As a General Manager Strategic Projects I work across our integrated aluminium business leading small teams to find better ways of doing things. Aluminium is made through 3 stages – bauxite is mined and then transferred to a refinery to be made into alumina and is then sent to the smelter to make aluminium. A…
When I was younger I wanted to be a pharmacist but by the time I finished high school I had decided on engineering. I studied microelectronics in Scotland and worked in the electronics industry before I move to Australia in 2003. I joined the mining industry in 2005 and have worked at Rio Tinto for…
I was good at science and math and liked figuring out how things worked. My dad was an engineer, and I got to try out environmental engineering when I was in year 12 and decided it was something I could see myself doing for work. I didn’t quite get the marks I wanted so my…
I grew up traveling a lot as my dad was in the aviation industry and I caught the travel bug at a young age. In high school I enjoyed studying Maths and Physics as well as Japanese and German, however had no idea what I would do when I finished. I decided to study engineering…
From a young age, I’ve been very creative and thought outside the box. I have a love for math, but creativity always prevailed. The majority of my classes throughout school reflected that. When it came time to choose a university path, I selected architecture. It allowed me to be creative while also giving me the…
Growing up, I didn’t really know what I wanted to be. It wasn’t until my school’s career advisor recommended looking into Chemical Engineering (when I was in Year 12) that I considered becoming an engineer – up until that point, I thought all engineers built roads and cars, which I wasn’t super interested in. Not…
I was living in Queensland from 12 years old and completed my Cert 3 in Business Administration straight out of high school because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I also knew that university wasn’t for me as I struggled to study and complete assignments. I now know that I am ADHD. After…
At school, I enjoyed lots of different subjects, and my favourites were Maths C (specialist), Chemistry and Drama. I thought I would be a doctor or a biomedical scientist but ended up applying for a double degree in Engineering and Science. After school, I took a gap year to work as a teacher aide, which…
When I graduated from school, I thought I would become an engineer because I enjoyed problem-solving and mathematics. I moved to Brisbane to pursue a Bachelor of Engineering and Mathematics at QUT while working full-time as a tutor to support myself. During my studies, I met a group of students passionate about the environment and…
Growing up, I was forever changing my mind about what I wanted to be when I grew up – an accountant, a journalist, a lawyer…I still wasn’t sure by the time I graduated year 12, but I was accepted into uni and started a Biomedical Science degree. Tertiary-level science wasn’t for me, so I switched…
I had no idea what I wanted to do when I left school. I was good at maths and science but didn’t know if I necessarily wanted to work in that area. I felt like I wanted to explore my options and see what happened. I started studying human biology and chemistry in university but…
When I was in high school I was interested in math and science and also the environment, so I studied environmental engineering. When I finished university, I applied for various graduate jobs and was successful with Rio Tinto. I was not targeting mining specifically, but I immediately enjoyed the job, especially when I moved to…
In school, I assumed my career path would be in engineering because I liked maths. In Year 11, I attended an “Aspiring Women in Science” conference, which inspired me to study chemical engineering at uni, aiming for the food and beverage manufacturing industry. During my 3rd year, I realised job opportunities in that field were…
I made the choice to go into engineering as I enjoyed both maths and physics and this seemed to be the most natural choice. Once I started engineering I began to slowly understand that underpinning the technical work was a humanitarian cause. Engineering to me is all about finding the most effective solution to a…
I enjoy being known as a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. I was raised as a kid to be a future medical student, and I loved math and science. It was only after my high school chemistry teacher recommended I attend a UQ Women in Engineering event, did I first learn what engineering actually was. After…
I enrolled in Industrial Engineering in Madrid after school mainly because it was a broad field, and, although I knew I had an interest in engineering, I wasn’t sure what career I wanted. Through various courses, I found Electrical Engineering interesting and decided to study it further. I spent a year abroad in the US,…
When I left school, I was set on being an electrical engineer, but through my undergraduate work experience, I realised that traffic engineering was far more interesting and tangible, so sought out work opportunities as a graduate traffic engineer after a three-year post-graduate stint overseas. I started out in a consultancy working on diverse projects…
I had a set journey right from the beginning where I knew I had to choose between two career paths – medicine or engineering. I chose electrical engineering with a focus on power generation, which led to an exciting opportunity with a major power generation, transmission, and distribution company in Pakistan. My career began as…
When I was younger, I wanted to be a doctor. But growing up in a Sri Lankan family, becoming an engineer was one of the top professions my mum encouraged me to consider. Looking back, I’m so glad I chose this path because it suits me perfectly, and the work-life balance at Department of Transport…
I vividly remember being in grade 4 and the teacher wheeling out the classroom TV and putting on An Inconvenient Truth starring Al Gore. That 118-minute documentary ignited a spark in me for helping the environment. Growing up I considered many careers – chef, paramedic, graphic designer – but none felt quite right. Clearly, I…