Best mining engineering programs in Canada?
I am looking at Queen's and UBC. Are they both held in high esteem in the industry? I know Queen's has had some budget issues and hopefully they haven't hurt the mining department.
Sep 9th, 2020 1:51 am
Sep 9th, 2020 9:11 am
Depends on what kind of mining you want to get into and where you want to work. Laurentian, Queens, and UofT are all on a similar footing in Ontario, and are geared more towards hard-rock mining. Laurentian has a brand new engineering building if you care about stuff like that.redflagdealsnewb wrote: ↑ I am looking at Queen's and UBC. Are they both held in high esteem in the industry? I know Queen's has had some budget issues and hopefully they haven't hurt the mining department.
Sep 9th, 2020 1:54 pm
Oct 3rd, 2020 7:45 pm
Oct 3rd, 2020 8:13 pm
Oct 4th, 2020 12:01 pm
Eh, I wouldn't use that as a judge of the quality of the department. It's just a gauge of the popularity of the program.Cashforlife wrote: ↑ Queen's Mining has been the go-to for the bottom 10% of the first year class for decades now. It is not a high performing department. Look to Geological engineering instead.
Oct 4th, 2020 12:37 pm
Not using its popularity as a gauge, at all. It played at a high level for many years, but that was a long time ago. At Queen's, in 2020, you are way better off going into mineral exploration or geophysics, in the Geological Eng department.
Oct 7th, 2020 3:04 pm
Oct 8th, 2020 6:08 pm
I'm not in mining but rather in electrical/tech. One day I was a rock star chip designer trying to figure out the best colour for a Porsche, next day I could not get a job to save my life and was unemployed for a looong time while my government was running ads in other countries telling engineers to move here.miningminer wrote: ↑ as someone who has worked in the mining industry for a decade, I really struggle to recommend that career path to anyone. Have you spoken to any mining engineers about work/life balance, commute, how their career paths affected their families, etc? It's a deeply cyclical industry, if commodity prices take a hit you can look at a decade of recession, wage cuts. Combined with long hours of shift work, remote work areas, living in camps, the travel, etc.
I've worked in oil sands, copper, coal, gold, and iron ore mines. Particularly with the political landscape these days towards ESG, I don't see a bright future for resources in Canada.
Oct 8th, 2020 7:28 pm
I agree, engineering has been dead in Canada for the last 30 years. Very few make it through the cracks and land a job actually doing engineering work, meaning designing something. Most engineers end up in some sort of administrative role. If you want to have a family down the line I would not pick up mining.Cashforlife wrote: ↑ I'm not in mining but rather in electrical/tech. One day I was a rock star chip designer trying to figure out the best colour for a Porsche, next day I could not get a job to save my life and was unemployed for a looong time while my government was running ads in other countries telling engineers to move here.
Only 40% of engineering grads are able to find jobs in engineering, 30% if you include foreign-trained. If you get an engineering job, you are on the roller coaster of the business cycles and you better remember to stack cash when times are good.
Thanks, I feel much better now. :-)
Oct 19th, 2020 2:17 pm