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Engineering Officer

  • Thread starter Thread starter souj
  • Start date Start date
There are Engrs without iron rings out there; I know a few quite well.  Given your geo background you'll probably eventually find yourself with 4 ESR, 4 ESU or the MCE (or possibly all of them), if accepted as an engineer. Indeed, if you've been doing sub-sea you could even end up working for the Chief of Defence Intelligence in the longer term.

I suspect that your background will be deemed acceptable for DEO; take that with a grain of salt, as I am not in CFRG, nor am I now an Engineer (though once a sapper, always a sapper).  I did have a memorable mess dinner with the Engineers in January, and did chat with D Engr a bit, if that counts for anything.

 
I was wondering if there are any engineering officers on this board who wouldn't mind sparing a little bit of time to have a chat with me about what their life is like.  I've been given my offer, and I just want to double check everything before I sign on that dotted line. 

Much thanks if you can help, send me a PM please.
 
There are a few Engineer Officers that come through here.  If you post your questions, others might be able to benefit from the answers. 
 
1.What are the duties done in while in garrison? I understand this may be difficult to answer, as I'm sure there are a wide range of activities, but what is the typical field day and office day as an engineering officer?

2.What sort of paper work is done?  What are the constant reports being filled out based upon?

3. As I understand, an officer won't be the door kicker.  Do you still get to work in the field doing mine clearing, EOD, etc?  What about in theater?

4.  Do you get to "choose" your specialty after your first tour of duty?

5.  Is there much time to do things off base once you are posted on weekends, or is there a lot of take home work to do?


I understand a lot of these are generic questions, and I hope to develop further ones as they cross my mind which will hopefully be triggered by feedback to my questions.

 
Rayman452 said:
1.What are the duties done in while in garrison? I understand this may be difficult to answer, as I'm sure there are a wide range of activities, but what is the typical field day and office day as an engineering officer?
While the regiment might have an annual routine which repeats itself with very rough consistency, you (as an individual) don’t have typical days.  As an officer, it is likely you will not hold the same position for more than a year (at least on your first regimental tour) and so for the three Aprils you initially spend with the regiment, each will be experienced differently.

Depending on the time of year & your job, you might find yourself in garrison: writing/editing PERs, running courses, attending courses, replacing track on a Leopard AEV, planning an exercise, acting as assisting officer for a soldier going to summary trial, participating in a recruiting event, participating in a public affairs event, building a bridge, studying tactics, participating in a sports day, shooting on the range, fighting in the LAV gunnery trainer, writing course reports, planning for support to a domestic emergency (fire, flood, ice, etc), getting ready for a field exercise, cleaning & maintenance after a field exercise, participating in a computer exercise, supporting a computer exercise, assisting your troops with career problems, assisting your troops with personal problems, just getting to know your troops, pulling a pack from a Leopard AEV … and the list goes on.

Rayman452 said:
2.What sort of paper work is done?  What are the constant reports being filled out based upon?
There is an plan & instruction that needs to be written for each course or exercise conducted.  Then there are post course reviews & post exercise reports that need to be produced afterwards.  PDRs, PERs and course reports need to be written on individuals at various times.  Occasionally, there is the requirement for a summary investigation, and if you get tagged with that you’ll have to write the report.  This could also be turned into another long list.

Rayman452 said:
3. As I understand, an officer won't be the door kicker.  Do you still get to work in the field doing mine clearing, EOD, etc?  What about in theater?
All officers are trained in mine warfare and a limited amount of conventional munitions disposal (CMD), which is a sub-set of EOD.  Once you are in a regiment, you can let your chain of command know if you are interested in perusing additional training in parachuting, combat diving or EOD.  You might be loaded on this training depending on how well you demonstrate yourself and the availability of the courses.

Rayman452 said:
4.  Do you get to "choose" your specialty after your first tour of duty?
There are options if you are interested in perusing a career path in construction engineering, mapping & charting, or equipment technical staff.  You’ll want to get a little time in before you start weighing any of these decisions though.

Rayman452 said:
5.  Is there much time to do things off base once you are posted on weekends, or is there a lot of take home work to do?
You will have plenty of your own time once you get to a regiment.  This is not something you need to worry about.

 
"...replacing track on a Leopard AEV..."


Once maybe, if you don't drop the hammer on your foot, or "forget" your work gloves... ;D  I was in the AET for 8 years, and only ever had one Troopie see the job from beginning to end.  To his great credit, he also took a shift laying under the AEV chopping concertina out of a drive sprocket in -15 weather.
 
Thank you for your time and combining my thread into this one.

From the sounds of your response to my first question, I'll be granted with the opportunity for an exciting and challenging career.  Just a few more questions since I don't want to have a misrepresentation of what the forces are really like and then become a non-effective leader and a burden to all. 

1.  This may be very difficult to answer, but what is the typical progression of a career like from ROTP and beyond?  I know upon graduation and successful completion of my courses I will be granted my S/Lt., but how does career progression go from there?

2.  After more time passes in the regiment, will I begin to hold a position for more than a year?  Is the constant shifting in positions to help me become familiarized with the workings of the military, or is it done due to personnel shortages?

3.Is there opportunity for travel as an engineering officer?

4.I was searching the site and found a post saying that combat diver is not an officer trade, and that there is no need for officers to be trained in this skill.  Was the poster incorrect, or have things changed?

5.Plenty of my own time once I'm in the regiment, which means that I will have (possibly) the time to peruse other activities, meet the local population, make non-military friends, etc? 

6.I'm not sure if this is a question which most people will be able to answer, but is engineering officer a good trade to help me get accepted into CJIRU with?  I understand that I may sound like one of those JTF 2 ninja wana-bees, and so its okay if this question gets ignored.  I'm studying nuclear engineering currently as my degree, and was hoping I could continue with work related to this field in some way.  Would it be best to ask such questions to my CFRC, or call the hot line posted on their website?

7.Is there field time as an officer? What does the engineering officer do when they reach Afghanistan?  Surely they can't spend their whole tour there writing performance evaluations and post exercise reports the whole time.

Again, thank you for your time MCG, your responses were very clear and informative.
 
Combat diver is not specific to officers - but there are plenty who do qualify.

As part of your day to day living on or near a base, you will have the oportunity to meet the locals.... we don,t chain people to their desk or vehicle.  They can go home at night & we even let them out on weekends.
 
Rayman452 said:
From the sounds of your response to my first question, I'll be granted with the opportunity for an exciting and challenging career. 
You most certainly will.

Rayman452 said:
1.  This may be very difficult to answer, but what is the typical progression of a career like from ROTP and beyond?  I know upon graduation and successful completion of my courses I will be granted my S/Lt., but how does career progression go from there?
It really varies depending on your performance, the needs of the CF, and what you want to do.  At the end of your training, you will be sent to a regiment for your first 2 to 3 years.  During this time you will probably hold a troop command position, and one or two other jobs in squadron headquarters (admin O or Ops O) or regimental headquarters (IO, Trg O, Asst Adjt, Asst Ops O, Engr Int O, Recce O  ... these possibilities vary between the regiments too).  Depending on the Op tempo, you may get up to two tours during this time (or none at all if things are slow such as in 2002).  By the end of this period (unless you've managed to go wrong) you will find yourself as a jr Capt.

At this point, there are many options for your first extra-regimental tour.  You could be posted to a higher headquarters such as bridge, Area, Land Staff, CEFCOM, CANOSCOM, CANSOFCOM, CANADACOM, etc.  You could also get posted as staff of a School (especially CFSME) or RMC, or to a CFRC (if the North interests you, there has typically been an Engr in Yellowknife for the last several years doing this).  This could also be where you apply to branch off into one of the career streams: CE, Tech Staff or MCE.  If you are interested in any of the CANSOFCOM units, this is probably also the right time in your career to try for that.

After 2 to 4 years outside the regiment, you can return as a senior captain in the role of squadron second in command, Regimental Ops O, or Adjt (alternately, some will go to CFSME and fill these roles).  Some people may not return as a captin (especially if they find them selves working in something they like & push to stay there longer).

Based on merit, you can be promoted to major.  The coveted job on reaching this rank is squadron OC in either a regiment or CFSME, but not everybody gets this. Much like for captains, after the initial employment in rank at a regiment, majors will be posted extra-regimentally. 

Rayman452 said:
2.  After more time passes in the regiment, will I begin to hold a position for more than a year?  Is the constant shifting in positions to help me become familiarized with the workings of the military, or is it done due to personnel shortages?
The shifting has been because new officers need to do time as troop command in order to develop for future employment in the regiment.  There are not enough troop command jobs for the number of new officers being produced.

Rayman452 said:
3.Is there opportunity for travel as an engineering officer?
Plenty.  You can go on courses & operations in all sorts of different places in Canada and around the world.  Depending on what your extra-regimental employment is, you might also find yourself visiting odd places at home & abroad in the conduct of your work.

Rayman452 said:
4.I was searching the site and found a post saying that combat diver is not an officer trade, and that there is no need for officers to be trained in this skill.  Was the poster incorrect, or have things changed?
Combat Diver is not a trade.  It is a skill that Combat Engineers can be trained in.  You may have been reading about Clearance Divers as this is an NCM trade in the Navy.

Rayman452 said:
5.Plenty of my own time once I'm in the regiment, which means that I will have (possibly) the time to peruse other activities, meet the local population, make non-military friends, etc? 
Yes.

Rayman452 said:
6.I'm not sure if this is a question which most people will be able to answer, but is engineering officer a good trade to help me get accepted into CJIRU with?  I understand that I may sound like one of those JTF 2 ninja wana-bees, and so its okay if this question gets ignored.  I'm studying nuclear engineering currently as my degree, and was hoping I could continue with work related to this field in some way.  Would it be best to ask such questions to my CFRC, or call the hot line posted on their website?
The Comd CANSOFCOM has been on this site commenting that people should not get too tied-up in which occupation will best prepare them to be an operator.  A selection is held, the right people are chosen and they are trained for the skills and knowledge they will need.  As I indicated earlier, if you are interested in a CANSOFCOM unit then the best time to look into this might be as you come to your last year of the first regimental tour.  In the end, you might not make the cut as an operator so you want to ensure that you've selected an occupation that interests you.

Rayman452 said:
7.Is there field time as an officer? What does the engineering officer do when they reach Afghanistan?  Surely they can't spend their whole tour there writing performance evaluations and post exercise reports the whole time.
Again, it depends on the job you hold when deployed.  If you are a field troop commander, then you may find yourself planning and conducting troop level operations, or you may find yourself working closely with a rifle company headquarters in planning company operations while dispersing your sections in direct support of platoons or other maneuver elements.  If you are an infrastructure officer, then you may be more focused on camp utilities and the construction of Forward Operating Bases.


 
Has anyone heard if there's room for any DEO ENGR O's in this year's SIP? For that matter, apart from what the SIP dictates, is the Corps in need of more officers?

Thanks in advance
 
I realize I'm replying to an old question, but I was at a recruiting center last Thursday, April 29th, and was told there were 6 DEO openings for Engineering Officers nation wide.
 
Blake said:
I realize I'm replying to an old question, but I was at a recruiting center last Thursday, April 29th, and was told there were 6 DEO openings for Engineering Officers nation wide.

Hi, thank you for posting this information. I am very worried now, but it doesn't make my situation any better than it was a few minutes ago. Thanks again for posting.
 
Hi i was wondering if anyone could give me a description of what day to day life is like as a combat engineer. I have a good idea about what happens on deployments and on exercises. But what is life like when you aren't on exercises or deployments, does this time exist? or are you always do exercises or deployments.
Thanks
 
1.  A Combat Engineer is an NCM.  The officer is an Engineer.

2. I have merged your question with previous discussions.  Read above and see if it answers what you are looking for.
 
Yes, Thanks MCG, It helped a lot.
Yes i also know that Combat engineer is not an officer position but i was trying to simplify the question. Sometimes it seems that people get confused if you just say Engineer.
 
While this is a fairly old thread, and I've been away for a while, I thought I'd throw in my two cents wrt my experience.
While the standard career progression was mentionned previously, I have to emphasize that operational needs will trump normal careers. For starters, not everyone will get posted to an engineering regiment, as lately, people have been sent to MCE in Ottawa right after phase 4.
As for chosing your career path (regiment vs construction vs geo vs EOD), I'm going to throw a bit of pessimism into mix. People will repeatedly say that you are your best career manager, but to a certain extent, it's not true. Even before arriving to the regiment, the brass will already determine what position you will occupy (EOD vs field vs construction) and will slot you into those courses before you even step into the regiment. Where limitations appear are if you are slotted into EOD or construction as you will be 'nudged' into following that stream due to the lack of 'experienced' engineering officers in those fields.

From my atypical experience, this is what happened (caveat, I was not a star in my course). I was assigned a liaison officer position (basically I had almost all the secondary officer duties) right off the bat. Then I was shifted to construction troop commander (rear party), so I was occupied with regular troop administration as well as ensuring the troop got work in their trades and making sure that they are ready for their next deployment. Things were pretty much aligned so that I'd end up doing squadron ops etc in my second year. But then the branch plans went out the window. The proposed squadron 2 I/C of the field sqn that was to deploy decided to pull the compassionate posting card and the regiment was left holding the bag. Looking around, they found a suitable candidate at base CE, however the condition was that his position needed to be backfilled by the regiment. Being the only captain who was JRAM (Junior Realty Asset Management) qualified, that fell on me and I left the regiment after one year.
So, after passing 6 months at CE I had the meeting with the career manager and pretty much agreed that I'd head off the next year to Kingston for the Tech Staff course. Two weeks later my OC asks me what the CM had said, and filled me in on the reality. Basically I was to be posted to Borden to backfill another position because the current DCEO was being posted to Montreal.

What am I trying to say with all this? Just expect the unexpected.
 
(I did a search for this before posting, found nothing)

Hello everyone, I recently submitted an application to join the CF as an engineering officer but I had some concerns about my qualifications. My university degree is Chemistry Honours, which according to my CFRC, is deemed worthy of consideration for the position but is not one of the preferred backgrounds. How badly will this handicap me during the application process (namely my wait-list ranking)?

Thanks
 
not sure why they told you that, i know some of our officers only have BA's or business degrees and they never had any difficulties, so i don't think yours will handicap you at all, good luck and hope this helps.
 
Info on the Engr Officer trade can be found here.

http://www.forces.ca/en/job/engineeringofficer-21#info-1

Let's put it this way.  If there are 2 positions open, and 3 candidates putting in an application. 2 of the candidates have the preferred university degree while the third does not.  This will hurt the person without the preferred degree. Is it impossible to get into the Engr Officer trade without an engineering degree? No. Is it more difficult? According to the requirements, yes.
 
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