Ruth Gay

The glitz, the glamour, the good of the globe! What should you know about picking this rewarding career? First, it's a cool job, no doubt! The glamour? Well, let's just say ditch the high heels, suits and ties. We go into all the dirty places. We brave cold, wind and scorching sun to get to the equipment on the roof. We go where no light shines into every mechanical closet and cellar to get to every pump, air handler, boiler and chiller. We dig deep and get the whole picture. We look at hours of operation, occupancy patterns, equipment and weather. We figure out what questions need to be asked, and don't stop until we know the facts or can come to a reasonable conclusion based on the best information available to us. It's our job to eliminate energy waste by controlling energy usage to exactly what is needed. We turn ideas and what-ifs into reality to prove what can be done. That's only part of it. An effective energy engineer does not stop with textbook learning. We have a hunger to know, a drive for perfection, and a heart for compassion. The insatiable hunger to know leads us to dive deep into the roots, ever learning from sources outside ourselves. We discover economics and financial analysis. We explore specialized systems and processes. We lean on the wisdom and experiences of our teammates to grow in our own understanding. We're constantly refining what we thought we knew with each new discovery. The insatiable drive for excellence demands we are ever learning about ourselves, discovering our limitations, facing ourselves head-on, training and being trained to improve ourselves. We step outside of our comfort zone. We learn to be business people. We learn how to relate to people, how to talk to customers. We learn how to stop talking and how to listen. We are directly accountable to the end customer for a truthful and beneficial outcome. The undeniable heart for compassion leads us not only to be a part of other peoples' lives, but to share with them curiosity, confidence and tools for bettering their lives one day at a time. We're responsible for doing right by the people impacted by our work. We take our job and our relationships seriously. Next time you consider this career, know this. Most of what you do will be behind the scenes. You will be proved wrong many times, and sometimes things won't pan out exactly as you expected. But each time you will come away having learned something. You will open doors for people to worlds they didn't know existed. And you will be doing good in your community for this small globe we call home.