Start working as a Cost Engineer

When you start working as a Cost Engineer within our company, you will start in one or more of the competence centres (CC). Depending on the CC, you’ll be working on either estimations, cost control, shutdown & turnarounds, data or implementations of the software.

I don’t know about the other universities in the world, but in the Netherlands there isn’t a lot of focus on Cost Engineering during your master. Most of us who are working here, finalised an engineering study and had interest in the costs of big projects. This brought us to the traineeship of Cost Engineering, where you will get training in the fundamentals of Cost Engineering, the use of our software tool Cleopatra Enterprise and the concepts of the Oil & Gas industry. Besides the oil & gas, we also work in industries such as; on/offshore, chemical, food, nuclear, energy and more.

I don’t know about the other universities in the world, but in the Netherlands there isn’t a lot of focus on Cost Engineering during your master. Most of us who are working here, finalised an engineering study and had interest in the costs of big projects. This brought us to the traineeship of Cost Engineering, where you will get training in the fundamentals of Cost Engineering, the use of our software tool Cleopatra Enterprise and the concepts of the Oil & Gas industry. Besides the oil & gas, we also work in industries such as; on/offshore, chemical, food, nuclear, energy and more.

These types of training will help you to become a full-grown Cost Engineering Consultant. However, you don’t only need training courses, it is also important to gain practical experience within projects and that is why you’re also involved in real projects right from the start!

One of the first projects I did was a Needs Assessment Workshop (NAW). When a potential client is really interested in our software tool Cleopatra, we execute a NAW. This workshop has a duration of 2 – 5 days, depending on the module(s) they are interested in and the expected complexity of their cost engineering work processes. During the workshops, I give a detailed showcase of our software tool, that does not only include the standard functionalities, but I’m also incorporating some specific aspects I already know about their work process. After this extensive demonstration, I have discussions about their current processes and how Cleopatra can be integrated in these processes. The goal of the workshop is to provide the client with a concrete plan for implementation; How does the new work process with Cleopatra look like? What is the required effort? When could all of this be executed? All these types of questions will be answered.

I personally really like the conversations and discussions you have with the clients during such projects. During the provided training courses, I have learnt some “best practices”. However, I noticed that every client has different work processes. Therefore, it is important to be able to understand their way of working and thinking, but also be able to advise them on how to improve their processes to make them more efficient. Next to that, I need to be flexible, since there is not one standard way of doing things. Every client is different, and therefore I must really listen to them and ask the right questions. This makes every workshop unique and fun. Another great aspect; the workshops are executed all over the world (at the office of the client), so after the workshop there is often some time available to explore a new city somewhere in the world before I return home.

During the past two years, I have seen a steep learning curve for myself! I started with mainly trying to understand what the client was explaining, whilst now I can really advise these clients and come up with an improved, much better, work process.

My process to become a full-grown Cost Engineer is still in progress. Next to my daily activities, I am following courses to understand the field better and better. Within our company, they really listen to the things you like to do and your potential is definitely seen! Next to giving these workshops, we have much more possibilities within Cost Engineering.

Interested in becoming a Cost Engineer yourself? View the available jobs at Cleopatra Enterprise!