PROFESSIONAL DEVELOMENT
Marcia Fortier, P.Geo. Grande Prairie
The word soft fools a lot of people. The last two years, I took a technical writing course, which is actually considered a soft skill, and I’ve read a lot of news articles, because our writing is similar. A lot of people are surprised by soft skills. Technical skills a lot of the time are easy, because you already have your education and your mentors giving you examples of what articles to read. But your soft skills of presentation, writing, leadership—sometimes a lot of that is in your APEGA or APEGS conferences. You never know when you are going to get that opportunity to use a soft skill. I find networking is a really a good source of learning. You never know what you are going to learn from colleagues. A lot of them have faced the need to find tough solutions. And sometimes just talking to them will give you that viewpoint or something else about their experience. Experience is one of the learning tools you get from them.
I feel it’s important to be learning all the time. Our professions are continually changing, so continuing professional development is particularly important. I decided this was a good opportunity. A lot of times you will be in a business meeting or a work meeting or a conference, and suddenly something you’ve seen or heard in another conference applies. So I’ve used what I learn for work situations. It’s a good investment, especially when you consider how technology is changing in our industries all the time, how the public is expecting more accountability. I’m originally from Saskatchewan. I moved in August. So I found it very interesting to learn about how APEGA is working on updates to our legislation. As a new member here, I found it a good catchup to learn about what my association is doing to represent me and my profession.
SUMMER 2018 PEG | 33
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