Updating Results

AECOM New Zealand

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3.5
  • 50,000 - 100,000 employees

Richelle Fernandes

6.45 AM

I hear my flatmate walking around and know it’s time to wake up.

7.00 AM

I actually wake up and give myself exactly 20 minutes to get ready before I sprint down the street for the bus. The less time I spend getting ready means more time spent sleeping.

7.20 AM

*Almost misses bus*

8.00 AM

I have my oats for breakfast with some of the other graduates in the kitchen at work. We have a quick discussion on how our social sports team will go this week, followed by us stocking up on fruit from the kitchen for the day. I then spend some time checking my emails and calendar, marking all the actionable items and reading all other emails and filing them into the appropriate project folders in Outlook.

The graduates catching up over a quick coffee on a casual Friday morning.

9.00 AM

The Building Services team (Electrical + Mechanical) has its weekly resource meeting, where we conference call in the rest of our team members around the country. Each office spends a few minutes giving everyone a run down of the projects they are working on and what resources (i.e. people) they need for that week. Here’s where I usually find out exactly how my week is going to go. After this, my team (Electrical) has a quick follow-up meeting to ensure everyone knows what they are doing this week and that everyone is properly utilised.

10.00 AM

I head back to my desk to get some work done. I usually spend some time talking to my manager or senior engineer before each large task, to break down the work into manageable chunks. I spend a lot of time working on projects that are based in Wellington and have had the chance to travel down quite a few times over my year and a half at AECOM. Once I’m done debriefing, I begin gathering the information I need to tackle this design task. For lighting, this usually includes looking at what the space requires, the options for light fittings (keeping the budget in mind), creating the lighting model on our lighting software, and contacting lighting suppliers for files of these light-fitting options. I model a few options with different light fittings until I am satisfied with the output and my work is then checked and verified by our senior engineers.

12.00 PM

Every few weeks the Early Professionals Committee at AECOM hosts an event, either at breakfast, lunchtime or after work, for learning development or social activities. Being part of the committee, I get to organise the event, prepare the room, order the catering and run the event. This usually lasts for an hour.

The Connect Auckland team met with Todd Battley (ANZ CEO), Dickson Lo (APAC COO) and Sean Chaio (APAC President) to discuss how Connect is progressing in New Zealand and our ideas for the future.

1.00 PM

Back to designing. It usually helps when I get a large stretch of time to work on design work as you have to be in the zone!

3.30 PM

At this point in the day (the point being everyone’s three-thirty-itis), someone will message the other grads on the internal messaging system asking if it’s tea time yet. We then happily scurry over to the kitchen for a small chat and make ourselves a hot chocolate or coffee while we’re there! It really helps that AECOM has its own barista-style coffee machine. We even have a barista come in once in a while to teach new starters how to use the machine.

Richelle getting coffee or hot chocolate in the kitchen

3.45 PM

One of my favourite parts in the day — supplier meetings! We often get suppliers coming in to talk to us about a new product they might have or run a small learning session on a particular aspect of building services, be it lighting, power, product selection or something else we’ve requested to hear more about.

4.15 PM

More design work! Design work is the real reason I got into engineering and each project always brings about new challenges and learning opportunities.

5.00 PM

At this point, I’m frantically changing into my gym gear and running around the block to the gym for that 5:30 Les Mills BodyPump class.

6.30 PM

Time to finally go home and have some dinner.

8.30 PM

AECOM’s social volleyball team plays every Wednesday, which is where I’m headed to at this point. We may not always win but it’s the thought that counts, right?

10.00 PM

Lights out. It’s been a full on day and I’m ready to go to sleep.