What's your job about?
My role is a graduate civil engineer at the Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRP). I’m currently working on the Keon Parade project, which includes the construction of two rail bridges over Keon Parade, a new Keon Park station, and considerable roadworks and landscaping work.
My role in the delivery team at Keon Parade is within the Interface team. In this role I support the management of many aspects of the project delivery. Some key responsibilities of my team are to assist the delivery team in achieving the project time, cost, and quality requirements. My team is also responsible for managing key stakeholder relationships, including with the delivery team, local councils, utilities providers and the broader community. The Interface team also ensures that best-for-project outcomes are achieved by encouraging and supporting innovation in the project.
Some examples of my day-to-day tasks might help illustrate this best. One very rewarding undertaking on this project was organising trial pours and testing new concrete mixes with recycled plastic aggregate. These trial slabs facilitated both technical testing and provided a showcase of the finished product for key stakeholders to view. I worked closely with the design and delivery teams to ensure that the mixes met all requirements. Ultimately, these mixes were adopted into the final project in the station precinct's concrete areas! Another interesting task I have been responsible for is coordinating site inspections with stakeholders and ensuring that their quality requirements are met for their assets. Tasks like these have given me a sense of ownership of my work and investment in delivering the project outcomes.
What's your background?
I grew up on a rural property in Riddells Creek, a regional town approx. 1hr North of Melbourne. I had a typical country upbringing, helping with farm jobs, riding motorbikes, swimming in dams and just generally causing havoc with siblings and friends. I was always interested in science while growing up. Growing up where I did, this interest was particularly focused on environmental science and “how things worked”. Later, I discovered this meant engineering! I studied at local schools from prep to year 10 and then gained a position in a select-entry science and maths program at University High School, where I completed VCE. Surprisingly, maths was never my strong suit at school and so during this time I needed to work very hard to keep up in these areas. Following this, I studied a Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering at the University of Melbourne. In university I also struggled with maths subjects but my interest in Engineering was enough to motivate me through these challenging subjects.
While in my university degree I undertook two internships, one with a local council in an environment role and the second with LXRP in an engineering role. After completing my 6-month internship with LXRP and completing my final year of my engineering degree, I applied for the LXRP graduate program for 2024. My experience in the LXRP internship re-affirmed my love for the field I was studying and directed my choice of preferred graduate role.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
I think given the person had a relevant qualification for the role, many of the skills I require in this position could be developed through an alternate pathway to my own.
I think some aspects of my role require specific skills I developed in my engineering degree and someone without this background may not necessarily develop all of them. These skills largely relate to an understanding of construction processes and structural design requirements. Having said that it certainly may be possible to develop these skills through other pathways. Skills like problem solving and stakeholder management have been developed through university studies and previous work experience. In contrast, much of my role requires other “soft skills” such as written and verbal communication, all of which can be developed through a range of pathways.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
I love the variety of this role; the combination of stakeholder engagement and project management tasks means that I am contributing to the project in different ways even in the same day. Regular meetings with stakeholders allow me to practice presenting, communication and negotiation skills. In contrast, being involved with construction tasks such as quality inspections or safety walks helps to build my hands-on technical and problem-solving skills. For me, as an engineer who loves people, this role is a great balance between interpersonal engagement and technically challenging work.
It is also incredibly rewarding to directly see the effects of your contributions to a project. For instance, I saw the first pour of our new recycled aggregate concrete in the station precinct. This was so rewarding because I was very involved in progressing the trials and gaining approvals and acceptance for this product!
What are the limitations of your job?
For some engineers, this role will be less technical than they anticipate. As a young engineer you often expect your day to be a lot of design work, modelling, or inspecting quality of construction against requirements. In this role you are exposed to these things but there is a considerable degree of stakeholder engagement, written and verbal communication and even presenting to different groups! Some people are well-suited to this, and others may not be.
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