Graduate Engineer Story: Hear from Yuxuan Lin
There are many routes into a career in engineering, and recently we sat down with the newest member of the FJA team – Yuxuan Lin, to explore another path into the industry – going through university and becoming a graduate civil engineer. Since finishing a degree at UNSW, she has been working full time at FJA as a Graduate Civil Engineer. She is currently working across some large-scale infrastructure projects such as Western Sydney Airport, etc. Discover our graduate engineer story through a typical day of Yuxan below.
1. What is your typical day at FJA? (What are your usual tasks, what have you got involved in)
My typical day starts in the office with a cup of coffee in hand, quickly review my emails and update with new assigned tasks. As I am part of different projects at the same time, staying up to date on all projects is really important.
In general, I am involved in CAD drawings of the projects. So, my everyday is using AutoCAD to do and modify drawings based on the instructions from my mentors.
2. What projects are you working on at this moment? And who are you working with?
Currently I am working along with senior engineers and directors across multiple projects including Brisbane Metro, Western Sydney Airport and Auburn.
3. What do you enjoy most while working with FJA?
FJA have a very supportive and most importantly, everyone is passionate about their jobs. Working with people, who are not only experienced in drawings and project delivery but are also willing to provide one-on-one coaching, has motivated me a lot to keep learning new design software and get my tasks done successfully. I am lucky to be part a team where everyone cares about each other and where I feel I am continuously developing to reach my full potential.
4. What soft and technical skills have you developed and improved so far?
Since starting, I have developed a lot of skills and gained some new ones too such as AutoCAD, Navisworks and 12D in recent days. Importantly, I have improved my CAD skills incredibly and learnt about the process of a project, from the start to the finish.
I feel like I have grown a lot as a civil engineer since working at FJA. I am also becoming more confident in my role.
5. What challenge(s) did you encounter while working on assigned projects? And what support did you receive from FJA team?
At first, I had to familiarize with the scope of the projects, learnt the company’s workflow and system. Once I started to be placed in a project, I found difficulties in balancing between learning the projects’ scope as well as new design software and finishing up different deadlines for the clients.
Ming and Yushan have been great support from day one. They provided step by step of making drawings on software, gave introduction of each project, and most significantly, advised me on how to prioritize and manage different tasks that relieves my stress.
6. Have you learnt any new tools/software that would support your future career in civil engineering?
AutoCAD, 12D and Navisworks are excellent engineering software for design and modeling. I have been constantly exposed to AutoCAD and Navisworks for drafting, and recently I have been trained on how to use 12D for particular project. The assigned tasks have required me to develop and sharpen my skills of using these technologies that I believe I will be able to apply to any future roles in engineering field.
7. Describe your journey so far with FJA in three words/phrases.
Challenging, friendly and developing.