"I'm the kind of person who likes to feel he's helping out, getting things cleaned up a bit," says Brad Wynne of his job as an environmental engineering technician working for an environmental consulting firm based in Richmond, B.C. "I've always been interested in environmental issues. The more I looked at possible careers, the more this interested me. Now, after a couple of years in the field, I know I've made a great choice."Brad is also the kind of person who likes variety. "I like to do a lot of different things," he says. "My main thing is fieldwork with water sampling, soil sampling, and compliance monitoring for our client companies. Then I write reports that go to the company or to the provincial government. Right now, I'm segregating soils and monitoring air contamination for workers at a particular site to make sure their working conditions are safe. "

Much of Brad's work takes place out-of-doors where his sampling skills are the most important. When he returns to the office, another set of skills comes into play. "I use computer programs to record and tabulate data. Modelling programs are particularly important. They give you a picture of what is happening - for instance, with groundwater - over a large geographical area." "The great thing is that I'm never stuck in one thing for too long," Brad says. "It's just so variable. I could be doing something completely different next week."