Born to Drill or @bournetodrill - What is an environmental driller? The lucrative career of geotechnical engineering & drilling explained.

Our guest this week is an environmental driller from Canada. Rachel has been running and working a driller for 5 years and finds it to be a very fulfilling career!

Geotechnical drilling is an important part to the construction process. This is generally one of the first steps in the design and building phase. Rachel talks about how she's either the clients best friend or worst enemy with news about the soil.

Rachel discusses the difficulty of getting into the trade and what she'd suggest for other women who are trying to decide if this is for them.

I highly suggest following @bournetodrill on IG for more drilling content and another amazing role model for women in construction.

Links
Rachel's Instagram
Social Media Doin'GirlyThings
Podcast Host's Drone Business

Transcript

Megan

Hey guys, could you turn it down a little? Kinda in the middle of a podcast? Oh, Here we go... Welcome to the podcast Doin Girly Things, a podcast focused on making construction, working the field, wearing a hard hat, a girly thing to do. Every other Monday, a new episode will be released. If you're interested in supporting the podcast, please see the show notes for how to get involved.

For a free sticker, leave a review on Apple Podcasts and send a screenshot of your review to Doin Girly Things Instagram and we'll send you a free sticker for your hard hat.

Lastly, follow the podcast on Instagram for all the updates in hilarious reels to keep us all sane throughout the work week. Happy building and you got all this. 

Welcome everyone to season three of the podcast Doin Girly Things. So on season three, we will be talking to different women about all the different careers that are inside what makes up women in construction. This episode I'm actually really excited because I had to learn a lot before I had you on today because it was actually a career path that I didn't really know much about. And so I started to dig into it, and so today I have Rachel. She has an Instagram where she talks about being an environmental driller, geotechnical driller. And so I'm excited for her to share about what does that actually mean. And so I kind of wanted to start off the episode by giving a description of what I'd found online. And then, Rachel, I want to see what you have to add to this. So what I found online is it says, according to WhatIsGeotechnical.org, geotechnical engineering is a science that explains the mechanics of soil rock in its applications, the development of humankind. This includes, without being limited to the analysis, design and construction of foundations, slopes, retaining structures, roadways, tunnels, landfills and other systems that are supported by soil and rock. So, Rachel, thank you for coming on. And does that help to explain what is it, or what do you have to add to what you actually do for a living?

Rachel

Yeah, that's the main reason why we go out and do the soil analysis is to test those structures or to prepare for structures that will be built in future. So I'm the one that actually collects the sample with the machine. And then I present that to the engineer or technician on site. And then they do all the analysis and studies and everything else. But because of what I do, and my knowledge, I guess, throughout the years and different things that you see, I actually help a lot of the time. The technician or engineer also study like, okay, this is till is fill or this is gravel, because sometimes there are a lot of different types of soil that can be kind of confusing to look at. So we work together to try to understand what soil is in that area so that they can do the proper testing and evaluations afterwards.

Megan

And so what's the importance then of knowing whether its gravel their versus other types of soil? How does that help in the whole construction process?

Rachel

So with the Geotech, because I do Geotech and then I do environmental, which are separate. Geotech, they want to analyze the soil just so that they can see how heavy of something they can put there, or if the material is very loose, then they might have to excavate that topsoil. Actually, topsoil to they have to measure. You can't build on top soil. So you have to see how deep the topsoil is so that they can get excavated before building anything on top of it. And then sometimes there's places, like there was this old river that they actually excavated to make bigger for the big boats to go through and all that fell. So it's technically native to that area and then they moved it on top of this massive hill. So now there's like 30 feet of what they call fill. Even though it was all native to that area because it's been moved it's now considered fill. So a lot of the times they can't build on that. It's interesting. There's certain areas like Ontario is a crazy region for so many different types of soils. Like a lot of places in the States, it's just like sand to 200 feet or clay or bedrock, which is like rock right away. But here we have gravel, sand, boulders, till, clay, like super soft clay, and bedrock everywhere. And it's, it's crazy. So you have to be able to do a bunch of different types of drilling and you have to know your regions to know like, oh, I'm going to have to do this method of drilling to get these types of samples. Or I'm going to have to do this method of drilling to get the soil sample. So you have to kind of prepare and you have to know. And that's also done by like just being out there and having the knowledge prior to actually going out and seeing what you're going to be collecting before you even get out there. But it's really interesting. I think it's super important.

Megan 

Yeah. And so what is the average day look like for you? Because like I'm trying to envision like how do you get a soil sample out of a river and then all like what does it look like is either one day activity or how many days are you out there trying to get samples?

Rachel

It really depends on what the engineering firm has been asked to do. So, say they want to build a 20 story building. Now a lot of construction companies need to put footings in the ground in order to get the structure to be stable and standing for a long period of time. So if I'm in super soft clay from like four-five feet to 80-90 feet, I need to go all the way down to say 100 feet, where they actually get the hard blow counts and the harder soil. So they know like, oh, that's where we can put our footings. So it's usually like they just need to find that decent soil so that they know where they can build. But like I say, if they were just building a two story like a bunch of two story townhomes or something in the area, and there's bedrock that's super shallow, they need to know like, okay, this is very weathered. So we can just use an excavator and kind of chip it away or this is very competent rock. We need to come in and blast all of this out.

Megan

So either you're the client's best friend or the client's least friend because you're kind of in a way setting the cost because I assume that. 

Rachel

Exactly. 

Megan

There is a lot of extra work that you have. So one of the jobs I built on, we got the land for super cheap because there was actually an oil explosion right next to it. And we had to spend millions of dollars because we had to get rid of a lot of the contaminated...

Rachel

You had to excavate it.

Megan

Yeah. And so you really are the first. Okay, we're going to start right and change orders or what are we going to start doing? This was the base bid for what everyone thought we were doing. And then now we find out this.

Rachel

Yeah. And that's where the environmental side comes in. So the geotech is just understanding like this is this soil. This is how deep it is. This is where we can build. This is where we can put our footings. We have to excavate this amount of stuff, whatever. But the environmental side is we have to wash our equipment while taking the samples so that we can have a better understanding of, oh, no, this used to be an old gas station. There is gas that has leaked 30 feet into the ground. This is going to cost millions. So in order to buy a piece of property, at least here in Ontario, I'm not sure how it works like in North America, but in Ontario, you need to have an analysis done before you buy the property or right after or right before you're about to do the final closing of 'Is this property contaminated?' because of it is you don't want to buy it. You really don't. So that's a lot of people are very nervous sometimes when they come to site because they're especially if they're the the people wanting to buy, they're there lurking around or if they're selling, they're lurking around saying like, oh, is everything clean? How is it? How is it? And you can't say you have to just be like, not sure. Like, that's not up to me. You have to wait for the tests to come back because sometimes you can't smell it. You can't see it, but it's there.

Megan

That's what I was about to ask is like, can you look at, are you to the point where you can look at soil and say, oh, yeah, I know this has been contaminated with something? Or is it really like with gasoline? Does it break down so much that it's really hard to even see that it's contaminated the soil?

Rachel

I know sometimes like as soon as I put nogger into the ground, which is like one of my methods of breaking up the soil so that I can create the hole to take the samples from as soon as I start drilling down in that soil starts coming up. It's a waft of just smells. And you're like, Yeah, this is probably contaminated. So there's actually like natural gas pockets and stuff which you hit too, which can be very dangerous like H2S and methane because it can actually cause like explosions in the area. Like you can't have a lighter or anything nearby. So there's a lot of different smells on site. I've had to drill one landfill before, which I was standing on the side of the rig, almost throwing up the entire time because it's 40-50 years of broken down garbage.

Megan

And just the methane out of that is just has to be just a smell in itself.

Rachel

And there's this liquid called leachate which is it just sits in the ground and it mixes with your water table and just, oh, it's awful.

Megan

I almost gag whenever the guy comes to clean out the Port-A-Potties and I have to walk by it. 

One of the things that's interesting about whenever I was doing my research is often geotechnical is paired with the word engineering. So do you have an engineering degree or what are the qualifications to do what you're doing?

Rachel

I work alongside engineers and technicians, so it's actually not just engineering, but most even if there are technicians out on site, they work for an engineering firm. So what happens is people that are say, I'm just a subcontractor for the people that are buying the property but the people that are buying the property subcontracts the engineering firms and then the engineering firms subcontract us. So none of the guys that I work with have engineering degrees. We just are all we're just laborers, drillers. That's kind of our title I did go to school for this, but you don't have to. I took the it's really the only drilling program offered in North America. It was called Resources Drilling and Blasting when I took it. I think it's now called construction drilling at Fleming College in Lindsay, Ontario.

Megan

Would you recommend people if they're interested go or would you recommend just going straight into construction and getting hands on experience?

Rachel

I really liked the way that the program was set out, and because I was a female entering this trade, a lot of people don't know much about it. Period. So when I heard about it, I was like, This is super cool. My parents are like, You're not doing that. Like, there is no way. And I'm like, No, I'm going to sounds super awesome. I'm like, no, I'm going to. I took the blasting techniques for a year and then I got a certificate and then I finished the second semester and the summer, and then I did the third and fourth and the next year. So I graduated with a certificate and diploma in two years. So I did the blasting and then I did the drilling. Yeah. And then that way I did have some sort of like step up compared to a lot of people. But like if I had started applying to jobs with no prior knowledge, I had never been in a trade or really done. I worked at home hardware growing up. Like that was my, that was my knowledge of trades, which was I was a cashier. It was nothing. So but I knew that I wanted to make money and it said that there were so many opportunities. So I was like, let's just try and I want to go do something. So why not? Sounds fun. Sounds interesting. And yeah, if I hadn't taken out that program, I probably wouldn't have been able to get a job I had three offers when I left school, and I started my first job as a helper or assistant two days after I graduated.

Megan

Oh, wow... Do you mind sharing how much you started making right out of college?

Rachel

I graduated. And then I moved to Cambridge, Ontario, and I was making $18 an hour. I was a helper just with my G license. School helped me understand the fundamentals of drilling, but it did not prepare me to go out and work my butt off. I know I had no idea what I was getting into because you show up and you're in class with 15, 20 other people and you're taking notes and you're on your phone and you're taking pictures and videos and whatever. And then you show up to the site and there's one other person there with you that's operating the controls and you're doing all of the labor. And I'm like, What this is not what I signed up for, but I'm one of those people that's super determined that I wanted to do well and I wanted to prove all those people that I told, I'm going to go be a driller. They're like, Okay, took me a long time to actually get to where I am now, but I guess it didn't take me as long as some people go for a new after five years now. Yeah, my first company, I think I left when I was, I was making 21.50 after a year and a half. 

Megan

Oh, that's pretty good for just a year getting that. That's like 10% increase almost.

Rachel

Yeah. I was then offered another job because there's so much demand for this position. Another company reached out to me and offered me a job saying that they would pay me 25 an hour. So I said, Okay, perfect. I'll go there. So I left. It was more opportunity to it wasn't just the money. They were like, We want you to start drilling. And the company that I was up, all those positions were really filled. And I saw I wasn't really learning too much because of like they were almost too advanced for me, if that makes sense.

Megan

Like they have a lot of humans drawing mainly, just machine operation, or they just weren't able to teach you so then everything was going over your head and you feel like...

Rachel

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's what happened. It's all like the machines aren't really like here anyway. We don't really have machines that do a lot of things for us. It's all like we control the machine and there has to be somebody on it, like, the entire time. But the guys that I was drilling with were doing like 500 foot holes, like 300 foot holes where I needed to just be doing basic like ten footers and 20 footers, you know, just to kind of start understanding what I was doing so I moved to a different company, and sometimes I regret it because now that I'm at a level that I want to be learning that stuff, I'm not exactly there right now, but I can get myself there, which is good, I guess. So it has its positives and negatives.

Megan

And so you said you work for a subcontract, so how big of a company are drilling companies? Are they generally like small you know, ten person companies where it's just, you know, everyone knows who it is or are there big firms that you can go work for?

Rachel

There's only a few large drilling companies in Ontario, and they probably only have like 50 people, max. So the last company I worked with they were a construction company that had a drilling division. So there was only about six of us to eight of us sometimes. But like the full time drillers and manager were six people out of like 125, 150 person company. And then the company that I just recently moved to, I guess in February, that I'm still currently where they just started with when I got there, there was four of them. So, but now since February we've grown to almost ten I think.

Megan

What's like the biggest challenge that women face being drillers because sometimes it's thought of the, you know, women don't want to go into construction and, but I really do think that once we figure out the career path, that there are a lot of women that want to go into construction. But what's the hardest thing for women to overcome in drilling?

Rachel

The industry that I'm in it's it's still kind of in the seventies, like in the eighties, it's just starting to kind of line up with everything else we're not unionized. So that's a huge challenge. We're not a Red SEAL trade, which is also kind of an issue there's really no qualifications that you need to do this job. There's no apprenticeship. There's nothing. It's just we just need bodies so sometimes you're dealing with people that aren't the greatest or don't have a lot of schooling or respect or or even drive or passion. They're just like, This is a job for me and like, this is my career. This is what I want to continue doing. So it's really not just an issue for women. With that, I feel like it's an issue for people in general, like just dealing with other people. 

I don't have a bathroom on site because I do move from different sites every day. So sometimes I'll be on a job for a day. Sometimes I'll be on a job for a week, and I just have to figure out my bathroom situation. I usually just go in a bush.

Megan

Oh, because you're the first one on there before really even the general contractor showed up. So there's no bathrooms.

Rachel

There's nothing, there's no tree clearing. There's there's nothing. I'm just, out, usually in a bush. Sometimes I'll be behind abandoned houses with like homeless people living there. So you have to deal with that. And I got into some pretty, pretty rough areas sometimes. But it's interesting for sure because you get to you get to see different things. You get to see different areas like, oh, this is going to be housing. Okay, I'll look at this in the next five years. Maybe I can buy a house here, you know, stuff like that. 

But I think the other issue that I've had with being a female with my job is a lot of people telling me that I am not going to be able to do what they need me to do or not having the respect. Like I show up to a job site and I'm asking for their their locates and their paperwork just to make sure that I can drill safely, and there's nothing underground. And they go straight to my assistant, my helper who's supposed to be doing other things like unloading the truck and getting all our equipment out and stuff like that. And they don't give me the time of day because they're like, she's the helper, he's the driller. And so a lot of the time it's like, I have to be respectful, but at the same time show it. I'm kind of the boss here, so I need you to respect me and talk to me because I've had people that don't want to talk to me the entire time, and I'm trying to communicate with what's happening. And I might have a new helper who, yes, is a man, but he has no idea what's happening. So me trying to explain what he needs to go tell them because they're refusing to speak to me is not, not cool, it's a waste of time.

Megan

And it's just demoralizing to.

Rachel

It really is. Yeah. I've yeah, it's gotten a lot better now. The industry is very small, so a lot of people do know who I am now. You start to work with technicians and companies so they hear about you or they've met you before and, and they understand that I am the driller and they can talk to me and there won't be any issues.

Megan

It's funny what you said about the bathroom, cause I was on your Instagram. I was actually going to ask you a question about that because I saw that you mentioned something that you were excited that you had a restroom. And because on all of our job sites, we have to have a pink bathroom and that has a lock on it. And it's specifically for women but because you're getting there so early into the project, you don't even have a general contractor that's there yet. And so what is something that makes you happy that isn't offered on site? Is it the bathrooms that your number one?

Rachel

Yeah, I can't think of really anything else that's like, oh, this is great. Just when the client has their stuff together to go, that helps, you know, because they know exactly what they need. Yeah. Instead of them just making that up as they go because I'm like, I'm not prepared for this at all.

Megan

We are ten days from turning over my building right now. And it's one of those where it's like, ask for a nothing else. We cannot finish anything, before turn over. Like anything you mentioned is afterwards, like the sort of a nice to know months ago.

Rachel 

Yeah, I deal with that all the time. Oh, did you bring this? No. Why would I bring that? Well, we need that. I'm like, this is a one day job, like, and I'm an hour away from my shop. What?! No, I can't do that. Sorry. I better luck next time.

Megan

What's your radius from your shop that you usually travel?

Rachel

It's usually no more than an hour. And if it is further than that, we'll do you like out of town type things. But there's enough work central for us, that we really don't need to to go anywhere else, which is, is awesome because it means that I get to be home. I don't have children or anything like that, but I'm recently married, so, like, I want to be home to to my person, you know, and I have cats and you know they're like my children.

Megan

A life and friends

Rachel

Exactly. So it is nice. Like, I only work Monday to Friday, which is great if I need to work or Saturday they let us know ahead of time and that's fine. I don't mind.

Megan

And so do you work ten hour days or what is the time frame looks like? Do you work hourly salary, like be base with overtime or how does that structure generally work?

Rachel

So normally it's hourly. This recent position that I took on is actually salary, which is great sometimes and it will nip you in the but other times, I'm sure a lot of people know a lot of engineers and technicians that I work with are also salary. So sometimes you work like 70 hours in a week and you're, you're crying because you don't get that overtime. But there's a lot of drillers that do make overtime like time and a half after 40, 44 hours a week. But with this job I took a salary just because I knew it was, it was a startup. So I wanted it to grow and benefit and I was offered a great salary to start. So I figured I might as well just keep the salary and do what I need to do. And then there are times like I am the health and safety rep, my company as well. So I will get shop days and office time, which is awesome. It's not often, but I do get those. So I don't want to ask for overtime or whatever because when I'm out on site like it's full force, continuous moving, not usually taking lunch breaks, like just go right at it for like I guess ten to 12 hours and then that's my day. But when I'm in the shop, it's like, okay, take an eight hour day, hang around. Yeah.

Megan

After doing two back to back 80 hour work weeks, I did the math on like because I'm salary as well and I was like, don't cry again, don't cry. Salary has it's ups and downs because like what you're saying is with construction there are a lot of different phases. Like sometimes you're super busy and then sometimes it's all hands on deck what are you doing right now compared to what you thought you would be doing whenever you first entered the workforce?

Rachel

I really thought that like I would still be a helper. I wouldn't be really moving up. I didn't understand a lot of what I was doing, so I had a lot of issues communicating and making people on on site, like guys I worked with or technicians and engineers happy because I was I was really just confused I just felt like I was thrown into it too fast. But here I am like I have my own rig that nobody else is allowed to touch at my shop. I have all the help from people behind me, and I get to go out and do like super complicated jobs. And just because at that first company I was that instead of working, I watched. So I watched those super experienced people do things and now that I'm actually doing it myself, I've taken a lot from that. So even though at the time I was super confused, I had no idea what I was looking at. Now that I look back at that, I'm like, Oh my gosh, this makes so much sense. And now I can utilize this and I can do this. And I didn't realize, like, how much stuff actually stuck with me and how much it's actually increased in my career because of those people. So at the time, those people, a couple of them, not all of them, but a couple of them really put me down and said, You will never get anywhere. And I just took that and I ran. I was like, I don't care I'm going somewhere else that will give me the opportunities and teach me and and then I will grow and hopefully be better than you one day. Like, that is my goal is to beat those people that told me, like, this will never be you.

Megan

I love that you were able to turn their negative comments into kind of the jet fuel for you, like, so I'm sure it still hangs a little heavy on your shoulders as it does most everybody. But to also use that as your power is really important especially in a career where there are comments like that, there's no way to break free of never hearing a comment like that.

Rachel

I dealt with a lot of comments and negativity and I don't know and I really I wasn't really sure how to deal with that at the time. And to be honest, I wanted to quit. Like I didn't want to do drilling anymore. I had applied for there's other drilling, right? There's horizontal drilling where they put stuff underneath the ground. There's construction drilling where they put the piles in for the big buildings. There's water well, there's a bunch of other different types of drilling. And in the moment when people were putting me down, I'm like, I'm going to try to apply to other types of drilling companies. And I never heard back from any of them. So in that moment, I'm like, I just need to give up. Like this is not this is not the right spot for me. And then somebody reached out and said, like, we want to give you the opportunity. And I said, Okay, I'm sure somebody wants to give it to me. I will take it like, let's let's start somewhere new. That really helped me. They were actually really great to me to it was not a well known drilling company. They didn't really have an understanding. Again, they were just a construction company that bought some rigs. So they really had no idea what was happening. But that helped build my my future because I helped build the company with my experience and me doing what I needed to do. So it was it was a really cool opportunity. And that's what I wanted to take at this new company is help this new company grow as well, which I feel like with me and the other guys that I work with. We've done a really good job.

Megan

That is so cool that they really did kind of take a chance on you because I shared I was trying to find it quickly by shared a meme on my stories the other day, and it was talking about how if we only give people if we only have people that have done it before the opportunity, then we'll miss out on all those people that just haven't done it before and just need to be taught. And so like and so I really do think that there is this disconnect between the construction industry where it's like, oh, you didn't grow up in a house that knew construction, because I'm kind of like you. I went into being a general contractor and I had nothing I knew nothing about what even the GC was, and I just kind of jumped into it. But I think that we have to find companies that give women those opportunities and are willing to take a chance on somebody that might not have all of this past experience, but has the willingness to learn. And I used to joke with my intern all the time. I was like, constructions easy. If men can learn how to do it, you can learn how to do it, too. And I was like, You just need to ask questions. I was like, If you don't know something, Google it. I was like, men just create weird words for things. And then you think that it's like something secretive and I was like, No, just Google it.

Rachel

Sure. And plus the thing like, there are some some awful people out there for sure, but like the same people that told me that they could never see me doing this or now contacting me, telling me that they have job opportunities for me. Oh, now you want to mentor me? Now that I have done what I needed to do, get to get to an easier spot for you to train me now you'll take me on? No, I don't think so. I don't need you to take my credit, but I've been working towards that. I have done myself like there have been other people that have helped me so much along the way. For sure. It's not just all been me, but, like, I had the drive to keep going when you put me down. So why am I going to come back to you and say, Oh, please help me now? I don't need your help anymore. Thanks. So it's been interesting for sure, but it makes you feel good because you have these people like at your feet asking for you to come work for them to help them get money. And you know that you have companies that will take you with arms wide open and it's something that your resume I can say it's about what you do. And that's the biggest thing I've learned in construction is it's not about your resume. They don't care they just want your paper resume. They care about what you've done, what you've accomplished, your understanding and what they've heard about you, because just word of mouth gets around and and people talk. So especially being like, I only know two other females in Ontario that drill, so there's probably more of us. But when I go out, the technicians are like, You're the first girl I've ever drilled with and you're one of the best. It's like thank you! I appreciate that. Yeah, it's it's huge.

Megan

I was so happy that you were able to find the career path, even though everyone seemed to have doubted you that you really enjoy. And so I have our last question actually for this afternoon. So I have the best self cards, and I really like using them to help wrap up the episode. And so the two categories I picked for us were either courage or life lessons.

Rachel

I'll do life lessons.

Megan

As a child, what rules were made to be broken?

Rachel

I'll say for girls... didn't have to smile just to make other people feel comfortable.

Megan

I was going to say curfew. Curfew for me was always meant to be broken. Well, so happy to have you on the podcast. And I learned so much today and through all my research about what is drilling and the importance of it in construction, because I'm in construction and I really didn't even know that this was a career that was so vital.

It's the beginning of the kick off stage of it. So before we go, where can we find you on Instagram?

Rachel

I am BourneToDrill like the movie Jason Bourne, that's my my last name. And I will try to continue sharing more of my days and what I get up to and samples that I collect and make etcetera so that I can hopefully get some more people in the industry. Because if you're ever looking for a new career, it's huge and it's always hiring, always everybody.

Megan

That's awesome. I would love it if you found somebody through the podcast. That would be very nice!

Rachel

We are always looking every single drilling company like I know, especially in Ontario, if you're looking for something new and you don't have any background knowledge, people will take you in for sure.

Megan

That's awesome. Thank you for coming on and sharing the good news about drilling on the career path.

Rachel

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I think this is such a cool opportunity and I'm excited to hear about the other people that share their stories and what they get up to. And I think this is, this is awesome that you're doing this.

Megan

Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, everyone.