Employee Spotlight – Chelsea Simpson
- February 24, 2022
- 11:23 am
Chelsea Simpson’s first job out of university was with BGC in our Calgary office. She was born and raised in the Northwest Territories in Canada and found her way to Calgary to attend university but had always intended to return home. When she started with BGC, she thought that she would be here for 1 year and then move on. Fast forward nine years and she is still here at BGC with the only difference is that she found her way back home to the NWT.
Chelsea originally went to university for sociology as she has always been interested in the social stratification of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and particular for Indigenous women.
When she initially joined BGC she had never heard of geotechnical or geological engineering and came in not knowing much about it. When she initially joined BGC she had never heard of geotechnical or geological engineering and came in not knowing much about it. She will tell you that the passion that BGCers have for their work really got to her and she realized that working at BGC was a place she wanted to grow her career. She appreciates the fact that she comes to work everyday to be around people she truly wants to work with. As she’s grown in her profession over the years, she credits the Office Managers she’s worked with as pushing her in directions she didn’t know she was capable of and being super supportive of her professional journey here.
How long have you been with BGC and what do you do here?
I’ve been with BGC almost 9 years and I work as an Administrator, these days mostly supporting the wider Admin Team and helping with office moves and renovations. I’m still officially part of the Calgary office but I work remotely from Yellowknife.
How would you describe your job to a class of Kindergartners?
How do you put all the millions of things an administrator does into one succinct description? I think I would say that lots of times my job is to listen to people and help them feel better about what they’re doing. I help people with the parts of their job that I’m good at, so that they can pay attention to the parts of their job that they’re really good at.
What is your favourite thing about working at BGC?
You have flexibility at BGC and you can take your job into whatever direction you are passionate about; there are no formal scopes that dictate that you can only work in a particular area. I like that they have enough trust in their employees to allow them to take the path their interested in.
What is the one piece of advice you’d give to new hires at BGC?
Talk to people and ask questions. When you start someone new, people always say they are open to questions and to help when it may not always be true, but at BGC when people say to ask question or come to them for help they genuinely mean it. I find that the more you talk to people that work in different areas here, the more you learn about BGC.
If you could switch jobs with someone in BGC, who would it be and why?
Sophol Tran who works in GIS. We started at the same time, I’m still not 100% sure I know what he does but would really like to figure out those Plains centreline updates. I would also be interested in switching with one of the librarians. I have spent lots of time working in local libraries and so I’d like to see what working as a librarian at a business would be like.
If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing, what would it be?
Books. Books are my happy place and a prefer them over movies or TV. I recently read The Strangers by Katherena Vermette, an Indigenous Canadian author. She also wrote another book a loved called The Break. I highly recommended both those books to anyone.
What is the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten?
This is not necessarily a weird food but probably shouldn’t be a food – Cheez Whiz. I love it and am only slightly embarrassed to admit it. Cheez Whiz on toast is one of my ultimate comfort foods.
What fictional place would you like to visit?
Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and specifically the Gene Wilder movie version. It’s one of the few movies I can watch over and over again and I love every twisted, delicious, imaginative thing about it and would totally want to take a boat ride through the tunnel, and test whether I’d go down the good or bad egg chute.
If you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life what would it be?
Anything by Digable Planets.
What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
My dad, from very young age, instilled in us to say what you think and stand up to what you believe in even if others don’t agree. It’s not always comfortable, but I try my best to practice that and even if the outcome isn’t what you want, at least you tried.