“Be relentless and do what makes you happy,” says Nicole Doucette (MinE 1T4 + PEY) giving direction to current students for their professional goals; while in school, “Just really enjoy ‘you time’ in university. There’s a lot of freedom, and many opportunities while in school, so students should take advantage of their situation to get involved.”
Doucette works in the Vancouver office of Seequent, a mining software company based in New Zealand, as a science communicator and writer. “It was a really great opportunity for me, because it was the first time I was able to combine what I love, which is writing and communications with my actual background in mining.”
Further explaining Seequent’s forte, she says, “We create geoscience analysis modelling and collaborative technology. Probably our most well-known product is Leapfrog Geo, which is used for 3D geological modelling in the mining and minerals industry, primarily in exploration.”
While studying mineral engineering at the University of Toronto, Doucette’s experience involved a Professional Experience Year (PEY) at a company in Calgary, taking her out of the province for the first time. “It was really great to see how a lot of the applied knowledge I was getting in class was actually implemented in industry. I got to see what the industry was like, and decide if the oil and gas sector was for me, or if I wanted to go into the hard rock sector.”
In reflecting upon what other direction her academic or professional career might have gone, such as taking some classes in journalism, Doucette ponders, “It’s hard to know if I had taken a different path, if I’d be where I am now.“
Still, she’s firm in the belief of following her own interests and goals in order to find her own path. “One project I do in my spare time is a podcast called DYNOmine. I did one episode to test the waters early – it was about what we can do better for equality across the whole industry. Though it was about women in a remote mining camp, it’s not just for women. It’s kind of close to my heart.” A newer project is in the works too, “I’m working on a big podcasting project right now that will be shared more with the public later.”
Some thought-provoking vignettes from the shared experiences of women in remote mining camps bring some sage advice for the industry from Doucette: “Start by asking your colleagues what respect means to them. If you see something inappropriate happening at work, take the person aside and explain to them what was wrong about the interaction. Small actions like these culminate in a very powerful way. All of the challenges we face in mining are not going away and no one else is going to change it for us.”
With a career now no longer directly involved in engineering, Doucette reflects, “I wanted to be a science writer for National Geographic when I was small, and I’m working as a science communicator now, so you could say everything’s kind of come full circle.”
By Phill Snel
This article originally published in foundations magazine