What's your job about?

Engineering is all about problem-solving. Engineers are employed to provide expertise in the delivery of projects which are comprised of technical objectives. Engineers rely on knowledge from science, mathematics, and ethics to design, build, and support systems across their lifecycle. The realisation and support of systems present many technical challenges which engineers devise solutions to overcome. Different fields of engineering work with different products to realise the creation of systems that meet key requirements. As a mechanical engineer mechanical engineers work with mechanical components (i.e. components that move) to build mechanical systems. Systems engineers work with smaller-scale systems to construct larger systems. Systems are an aggregation of components that come together to provide functionality that none of the constituent components alone possess. Designing and managing these components in such a way that provides the overall functionality required is the purpose of an engineer. 

What's your background?

I have lived in Adelaide, South Australia, my entire life. The close location to my friends, family, and the beach has all given me strong reasons to never leave! I finished high school at University Senior College in 2018 on the campus of The University of Adelaide. This naturally transitioned into studying at The University of Adelaide, where I completed a double degree in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science. Before beginning my final year of university, I completed an internship at Boeing Defence Australia as a Software Engineer Intern. This gave me great insight into working within the Defence Industry and allowed me to utilise skills from both of my degrees. In my final year of university, I completed my honours project in developing software and hardware upgrades for an autonomous cave exploration robot. This project afforded me and my teammates the opportunity to travel to the Naracoorte Caves in South Australia for field testing of the robot prototype. After the completion of my degree, I joined Babcock Australasia as a Graduate Mechanical Engineer working on the JP9101 project, which focuses on upgrading Australia’s Defence High-Frequency Communication System.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes. My current role features lots of Systems Engineering-oriented work. Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that is not exclusive to any one type of engineering degree. In fact, in my current team, each of us has different types of engineering degrees from different universities! One of the most important skills to possess to succeed in my current role is teamwork. Collaborating with others to achieve shared objectives is a must. Adaptability and resilience are also extremely important. When working on large-scale projects, not everything is going to go to plan. How you respond to change and position yourself to adapt to this change is very important.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I have had the opportunity to travel across Australia to conduct engineering tasks. As someone who appreciates the bigger picture of my work, this was a great opportunity to connect to the reality of the day-to-day work we do. I have been given responsibility over my own body of work to own and deliver, which has also been an awesome opportunity to be afforded to a graduate coming straight out of university. I believe that this level of responsibility has allowed me to really grow and understand the key skills and capabilities required to progress work independently and deliver on expectations.

What are the limitations of your job?

My job relies on lots of communication and collaboration with stakeholders both internally and externally to progress work. Sometimes, this can mean that there will be times when there won’t be much work to do while waiting on input from others. This often means that you have to actively look for tasks and work to complete,e which, at times, can be difficult to find.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

One thing I wish I did differently at university is to really engage with the social clubs. I think that these clubs are a great opportunity to expand your professional and academic network and, most importantly, to have fun. As somebody who is really interested in small-scale research and development projects, I wish I had got involved with some of the university clubs that design, build, and test lunar rovers and rockets for space exploration or uncrewed aerial vehicles. This is a great way to enhance your technical engineering skills, as well as skills across project management, interpersonal communication and collaboration.