Tell us about your educational and/or career journey since you graduated from Brunel?
Gap year, worked as Scuba Instructor in S.France, Joined Shell as Graduate Trainee in Netherlands (3Yrs), Worked as Roughneck, Assistant Drilling Supervisor, Wellsite Drilling Engineer. Moved to New Orleans, Louisiana (4 yrs) with Shell, Drilling Engineer, Optimisation Engineer, Cost Engineering team lead. Moved to Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo with Shell (7 yrs) - Snr Drilling Eng, Deepwater Technology Eng, Eng. Root Cause Investigator. Left Shell, moved to Perth, Western Australia joined a midsize consultancy AWT (4 yrs). Made redundant in downturn. Started Real Estate and Industrial Photography business & Drones (3 yrs), Joined Australian Federal Government Petroleum Safety Regulator (7 years in Jan).
What does a typical day at work involve for you?
Most days working on assessments of "Well Operations Management Plans" i.e. how companies plan to drill and manage their wells to RISK ALARP. Some days going out to company offices and offshore rigs doing inspections in the field.
What’s been the highlight of your career journey so far?
Some of the investigatory work. Finding out how in hell something happened that left everyone scratching their heads. Doing reef conservation work as a volunteer diver in Sarawak. Learning new skills like Geology that weren't part of my degree. Working on ensuring the industry safely decommissions facilities in an eternal timeframe and does it properly.
How would you say your Brunel experience has helped you to get where you are today?
Technik, a series of multidisciplinary workshops in SEP where we reverse engineered products to understand everything about them, then how to improve them developed a lot of the skills for forensic engineering / root cause analysis especially the cross discipline approach of SEP of Elec/Mech/Manufacturing/Materials sci/ Management that SEP gave us. Even my hobby in University (Photography via the arts centre) saved my bacon when my industry tanked and I got a job as a photographer until it recovered.
Why did you choose to study at Brunel and why would you recommend Brunel to others?
SEP was the main reason. These days especially in Australia Engineers tend to be put into silos i.e. Mechanical, Petroleum, Electrical and that's it. If you want to work across multiple you have to pay multiple registrations. Brunel, especially SEP and the M&ES dept was about developing holistic engineers like IK Brunel who could turn their hands to anything. In my career I've worked as Mech, Elec (in British Steel), Manufacturing, Cost Eng, Petroleum Eng, Safety Eng, Drilling Eng. I've been jack of several trades and master of 1 (Drilling). I also chose Brunel for its engineering record and focus and its thin sandwich structure. When I wasn't in Uxbridge I was working at British Steel Port Talbot getting invaluable experience that got me 3 offers of jobs by the time I graduated without really needing to apply anywhere!
What is your best memory of studying here?
Starting BUSAC - Brunel University Sub Aqua Club I always loved diving, there wasn't a club, I advertised got two other people our strengths and weaknesses meshed and it snowballed fast and lasted decades. Ironically starting the dive club, I approached Shell for funding which they gave me and then they offered me a job later largely because of it! Others include Playing a Wizard with the Drama group in Terry Pratchett's "Mort", exhibiting my photos with the art centre.
If you could give one piece of advice to current Brunel students, what would that be?
Enjoy university. Sometimes I feel like I didn't really enjoy my first 2 years being so busy. But later I got out more to the West end, spent more time around London made it more my home (thanks to a motorbike). The other I'd say is try totally new things. I never was into acting I only tried out since it was a Terry Pratchett play. I had the best time and met the best friends that are still friends in the theatre there, by branching out into things I would not ordinarily have done.
What would be your top tip or key advice for new graduates as they begin their career journey after leaving Brunel?
Experience, Experience, Experience - Get whatever experience you can both work and hobby that will differentiate you and make you stand out to get that first job. A degree is just key, what counts next is graduate training and experience in industry. Look for companies with great graduate training programmes e.g. for me it was the Oilfield, Defence Forces are also great for this they give you a lot of responsibility young. Other experience via hobbies too e.g. before university I volunteered on a steam railway in Wales which gave me some engineering experience, include these in CVs.
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