Joining the international Ethos group, engineering services provider MEPCO has opened up an even wider range of projects and career growth opportunities.
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The desire to learn grows a career
Dovilė Vaišnoraitė joined MEPCO while still studying in the final year of her bachelor’s degree. Starting as a project manager assistant, she became a senior engineer in just a few years. According to her, this path was driven not only by professional knowledge but also by curiosity, the desire to learn, take responsibility, and get involved in as many diverse projects as possible.
From the very beginning, Dovilė had a clear goal – to pursue a career in engineering design and become an engineer. She chose to join MEPCO because she saw the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained during her studies to real engineering projects.
“It was also very important that I was surrounded by ambitious people in the company, from whom I could learn and who motivated me to strive for more. At the same time, I had to earn the trust of colleagues and managers – to responsibly complete tasks and show that I could take on greater responsibility. Opportunities to participate in seminars and training also contributed to professional growth, and working on different projects and with different clients allowed me to gain diverse experience,” says Dovilė.
One of the biggest advantages for Dovilė is the opportunity to work on international projects without moving abroad. Employees can work from Lithuania, maintaining a balance between professional and personal life, and if necessary, travel to partner offices or project sites abroad to strengthen ties with international teams.
“Every change brings new knowledge, but it depends on you how much you take. Working on international projects requires collaboration with people from different countries, so not only technical knowledge is important but also the ability to communicate, understand others’ perspectives, and adapt to different work cultures. All this broadens horizons and allows a more comprehensive view of engineering,” says Dovilė.
Grew together with the company
One of the best ways to evaluate an employer is to look at the people who have grown together with the company. The career of Gediminas Šilanskas, head of the Energy Efficiency Department, at MEPCO began back in 2010 when the company had only five employees. Since then, both the organization and his responsibilities have grown – from an energy consultant to the head of the Energy Efficiency Department, responsible for coordinating international projects.
During his career at MEPCO, Gediminas has acquired qualifications as an energy consumption auditor, building certification expert, industrial energy auditor, BREEAM New Construction International, and WiredScore assessor. According to him, the company deliberately invests in employees’ professional growth and provides opportunities to immediately apply the acquired knowledge at work.
“When I started working, we focused mainly on energy audits and building certification in Lithuania, and today we work on international data center projects, perform energy modeling, life cycle analyses, and collaborate with specialists from various countries. The greatest value for me is that I can accumulate all this professional experience while living in Lithuania – it is not necessary to move abroad to work on world-class projects,” notes Gediminas.
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Even more opportunities opened up when MEPCO joined Ethos. Becoming part of an international organization, the team can engage in projects involving specialists from various fields in different markets.
Today, some MEPCO specialists design HVAC systems, contribute to LEED sustainability assessments for data centers, perform dynamic energy modeling using IDA ICE and IESVE software, and conduct life cycle analyses (LCA).
“Engineering is becoming increasingly international. In one meeting, colleagues from five or six different countries may participate, so the ability to collaborate, communicate, and learn from each other is important. Technologies, artificial intelligence, or new software help work faster, but they do not replace the engineer’s responsibility to make the right decisions. Therefore, curiosity and openness to change, in my opinion, are some of the most important qualities today to succeed in this field,” adds Gediminas.
Why is this important for Lithuania?
MEPCO CEO Mindaugas Šimkus is convinced that the broader opportunity to work on international projects in Lithuania can become one of the means to address the long-term challenge of the shortage of specialists in the construction sector. The opportunity to work on ambitious projects can help reduce incentives to emigrate and encourage young people to choose engineering studies. Moreover, experience gained in foreign projects later contributes to higher quality of Lithuanian projects.
“Until recently, international projects for an engineer usually meant moving to another country. Today, the situation has fundamentally changed – international experience can be gained while working in Lithuania because technology and a new work organization model allow specialists to contribute to global projects without leaving the country,” says Mindaugas.
Since MEPCO joined the Irish capital international engineering consultancy company Ethos, employees have gained even more international career opportunities. Ethos is a collaborative and creative team of engineers and professionals leading data center and energy infrastructure projects worldwide. The company, headquartered in Dublin, has six offices in Europe and operates in 21 EMEA region countries.
According to Mindaugas, this acquisition has opened more opportunities for engineers working in Lithuania to contribute to large-scale international projects that are less accessible in the Lithuanian market. Among them are critical infrastructure and Hyperscale facilities, such as large data centers across Europe, where reliability, efficiency, and security requirements are especially strict.
For engineers in Lithuania, this provides opportunities to gain specialized experience by implementing important international projects and growing their careers while living in Lithuania.
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