Engineering
at Murdoch:
An Alumni Perspective
By Adam Jarvis

What will tonight cover?
To give you a graduate’s perspective on:
•Where will I get a job?
•How much money will I earn?
•What is an Engineering degree like?
•What can I do now to start preparing for
this kind of work?
•What is the lifestyle like? Are the work
hours long? Is it stressful?
•What are the future job prospects?

Who am I?
•22 years old
•Completed Year Twelve in 2003
•Studied at Murdoch from 2004 to
2008 (5 years!)
•Graduated 2009
•Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical
Power and Industrial Computer
Systems)/Bachelor of Commerce
(Management)
•Currently working as a Graduate
Electrical Engineer with Rio Tinto

Why did I go to Murdoch?
•Studied ‘Design and Technology’ in high
school
•Enjoyed making electronic circuits and
the subjects ‘design and build’ approach
•Also interested in power systems and
renewable energy technology
•Received three offers for uni: Murdoch
University, University of New South Wales
and Australian National University
Codrington Wind Farm in Victoria
•Chose BE (Renewable Energy) @ Murdoch
due to financial status!

Getting in
•Year 10 – was doing reasonably OK at school
and thought about studying engineering
•Year 11 – S1 bad, S2 better and was keen to
do electrical engineering at uni
•Year 12 – big turnaround due to a lot of study
which got me a competitive TER
•Some tips: ensure you have a good grasp on
maths (calculus) and physics – it will help!
•Develop an understanding of your school TEE
subjects for yourself – i.e. don’t rely on how
other students learn, but develop a good study
process for yourself
Me – back in the day •Work hard, manage your time well, don’t put
too much pressure on yourself and focus on the
bigger picture!

Studying Engineering
•What is the lifestyle like? LIFESTYLE?!
•Are the work hours long? 9am to
midnight then 9am to 5am was
longest I ever did
•Is it stressful? YES!
•It was always sunny when I was
inside studying =(
•Good mix of practical versus
theoretical study
•Smaller class sizes so lecturers are
easily accessible
•Overall I believe I got a good
grounding in what I needed to know
for the workplace

Bachelor of Engineering: 1st and 2nd year
• Assessment driven
• Maths (calculus, complex numbers, trigonometry, differential equations)
• Electrical engineering (AC/DC circuits and systems)
• Computer programming (eDiary and Snakes and Ladders)
• Computer based control and measurement systems
• Analysis of process systems (mass and energy balances)
• Expect to work on a lot of assignments, lab reports, major projects, mid semester
tests and exams, which will give you a good grounding for 3 and 4 year

Bachelor of Engineering: 3rd and 4th year
Largely project driven but there are still mid semester tests and exams (start to
specialise in your chosen field of engineering)
BE 3 year:
Lab work on connection of motors, transformers and switching circuits in a power
system. Analysis of power transmission and distribution networks. LARGE amount
of lab work on PLCs, microcontrollers and SCADA systems. The hardest year for
me, by far!
BE 4 year:
System study verifying the connection of a processing plant and gas turbine
generator to the Murdoch University power network (theoretical case study).
Practical design and implementation of computer based measurement and control
systems – maximum power point tracker for a PV array, controlling the output of
DC generator to simulate a wind turbine, battery bank simulator, AC and DC load
banks

Experiences from Commerce
• Always wanted to learn about ‘business’
• Many benefits of doing a joint degree – adds another dimension to your knowledge,
skills and abilities as an engineer and separates you from the pack when applying for
jobs
• Biggest learning for me was realising how people actually work and perform in a
team environment
• Gives you additional skills that can allows you to justify projects in a company e.g.
showing that a project will deliver value ($$$) by knowing the business dialogue (e.g.
NPV)
• Understanding operation of legal and financial matters
• Engineers do the planning, design and oversee the installation but there are many
other parties in an engineering project (project managers, vendors, clients, trades
people, operations personnel) – it isn’t purely about the technical stuff so an
understanding of management helps the engineering process

Undergraduate Work
Exprience
•Dec 06 to Feb 07
•Iluka Resources Ltd
•Narngulu Processing Plant, Geraldton
•Residential placement
•Main project was planning the relocation of
a section of the process plant and ensuring
the E&I systems were up to current
standards
•Began to understand how a project team
In the office, Dec 07
works

Undergraduate Work Exprience
•April 07 to Nov 07 (part time during uni)
•Swispec Pty Ltd, Belmont
•Main role saw development of skills in project
scheduling as well as performing minor design tasks
such as cable schedules and project technical queries

Undergradutae Work
Experience
•Dec 07 to Feb 08
•Rio Tinto Iron Ore
•Yandicoogina Mine Operations
•Fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) roster: 9 days on
and 5 days off
•Main projects included planning the
installation of power meters across the
On site at Yandi, Feb 08
entire site, installation of an oil cooler for
a conveyor belt gearbox as well as
installation of a level sensor for a process
tank

Undergradutae Work
Experience
•Aug 08 to Nov 08 (Internship)
•Rio Tinto Iron Ore
•Project Engineering
•Main project was planning the upgrade of
Paraburdoo’s 11kV distribution system
•Also did planning for the installation of HV
power to the West Angeles Admin/Plant
Assessing the Paraburdoo 11kV Workshop
distribution system
•Also got involved in testing of 33kV
switchgear and planning the environmental
clean-up of a reactor

Graduate Role
•Feb 09 to present
•Graduate Electrical Engineer
with Rio Tinto
•Will be rotated throughout the
business in 2009 and 2010 then
will progress to a ‘professional
role’
•Long term would like to be in a
technical role

What is it really like to be an Engineer?
•Accountability!
•Need to be resilient – dealing with setbacks
•Managers run projects, not engineers =(
•Need to be able to liaise with multiple ‘stakeholders’ from the
business in order to provide a solution that is both practical and
economical (emphasis on the latter!)
•Uni gives you a solid grounding on the technical side but you
NEED to have workplace skills (e.g. dealing with colleagues,
vendors, the company) so do as many extra-curricular activities
(i.e. part-time work, involvement in committees, networking etc)
as possible to build these up!

Installing a HV connection

What to do
•Client consultation - site visit to establish the objective
•Planning – assessing the options: overhead vs underground connection,
analysing the cost/suitability of each
•Design - the easy part: sizing the cable, transformer, kiosk substation, spatial
issues of installation etc
•Procurement – purchasing transformer, cable, kiosk substation to required
specification and dealing with delays in delivery (the hardest part)
•Installation – supervision of electrical contractor’s role
•Testing and commissioning – ensure that the system works
•Client acceptance and handover – does it meet the client’s objective?
•Project management – ensuring solution meets required scope, budget and
timeline as well as working constructively with the project team

Salary Expectations
•There are different companies serving different purposes across
multiple industries (e.g. government utilities, private consulting
firms, mining/oil and gas companies …)
•Perth based role can expect anywhere between $56K to $85K
p.a.
•Site based role can expect anywhere between $90K and $130K
p.a. (for a mining/resources type role)

Any Questions?