Following the job of your dreams

Evan Souliere knew what he wanted to do and that he’d be one of relatively few in the engineering field to do it, so he’s worked hard to make his own breaks. He designs roller coasters.

As a senior finishing up his civil engineering degree at Northeastern University, he has used his co-op opportunities to his advantage.

On his first co-op in 2006, Souliere worked in building technology at Simpson, Gumpertz, and Heger (SGH), a consulting engineering firm in Waltham, MA. Though he already had his mind set on roller coaster design, he elected to gain some engineering experience and had the chance to do work on some pretty important projects.

“One project that sticks out, though it wasn’t one of the main projects I worked on, involved me working the night shift with an engineer in the ceiling of the Big Dig setting up some monitoring equipment,” said Souliere. “That was just so cool to me.”

In between co-ops, Souliere has served on the boards of the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and NUSTAND, a group working to end genocide in Sudan. His involvement with the Steel Bridge team through ASCE has also helped him gain design experience.

“The goal of the group is to design a 1:10 scale steel bridge based on certain criteria and compete against other schools in the region, then in the nation,” said Souliere, who lead the design team this past year. “We won regionals this year and went to nationals in Florida.”

With engineering experience on his résumé, Souliere set out to pursue his second co-op in his field of choice. Aiming at a fairly small roller coaster business, it was important that he got his name out there, and that helped him land his first co-op at Great Coasters in Sudbury, PA.

“Literally about a dozen companies are actively doing work with the design of roller coasters,” said Souliere. “I began the networking in November 2005 by attending the annual trade expo of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), where the entire industry meets for a week. I met a lot of helpful people and left a few business cards along the way. Keeping in touch with some of them, the timing of my next co-op perfectly coincided with when Great Coasters decided to get a couple interns.”

During his first co-op at Great Coasters, Souliere worked putting roller coaster trains together and even though it wasn’t design, he had made his way into the industry.

“Because I want to go into roller coaster design and engineering, any experience in the field is certainly valuable, and I learned a lot about the company and the industry while I was there,” said Souliere.

Most recently, the Longmeadow, MA native has been at work at Great Coasters in Northern Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati. In his second co-op with the company, Souliere has had the chance to work on the design of the structure and mechanical systems of roller coasters, and has been able to contribute to the design of major projects.

“Needless to say, the knowledge and experience I’m gaining this time around is significantly more helpful to my career,” said Souliere. “As far as projects are concerned, I guess Evel Knievel at Six Flags St. Louis will always be "special" to me because of my heavy involvement in it leading up to its opening last month. I look at photos of it and pick out the sections that I detailed.”

Thanks to the experience he’s gained and work he’s been able to do at Great Coasters, Souliere’s career path has a taken shape.

“I’ve already been offered a full-time job from Great Coasters, which I enthusiastically accepted,” said Souliere. “I’ll be moving to the Cincinnati area after graduation next May for that. Long-term, I’m positive that I’d like to remain in this industry, hopefully on the management and lead design side of things. A part of me will also strive to own an amusement park someday, but I have a lot to accomplish before seriously considering that.”

Although his hard work and networking have helped him get where he is today, Souliere feels the opportunity to be in the co-op program has given him an advantage.

“Even if I didn’t already have a job offer, the more than 18 months experience I will have when I leave school certainly makes me more comfortable with my skills and abilities and better prepared to work professionally,” said Souliere. “I will also have more than a year experience in the small industry I want to be a part of, which gives me a huge edge over the hundreds of people like me pursuing the same dream. I can’t speak strongly enough about how I’ve benefited from my co-ops.”