Kick-starting my Career

When starting my career as a mining engineer, there were many things I wanted to gain in the first few years; experience, experience and experience! The on-site consulting world has offered me this in spades! Throughout university we were often told of the benefits and diversity of skills we would gain while undergoing a graduate program with a well-established mining company, so when I was faced with the decision of continuing my job as a Graduate Consultant or applying for the much sort after graduate rotation positions I felt as though they had it all. I loved my job and the culture of the company I worked for, Echelon, so I threw caution to the wind and didn’t apply for any of the roles I had been prepping for over the previous four years. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! Especially when they took us to Aria for Christmas lunch!

Over the last two years with Echelon (who became Xstract) I have had the opportunity to work on many different mine sites, learning best practices across the industry and seeing how different people and teams tackle the same issues every mine faces. It’s been great to be able to apply my skills to different situations, introduce new ideas to a technical services team and also rack up my frequent flyer points. Across these different sites and the Brisbane office I have worked in various roles; short term design, medium term design, life of mine scheduling, and pre-feasibility and feasibility studies. To have had exposure to all aspects of the mining cycle has been great, work is never boring and I’m constantly learning new things and looking at mining projects from different perspectives. It has also been a good way to learn where my passions lie and decide what career path I want to take in the future.

From day one I was given real responsibilities and accountabilities and I quickly learnt superior time management skills, making sure that I am always producing quality work in a timely manner for clients. Working with a close-knit team of consultants means my colleagues are always eager to help me learn new skills and various software packages, sharing their combined experiences with me on a daily basis. The faster I mastered a new skill, the sooner I could contribute to client jobs or take ownership of onsite roles.

One of the best parts of my job is the unmatched opportunity I have to network. Building up relationships with accomplished engineers across the coal industry and making friends in new places, predominately small mining towns, will no doubt benefit me time and time again.

I have found a job where I am part of a family, I am expected to “hit the ground running” and own each job I am tasked with, and I love it!


Caitlin McCarthy