Meg Panozzo is definitely not your typical civil engineer. Whilst a lot of us go to work, finish for the day and switch off by the time we get home, meg is someone who powers on well into the night so that she can inspire the next generation of Engineers.
In fact we believe that no career story is as they say 'typical'. Each career has it's own ups and downs and in turn it's own story to tell. As you'll hear Meg started working with a friend of the family when she first started out in Engineering and has now risen through the ranks to one of the top Engineering design consultancies in the world (Arup). Now in charge of key components of the Woolgoolga to Ballina highway upgrade, she definitely has her hands full. If you're looking for inspiration in the civil sector, you've found it.
Jack, Ryan & our NEW Pretengineer partner Brittany Harris had a fantastic time checking out the latest Story Bridge build at Constructionarium Australia. Constructionarium gathered a group of 20 motivated and hardworking students & recent graduates to come together to Design, Construct, and Test a 1:25 scale size Story Bridge replica! They start from tender, proceeding through design & construction before the final testing and quality assurance like any other real project.
This priceless learning opportunity provides the students with lessons on all aspects of a real life project helping to improve their base-level knowledge and career trajectory moving forward. Jack, Ryan & Brittany attended the final day of construction to see it all coming together. This episode has soundbites from throughout the day as well as interviews from Amelia Tenaglia, Kate Connolly & CA Founder Harry Hartman.
If you're interested in Constrouctionarium's projects make sure to reach out to us on LinkedIn to find out more!
So as Engineers and people of STEM it's pretty easy for us all to get caught in our own little bubble sometimes and forget to acknowledge some of the incredible work done by different disciplines that create the projects we know and love.
Jack Aubort had the absolute pleasure of finding out exactly what it takes to be a Town Planner in today's world. Speaking with Melissa Neighbour from STP Suburban Town Planners he found out that like many careers it isn't always a linear path as to how you end up becoming an established Town Planner. This was a great chat, that gives some fantastic insights into the career of town planning and the challenges they face day in day out. With booming property markets in many Australian capital cities and an ever increasing population, this profession definitely isn't going anywhere any time soon.
For anyone who ever wondered how the project they are working on came to be, this episode is for you!
This weeks episode is one that has been one of our favourites to date. How often do you get to speak to someone who is literally developing rockets 🚀to launch to outer space🌏!? This episode with the one and only Joni Sytsma will not disappoint!
Jack Aubort and Ryan Loomans had the absolute pleasure of finding out exactly what it takes to become a fully fledged #Aerospace Engineer. Joni Sytsma explained the UPs the DOWNs and the in between of what can only be described as a pretty incredible career to date. You'll hear in the episode the incredible transition from America to now playing a significant role in the Australian Space industry with Gilmour Space Technologies. For anyone who has even remotely considered a career in all things Space or Flight, this one is for you!
After our recent treat from the R.A.A.F’s C-17 and F/A-18F over Riverfire weekend here in Brisbane, we thought it was perfect timing to share our Rocketwoman episode with you!
When looking along the Brisbane River at all the adoring fans gaze at the jets screaming along the sky it’s clear that everyone is a bit of a jet-nerd, but none more so than our recent guest Ruth Harrison! Since Ruth can remember she has loved all things planes, and made it her life-mission to join the RAF in the UK.
After starting out in the right direction with years of experience in the Cadets and studying Aerospace Engineering, Ruth’s journey hit a couple of heartbreaking roadblocks. Now she is looking to put some rocket fuel into the careers of other #WOMENinSTEM who have encountered some turbulence such as changing jurisdictions, raising children or caring for family.
This episode is fantastic for EVERYONE! But particularly insightful for foreign expat engineers, those in the defence industry, and passionate #WOMENinSTEM!
Our co-hosts Jack Aubort and Ryan Loomans had another amazing #WOMENinSTEM on the show for an episode all about Civil Engineering and how to conquer an Engineering degree . Brittany Harris is a Courageous and determine Engineer who is really striving to make a huge impact in the world 🌏 around her.
Originally beginning her career doing reception work and working for mining companies in an admin role, she quickly developed a keen passion for her now career of Civil Engineering. She told her story of shear gut and determination as she consistently cold called and hustled her way into BMD and now would you believe has done the same to work at Aurecon. Along the way she has also had many roles within the wider engineering community and has now established her self as extremely valued member of our industry.
This episode is fantastic for people who might currently be struggling to make it through such a (what can seem at times) daunting degree any women looking for a female mentor in the industry!
Our co-hosts Jack Aubort and Ryan Loomans had another amazing #WOMENinSTEM on the show for an episode all about Pipeline and Ocean Engineering in the Oil & Gas Industry! Elizabeth is an adventurous and daring Engineer who is really striving to make a huge impact in the world around her.
Originally hailing from Brisbane she ventured to Tasmania to study, then Western Australia, United Kingdom and the Caspian Sea to hone her craft in complex underwater pipelines that lay on the sea floor. Offshore oil rigs are an extremely dangerous and complex engineering feat, and only the most committed can handle the long stints away from home and demanding pressure. Along the way she also discovered her passion for mentoring as she joined the UK Chapter of Engineers Australia, eventually becoming Chair to host and run a myriad of events to support young engineers, especially Aussie expats, looking to network and develop.
This episode is fantastic for adventurous people, those who love complex and dynamic work environments and any women looking for a female mentor in the industry!
Talk about engineering entrepreneur! Our co-hosts Jack Aubort and Ryan Loomans had a fantastic time at GHD HQ with STEM and Diversity advocate Dr Jillian Kenny!
We covered her fascinating story from small country town girl hailing from Gayndah to the 2014 Top 100 “Most Influential Australian Women” now in the big smoke of Melbourne working for Swinburne University of Technology, University of Melbourne, The Adelaide Crows FC and her own company Machinam Pty Ltd!
This episode we touched on crucial topics relevant to many millennials out there such as:
• Your career is a jungle gym, not a vertical ladder! To quote Sheryl Sandberg, sometimes you have to take a step sideways or backwards to swing yourself forwards!
• Let your values drive your choices! This type of career path can become disjointed/aimless without first doing the work to be clear about your values. Staying true to your key values is the best way to love what you do and create a successful career.
Jillian has done a fantastic job of embodying a point I like to make to people thinking of tertiary education. Rather than undertaking a bachelor of business or arts when you are unsure what you want to do in life, chose a bachelor of engineering instead! The problem solving, project management, and mathematic skills you develop in an engineering degree can set you up so well for so many careers, especially in this ever-evolving digital age.
This episode is fantastic for those who are creative or entrepreneurially minded, ambitious people who want to fast-track their career through extra-curricular development and any powerful #WOMENinSTEM who are looking to continue blazing the trail.
What were you doing at 25 years old? Leading a team of engineers twice your age on 6 figure sum projects for one of Australia's largest design consultancies?
No? Well I don't blame you...
But Brodie Chan was.
This fascinating episode follows the story of one of the brightest and hard-working engineers I've ever met. Where people think 60 hours of work is slaving away and double your contracted amount, Brodie is revelling in the fact that he is developing 50% faster than the rest of the pack.
Most people would love the opportunity to secure just one undergraduate position during your engineering degree, but Brodie managed to land two and for good measure his third allowed him to complete his Thesis paper and continue on as a graduate engineer. Brodie attributes his success to his unquenchable thirst to learn & develop, as well as life changing mentors that have allowed him to understand his ability, and help realise the path before him to spend less time deliberating and more time actioning.
From Team Lead of Marine & Bridge Structures at GHD to Maintenance Engineer at Port of Brisbane this man has far exceeded expectations for the 5 year career plan upon graduating Uni. He provides fantastic insight into the mindset and rationale behind his meteoric rise up the corporate ladder, and the crucial mentors who helped him get there. This episode is fantastic for those interested in maritime engineering, asset management, materials handling, and those with insatiable ambition.
You won't be disappointed...
Have you ever travelled half way around the world 🌎 to pursue your passion? Well that's exactly what Souvik did as he left his family and home 🏠in Bangladesh to study abroad in Australia on a highly sought after 'Australia Awards' scholarship.
But the trials and tribulations didn't stop there, Souvik detailed to us the 'hustle' required to gain undergraduate work experience for an international student. Cold call after cold call, rejection after rejection, Souvik marched on with his fierce goal of becoming a mining engineer.
He also educates us on the future of mining, and the stringent standards that companies in Australia must adhere to when operating here. He also proposes the idea why Australia might be doing the world and environment good by mining here rather than overseas with poor practices and environmental remediation measures.
If you're someone who's interested in mining, blowing things up, or an international student pursuing your passions here in Australia, then this is the perfect episode for you!
If you’re a young professional that is keen to fast track your development 📈 and rise up the ranks 🚀 or you just love Helicopters 🚁 then check out this week’s episode with Warren James! Warren sat down with us to chat all things Electrical & Construction Engineering, as well as Mentoring, Advice & Tips to take your career Further, Faster.
Starting off with humble beginnings as a farm boy in Swan Hill, his father gave him all the tough and shitty jobs so he’d run as fast as he could to University and away from the hard farm life. After falling into Power Engineering once the sight of hospital blood made him sick, his career really took off. From project engineer on small wastewater treatment plants to heading up elements of Queensland’s largest CSG mega projects, it’s safe to say he’s nearly seen it all.
After a helter-skelter few years he’s taken a step back to reassess his life and what’s most important to him: his family. In this downtime he has rekindled his passion for mentoring, from here Rapid Mentoring was born. Rather than charging a handful of executive clients large sums to make it big, he wanted to employ a simple subscription service for everyday young professionals keen to focus on their career to progress Further, Faster.
This is a whirlwind episode you don’t want to miss, perfect for electrical & construction enthusiasts, those from the country or anyone who just loves a fascinating story. Check it out now.
As any engineering graduate SHOULD know, its the middle of Semester 1 so it's that time of year again where all the Graduate programs you may have been hoping to apply for are filling up fast!!
Jack and Ryan talk all things on graduate programs including: the different engineering industries, average salaries you can expect, program structure and application dates. They also look at 7 different graduate programs out to help you decide where your interests might be. As an engineering graduate it is important to know exactly what is out there and the boys give a fantastic insight on what you could expect when you become successful in applying to some of these leading companies and how you should go about doing so.
The topic of Graduate Programs is absolutely huge and one that is difficult to cover in just one episode, so feel free to reach out to Jack or Ryan through Linkedin at any time or through the Pretengineers Social Media accounts all linked below and help won't be far behind! Additionally check out Grad Connection which can often be a really good place to start, when searching for the perfect program for you.
New Year, New Goals and New Guests. And what better than our first episode for the year being with one of Broad Spectrums most talented recruits, Drew Lehman.
Broad Spectrum, if you aren't already aware design, fund, construct, operate, and maintain major projects and infrastructure assets across diverse industries all over Australia. Meaning they are experts in delivering projects in fields such as Airports, Rail and Metro, Public Transport, Roads, Telecommunication, Water, Power, Defence, Local Government, Maritime, Social Housing, Universities, Schools and Campuses, Justice, Property, Health, Oil and Gas, Mining and Industrial. With a company as diverse as this you would have to be mad not to have a glance over their job board and see what opportunities they might have for you.
We have mentioned it before but something we are both quite passionate and want to use this podcast for is to enable people to be able to find their dream careers within the Engineering industry. And frankly in an episode like this it's great to hear about the endless opportunities that exist at Broad Spectrum as we certainly feel that most people looking at a company like this could easily identify a dream job quite quickly.
Drew has had a variety of experiences within the company as she now comes to the completion of her graduate program. She talks about her work on defence contracts and as well as DIDO (Drive in Drive Out) positions, and that's just naming a few, throughout the episode. Now she bases herself in a head office in Sydney, but expresses her motivation to get back out in the field, where she feels "real experience" is gained.
We are both extremely excited to be back and getting this show back on the road! So we are hoping that his episode will be the start of lots more interesting and plenty more value add stories for the year to come.
As an added initiative we have decided that we want to start advertising vacant positions at the companies we talk to, to promote these opportunities to our listeners. Please see them below.
With Ryan in Melbourne, Drew in Sydney and I in Brisbane we all caught up for a quick chat on the phone to learn how Drew has broken into typically male-dominated workplaces like rural mine sites and defence bases with such grace and humility not commonly seen in young professionals. Drew being a long time friend and definitely someone who helped me pass one too many uni exams, wasn't someone we just had to interview. I insisted as I knew that her incredible humility and good nature was definitely something the Engineering world hadn't seen yet and I really wanted to know how it was all playing out as she comes to the end of her graduate program at broad spectrum and begins to look for more challenging roles within the organisation.
As the year comes to a close we sat down to chat about the year that was and talk about a topic that we a sure a-lot of people will be facing in the upcoming weeks as they begin new roles in the new year.
Moving for Work.
We talk a-lot both of our experiences moving for work so far and what these experiences have meant for not only our professional careers but our lives in general. You see it's not always easy moving to a new place and trying to fit in with a new team and our company culture. Everyone has their own way of doing things and it seems that the further you go the more this comment holds true.
On the graduate rotation side of things I (Jack) feel like I might have the process wired now as I finish up my third rotation in less than 2 years. I wanted to try and give an overview of my experiences to date with moving for a graduate rotation and what that meant for me. I tried my hardest in this podcast to cover not only the great advantages of moving for work but also the challenges you might face when moving and some ideas on how you might want to tackle them.
Whilst on the other hand I myself (Ryan) have had a similar, yet, different experience with my recent secondment to Melbourne. Whilst in essence we both moved for work the concept and strategic company planning behind these two different company moves is different. I have definitely embraced my current secondment and have become a massive advocate for secondments in general, always encouraging anyone who gets the opportunity to grasp it with two hands. I mean when else can you bounce between different companies in short periods of time and not piss anyone off in the process? To me that kind of (free) experience is just invaluable.
This will be our last episode for 2018 and we cannot wait to hit the ground running in 2019. We have massive plans for next with upcoming collaborations, additional content and lots more that we hope will make it easier for you our audience get access to us, our guests and the value that we really want to give back to this amazing community. Have a fantastic and well deserved Christmas break and we look forward to speaking to you all next year.
Regards,
Jack Aubort and Ryan Loomans.
A few weeks back we sat down with Jack Francis. His story from Carpenter to one of the Gold Coast City Council's top construction Engineers is like no other. He emphasised the importance that even once you think you may have made it in your industry, there is always more to learn and even more room to grow.
If you're a mature-aged student or looking at changing careers into Engineering this is the episode for you. He gives away all the tips and tricks on how he went from being a carpenter to a fully fledged Engineering professional in just a handful of years.
"Aren't the Big 4 in finance?" That's exactly the stereotype that Robbie and his team at KPMG are breaking down as they expand into the Engineering and Asset Management field. In this sit down with Robbie Ryan learnt about the importance of your network, mentors and where they can take you in the lifelong pursuit of career happiness.
In this episode Trang Pham explains her unique journey into the world of Engineering. Her fascinating and jam packed schedule and how she makes it all fit in 24hrs. If you're a female busting into this male dominated industry, someone who is really passionate and excited by committee work, or feel like you've had an atypical career path, then this episode is for you.
Jack gives an introduction to the podcast from where he sees it and recounts the career events that have lead him up to where he is now. Jack makes the point that unlike Ryan his path through Engineering hasn't been as clear and that's totally ok. It's about the journey and the experiences you build every day that lead you to that final destination. This is the first episode of many where Jack plans to bring you along his journey of searching for where his true passion in Engineering lies.