From Surveyor To Leadership: Patrick's Career Growth At Inline

Patrick began his career with Inline as a Surveyor in 2015, a day that’s impossible for him to forget as he accepted the job from the hospital room on the day his daughter was born.

The work in those early days was hands-on and immediate: solving problems and overcoming challenges in the field, one job site at a time. Before long, he moved into a role as a GDA Inspector, then Drafter. Each new role asked him to understand a different piece of how the business actually worked, from the ground up.

The next stretch of his career further expanded his horizons. Over the years, his work carried him to major projects across Canada, including Suncor Fort Hills (Wood Buffalo, Alberta); LNG Canada (Kitimat, British Columbia); and Magino Mine (northeastern Ontario), among many others. Each project put him in front of a new team, a new client, and a new set of problems to solve. It was around this time that the shape of his job started to change. As Project Supervisor, and later Survey Manager, he was no longer just solving problems on-site; he was managing the people who did, and starting to work personally with the clients whose projects depended on getting it right.

“I’ve gone from working directly in the field and solving survey problems myself, to managing survey teams and projects, working directly with clients, and now being involved much more broadly in operations across the company. That progression has given me an opportunity to understand the business from a lot of different perspectives,” he says.

That shift continued. As Project Manager, and now as Operations Manager, Patrick’s view of the business has widened once again, from individual projects to how operations run across the company as a whole. Looking back, he describes it less as a single leap than a long series of steps, each one giving him a slightly different angle on the same business, seen first from the field, then from a project office, then from a boardroom.

None of those steps came because he was fully ready for them. Patrick was regularly handed responsibilities before he felt fully prepared, and had to learn quickly, ask questions, and get comfortable making decisions without all the answers in hand. Along the way, he paid close attention to the people around him: how different leaders handled a hard conversation, communicated with a frustrated client, or stayed composed when a project went sideways. He learned that a major part of growth includes being willing to make mistakes, own them, learn from them, and take on the next challenge rather than staying comfortable. Being personable and honest, he says, is what helps build the relationships that get you through the hard parts.

That same combination of opportunity and trust is something Patrick has carried into how he leads today. As Operations Manager, leadership to him means creating opportunities for others to succeed. “It’s not about having all the answers,” he says. “It’s about supporting your team, giving people responsibility, trusting them to make decisions, being there when they need help, and helping them develop to the point where they’re ready for their next opportunity.”

For anyone earlier in their career, Patrick keeps his advice simple: “Be curious and ask questions. Don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know something, but put the effort in to figure it out.”

He also encourages people to say yes to opportunities, even the uncomfortable ones. “Be dependable, communicate, and try to bring solutions instead of just identifying problems,” he says. Technical skill will get you started, but as a career goes on, being able to communicate, build relationships, make decisions, and help the people around you succeed starts to matter just as much.