professors and says: ‘So what's she doing her Masters in?’ And we all looked at each other awkwardly. It wasn't something that I contemplated.
Linda Clary, MSc’10 (Civil Engineering)
She discussed the idea with one of her favourite professors, Dr. Lynne Cowe Falls, PhD, PEng, who suggested a thesis topic. Clary signed up for a Masters in civil engineering; graduating in 2010. She worked at Suncor while doing her post-graduate studies and has been taking on increasingly complex roles at the oil sands company ever since, working in construction management in the major projects group.
“I've designed a lot of business processes for this company,” she says. “I create or develop these business processes that help people to do things in a consistent manner so that they can achieve the outcomes the company is looking for.” Those processes cover a broad swath: from workface planning and advance work packaging, training and governance, incident management, corrective actions and project management.
In recent years, Clary was manager construction, fluids and tailings; a senior role that includes overseeing daily activities, ensuring compliance as well as safety excellence. For the last two years, she’s been working on Operational Excellence business processes for Major Projects.
“One of the things I think that stands out for me working for Suncor is their trust in me to represent them outside of these walls,” she says. “I represented Suncor as a working member of the Construction Owners Association of Alberta early on in my career, and I worked industry-wide as a representative of Suncor to develop construction processes for the industry, which was really cool.”
Clary has also represented Suncor while talking to students at various universities about how they could apply an engineering degree at the company. “You can be a hardcore number crunching engineer, but there's other ways that you can use your skills,” she says. “That's really my story. I’ve never designed anything except for business process. There are different paths than project engineer in the oil and gas industry.” But every path benefits from mentorship “one hundred per cent,” and she’s grateful for the ones she’s met along the way.
And Clary is grateful for what she learned during her two degrees at Schulich. “The foundational engineering education makes you curious,” she says. “And it's afforded me the twists and turns, which I love.”