Profile

Has your degree at La Trobe prepared you well for the workplace?

One thing my studies taught me is to continuously think outside the box. Because every job is different, every product is different, and everything you ever do in your engineering career has either not been done before or has been done in a significantly different way, you must learn to adapt to solve new problems on a daily basis. Along with its strong emphasis on highly applicable and practical coursework, this is what makes La Trobe University, and specifically, its graduates, stand out from the rest.

Tell us a little about your work history

My first engineering position was at an aircraft manufacturing company, GippsAero, in the Latrobe Valley where I developed safety-critical electrical and electronic systems for the GA10 aircraft, a new civilian utility aircraft designed and built here in Australia. I’ve always been interested in aviation and being able to directly and sizably contribute to the success of such a massive and complex project really gives me a great feeling of achievement that I will carry with me forever.

I now work at an automotive lighting manufacturer, LED AutoLamps, in Melbourne, where I design electronics and injection moulded plastics for various products which are used throughout Australia.

What are things you enjoy most about your job?

I enjoy the creativity. I like being able to start with nothing – a blank drawing board – and taking an idea or concept through design to create something completely new, that hundreds of thousands of people can benefit from every day. That is a good feeling. There aren’t many jobs where you can have such a tangible and widespread positive influence on society, but engineering certainly is one of them.

What advice can you offer to current students?

Don’t just try and get by doing the minimum, take advantage of the information and resource-rich environment you have at hand and achieve as much as possible in the short time you have at university. It will make you a better employee, a better engineer and a better person in general.

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