In 2018 I was employed by WSP as an intern. I was immediately placed in the Southern Program Alliance Joint Venture (SPA), which was a part of the wider Level Crossing Removals Project with a focus on the Frankston Line upgrades. I spent three years as an Intern and now nearly a year as a Graduate Engineer working on a brilliant project improving people’s lives by reducing congestion, increasing the reliability of our network, and most importantly, making communities safer.
In 2018 I had only completed one year of my Civil Engineering degree at Swinburne University of Technology and honestly had no idea what I was walking into. Little did I know that I was entering a team working on one of the most significant infrastructure projects Victoria had seen. My ability to assist my colleagues was minimal due to my lack of experience working in a company like WSP. My tasks at the start were to familiarise myself with rail systems theory whilst also looking over other engineers’ shoulders to see how they operate. The exposure to more senior engineers at such an early stage in my career established the standard to which I knew I needed to start operating. My roles at work were initially attending any meetings I could, writing reports, and merging documents to understand the project and how this machine with many moving parts operated. I then picked up the software which was being used, helping with the drafting, and then attempting design tasks, which gradually became larger as more responsibility was placed on my shoulders.
This early exposure to the engineering and major projects sector assisted my university studies more than university assisted my work on SPA. The content at university was broad, so it is hard to get rail engineering specific course material that would help in my new role as an Intern at WSP. I found that the professionalism that the engineers, admin staff and managers displayed on the SPA project around me seemed to make its way into my approach to my university studies and resulted in my grades becoming better the longer I was on the project. Not only did university benefit from my learnings at WSP, but other personal endeavours and non-engineering related goals at the same time seemed to be more successful.
By the time I had graduated from university, my exposure and experience in the industry as a 22-year-old had set me up fabulously to hit the ground running when I started a full-time role in January 2021. I had already been involved in submitting permanent way track packages for the Cheltenham and Mentone level crossing removals. I also led a small multidisciplinary package and completed a high-level Combined Services Route (CSR) tender design for the Neerim and Glen Huntly Road level crossing removal. The learning curve that I have been on for nearly four years at WSP has not once flattened and continues to grow.
I could not have learnt as much as I have without the people of WSP and Acciona on the SPA program providing guidance and mentorship, which comes with being on a project. There is an excellent feeling of one big team all working towards the same goal. Having a design, construction, and engineering team in the same office to solve the problems often encountered by major works projects has accelerated my understanding of how rail systems operate, and a greater appreciation of constructability and safety on-site.
In my eleven months as a Graduate Engineer working on SPA, I submitted two construction packages. Currently, I am package lead for the detailed design of the CSR for the AWP4 Glen Huntly and Neerim Road level crossing removals - Working alongside fellow Graduate Engineer Nikita Adhikari and under the expertise of our discipline lead Matthew Cole.
I couldn’t be more grateful to have had the opportunity to work on SPA as an Intern and now a Graduate. I hope that one day I will be able to mentor young engineers in a similar way to how more senior engineers at SPA have guided and taught me over my time so far.