Skip to content
ComponentOne:

Chloe Swiney

All through high school I wanted to be a lawyer but then, when I graduated, I wasn’t so sure. Instead, one week after graduation, I started working full-time in a plumbing shop as a Customer Service/Admin Officer. In school, I watched my Dad who had been involved in Auxiliary Firefighting and I thought that was…

Michele White

My role as a police officer with the Queensland Police Service provides me the opportunity to serve and protect my community. I decided to join the police ‘late in life’ after I had been thinking about doing it for ages. It just goes to show you are never too old to find out what you…

Renewable Energy & Infrastructure Project Manager

The project manager is the key person for driving a project from start to finish, managing stakeholder/customer engagement and ensuring that the project stays within budget and is completed on time. Project managers handle the “project life cycle”. This includes the following stages:

Madeline Pavlides

When it was time to leave high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do next. All I knew was that I wanted to give Uni a go and that my interests, compared to my other friends, were different… So, I decided to study Electrical Engineering. I had no idea that the path…

Viviana Gamboa Pickering

Ever since my family and I can remember, I was always chasing after anything alive that moved and was running around in nature. I had this insatiable urge to be close to animals and would watch them for hours. Not being allowed to have pets while growing up fuelled my desire even more to find a career…

Melissa MacFarlane

Throughout school I was always that ‘arts’ student, enjoying music studies and performing arts. I could be found in a musical theatre rehearsal or a music room, loving the challenge of different roles and learning different instruments. All through school, and right up until I joined the fire service in 2016, I worked for a…

Stephanie Castaldo

I left “mainstream school” at the end of Year 10 because I knew I wasn’t going to do well in my exams and get a good ATAR. I could never sit still or concentrate very well and was easily distracted. I moved to a sports school for Netball, to complete my Year 11 and 12…

Elena Rusca

After I finished High School, I started TAFE looking to complete a certificate in Business. Unfortunately, I did not manage to finish this qualification due to my mum passing, and me needing to begin full-time work to help my dad out financially. I began working in an Administration role in Brisbane, also working part time…

Natasha Page

I am a Data Analytics Consultant in the Transport team at Aurecon and I love being able to use data to help people to make better decisions.  I grew up in Guildford, England enjoying puzzles but trying to convince myself that I didn’t like maths because it wasn’t “cool”. I finally abandoned that view at…

Maddison Petrie

After completing high school, I began working in a small civil construction company as a I.T Technician. A couple years later I relocated to Brisbane and started work in a large engineering firm as a Trainee structural designer. Unfortunately, I became redundant, so I moved back home and started work in a local butcher shop. …

Chantelle Love

I grew up in NSW riding horses and playing hockey. I moved to QLD when I was in grade 6 and started going to work with my dad during the school holidays. I studied woodwork & engineering at school as electives. In grade 12 I was offered a position at Gold Coast School of Construction…

Alex Ewer

I was never overly interested in school, and struggled to stay motivated, always leaving assignments until the last minute and just scraping through exams.  Hearing all my friends talk about going to uni, or the passion they had for their future career was daunting when I had no idea what I wanted to do, and…

Nikki Rankine

I grew up mostly in Canberra with my parents and 2 younger brothers also spending time on my grandparent’s farm in NSW. I completed high school in Brisbane. I was pretty confused about what to do after leaving school and my university application forms in 1995 were for Engineering, Architecture, Law, Commerce and Arts! I…

Sonja Toft

My heritage is Czech, Russian and Ukrainian. Both my parents were born overseas and came with their parents as refugees to Australia after the 2nd world war. My Russian grandma was a big influence in my life, particularly as a young adult and I learnt two really important life lessons from her – that family…

Process Engineering Resource Recovery Manager

This role manages a team of engineers who look after the operation and fine tuning of 27 wastewater treatment plants to make sure they run optimally – and meet the required environmental standards at minimal cost (based on chemicals, electricity & other costs). People think it sounds a bit ‘yucky’ working with wastewater (or sewage)…