Should I be an industrial health and safety engineer?

Every job will have some sort of hazard. These can include:

• Dangerous equipment

• Hazardous chemicals

• Heavy lifting

• Sitting and staring at a computer screen all day

Companies must follow government regulations to keep their employees and visitors safe. If they don't, they can be fined or shut down. This is where an industrial health and safety (H&S) engineer steps in!

Some of the tasks you could work on are:

• Research regulations and write policies

• Perform inspections of industrial processes and personnel

• Develop training programs and teach classes

• Meetings with other departments to solve problems

• Assess equipment/system hazards and propose solutions

• Design, operate, install, or maintain technical equipment

• Build spreadsheets and do calculations

There can be a lot of variety to your days. Some days you'll...

• Work with a team to develop creative solutions

• Argue with people about why something isn't safe

• Sit in front of a spreadsheet all day mining data

• Walk around checking chemical labels

You may never quite know what the day will bring.

Where will you work?

There are many different types of health and safety jobs, but most people will work in one of the following:

• General Industry/Construction — You work directly at a manufacturing or construction site to help your company follow H&S regulations.

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• Engineering/Consulting firms — You would be hired by different companies (clients) to help them follow regulations. It may be for a specific project or as an ongoing expert.

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• Government agencies — You could be writing regulations or traveling to sites to complete inspections of their processes.

  Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash

What does it pay?

Salaries in the US can range from $55,000 to $140,000 per year, with an average of around $90,000 per year . Salaries will depend on things like the geographic area, level of responsibility, experience, education, etc.

What kind of education do you need?

If you want to become an industrial health and safety engineer, you should get a 4-year degree in Engineering, Health & Safety, or a related Science program.

You may love it if you like to:

• Follow and enforce the rules.

• Work collaboratively with other people.

• Protect people's safety and the environment.

• Read technical regulations and do research.

• Speak out on what you feel is important and don't mind disagreeing with people.

• Learn new things all the time and explain them to others.

You may hate it if:

• You like being popular. It can be a tough job because you are pushing people to do the right thing, which can slow down production and profits.

• You want to be part of a team. Depending on where you are, you may work alone most of the time.

• You don't want to read and learn a lot of technical information.

• You want a set routine every day.

Test Your Knowledge

Who would be a good candidate for Industrial Health and Safety Engineer?

Layla

• Loves to learn new things

• Very detail oriented

• No problem speaking her mind when it's important

Darryl

• Loves helping people and making friends

• Doesn't like giving people bad news

• Doesn't like to read a lot

Oliver

• Likes working with numbers

• Likes finding the fastest way to accomplish a task

• Likes to argue with everyone

Alexis

• Loves math and science

• Prefers to work independently

• Likes working on computers all day

So what should you do if you think you want to be a H&S engineer?