Safety position?

[Cowtown guy]

Just went in a recertified for my COR for the construction industry. Doing my WHMIS in a week. If folks here could keep an ear open to see if someone is looking for a safety officer that would be great. Looking in the Calgary area.

I am interested in following up with my NCSO designation also. Please let me know if you hear of anyone interested.

[dumoulin]

Take a peek on ACSA's website. Lots of positions but they are in Ft Mac.

[Smokinyotes]

Most safety officers I have ever dealt with are more interested in sitting in their office writing rules and policies and don't get out into the field to see what is really going on. I dealt with a couple before that I'm sure their only goal in life was to make everyone elses lives miserable and slow down production.

[AppleJax]

If that's the work your looking for, I would look farther...way farther than Calgary.. Think Edmonton and north

[het4human]

If you want something local the best thing is to find a small construction company working towards their COR that can really use you for getting things in place.

Another suggestion would be to send your resume to companies like Target Safety, Total Safety etc., who are more willing to take on Jr. Safety personnel and help them get the field experience they need.

Also, try going directly to the companies that are advertising for positions. I had no luck at all when I e-mailed my CL and Resume, but by putting a face in front of them a lot more of the Safety Managers, HR Managers etc. were willing to sit down and talk with me.

Although the pay will not be as high as working for bigger companies you will likely get a better understanding and more practice in the essential skills the bigger companies are looking for.

The biggest challenge is getting your foot in the door, and a lot of the bigger companies want a fair amount of field experience, in addition to a lot more education than the NCSO / COR training provides.

I started with a small company (24 employees total, including management) who did not have their COR but were working towards it. I was actually a little overwhelmed initially with the amount of work that actually goes into setting up an OH&S management system, but the experience I gained in putting it all together definitely gave me a great deal more knowledge and by involving my self in the field operations as well as involving the field staff in my job and processes the entire program came together really well.

Although I am certain I could go to work for a bigger organization and make more money, I think I am going to stay with this one, because I am able to appreciate the work more knowing that I was able to help put it all together.

Good luck in your job search.

I currently have my NCSO, COHS, DOHS, and am working on my CRSP, Enform Auditor and NCSO Gold Seal. Of all the qualifications I have the Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety was definitely the door-opener, so I would suggest looking at that as well. It is a little more expensive than the NCSO but the knowledge gained far outweighed the cost.

[Big Daddy Badger]

Originally Posted by Cowtown guy

Just went in a recertified for my COR for the construction industry. Doing my WHMIS in a week. If folks here could keep an ear open to see if someone is looking for a safety officer that would be great. Looking in the Calgary area.

I am interested in following up with my NCSO designation also. Please let me know if you hear of anyone interested.

Just curious... when and where did you write?
I'm curious because I wrote mine today.

Otherwise... all the work seems to be up north.

[Big Daddy Badger]

Originally Posted by Smokinyotes

Most safety officers I have ever dealt with are more interested in sitting in their office writing rules and policies and don't get out into the field to see what is really going on. I dealt with a couple before that I'm sure their only goal in life was to make everyone elses lives miserable and slow down production.

Funny....most the guys I know feel trapped in the office and long for the good old days when they got out there and worked WITH people.

I know that while doing QA in the military... I soon learned that the only advantage to being promoted was the pay.
I missed the interaction.
My office was nice but it felt like a cage most days.

Different mind sets I guess....
Different core groups of people as well.
In the military we are within the medical branch and all of our Occupational Health folks are ex-medics so most are probably people oriented to begin with...and lets face it...use to leg work chasing infanteers around training areas...lol

[Slash8]

Register with Linkedin as well, all kinds of job and networking possibilities. I hold a welding and pipe fitting ticket, got my NCSO about 12 years ago and have no regrets getting off the tools and going into safety. What I like about it most of all is mentioning the young ones just starting out. What I hate about it is doing incident investigations after someone gets seriously hurt. That always sucks and its unfortunate that in this day and age it still happens. Hopefully you get a job where the management team is 100% committed to HSE. Good luck to you in your new endeavours. A lot of companies are willing to take on new NCSO's as Junior HSE staff.

[het4human]

Originally Posted by Slash8

A lot of companies are willing to take on new NCSO's as Junior HSE staff.

Not so much anymore with ACSA pumping out 100 new NCSO's weekly. Look on Kijiji or the ACSA website under posted resumes and there are typically 60-80 people looking for work every day.

When I did my auditor refresher there were 3 courses each with nearly 30 students all going at the same time.

ACSA has become a meat market for NCSO's with an estimated 14000 people in Alberta currently certified (as per ACSA staff).

80-90% of the job ads for safety positions are now asking for 5+ years experience because they are being bombarded with resumes.

A company a friend of mine works for in safety advertised for a camp safety position and they received 900+ submissions, interviewed nearly 100 of those (the remainder had the ACSA courses and pretty much nothing else on their resumes) and of all the interviewees they only found 5 that they considered for the position.

Most common complaint from employers - NCSO requires no hands-on safety experience. Employee X who emptied trash on a construction site can be an NCSO in a matter of a few weeks of courses.

[Cowtown guy]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy Badger

Just curious... when and where did you write?
I'm curious because I wrote mine today.

Otherwise... all the work seems to be up north.

Calgary last Wednesday

[Cowtown guy]

Originally Posted by het4human

If you want something local the best thing is to find a small construction company working towards their COR that can really use you for getting things in place.

Another suggestion would be to send your resume to companies like Target Safety, Total Safety etc., who are more willing to take on Jr. Safety personnel and help them get the field experience they need.

Also, try going directly to the companies that are advertising for positions. I had no luck at all when I e-mailed my CL and Resume, but by putting a face in front of them a lot more of the Safety Managers, HR Managers etc. were willing to sit down and talk with me.

Although the pay will not be as high as working for bigger companies you will likely get a better understanding and more practice in the essential skills the bigger companies are looking for.

The biggest challenge is getting your foot in the door, and a lot of the bigger companies want a fair amount of field experience, in addition to a lot more education than the NCSO / COR training provides.

I started with a small company (24 employees total, including management) who did not have their COR but were working towards it. I was actually a little overwhelmed initially with the amount of work that actually goes into setting up an OH&S management system, but the experience I gained in putting it all together definitely gave me a great deal more knowledge and by involving my self in the field operations as well as involving the field staff in my job and processes the entire program came together really well.

Although I am certain I could go to work for a bigger organization and make more money, I think I am going to stay with this one, because I am able to appreciate the work more knowing that I was able to help put it all together.

Good luck in your job search.

I currently have my NCSO, COHS, DOHS, and am working on my CRSP, Enform Auditor and NCSO Gold Seal. Of all the qualifications I have the Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety was definitely the door-opener, so I would suggest looking at that as well. It is a little more expensive than the NCSO but the knowledge gained far outweighed the cost.

Thanks for this^^. I have been involved with it before. I was tasked with setting up an H&S program for a smaller company and ya it was an eye opener. I was with them for 5 years. I just needed to recertify for the auditor and I am now just needing to do a peer audit. I have been involved in external audits and have unfortunately been the lead in a very serious investigation in which a worker was paralyzed from the hips down.

Thanks for the info. I can look into things further from here.

[Who Da Fisherman]

Originally Posted by Cowtown guy

Just went in a recertified for my COR for the construction industry. Doing my WHMIS in a week. If folks here could keep an ear open to see if someone is looking for a safety officer that would be great. Looking in the Calgary area.

I am interested in following up with my NCSO designation also. Please let me know if you hear of anyone interested.

you can challenge the WHMIS on line if it is not past the 3yr expiry.