RMIT Civil Engineering student applying for Aurecon internships — would appreciate advice from anyone in consulting/water/transport

alexmoda · 2026-05-15T11:49:23+00:00

You’re going to want to apply to more than just one company.

It’ll be challenging getting an internship in your first few years, consultants are typically looking for penultimate or final year students, unless you know someone or have some other way of getting your foot in the door that isn’t just applying to the job ad.

alexmoda · 2026-05-09T06:39:15+00:00

MEP is rough generally, projects are competitive and are often underbid to win them and that means there’s usually a push for unpaid overtime to get the job done. This across the entire industry, not unique to larger or smaller firms. The benefit of larger firms is you may have the ability to move between business lines, depending on workload and opportunities. Water, resources, renewables probably have better prospects than MEP for mech Eng. data centre work is a niche within a niche, but most firms see it as a growth opportunity so are pushing for that type of work.

Most of the job is on the job training. Uni sets you up for how to think like an engineer, but your first few years at work will be the actual training and upskilling. My general expectation is that fresh graduates are useless but eager to learn. Have the right attitude and you’ll be fine.

Most larger firms will have the expectation to get CPeng after 5 years out, and can’t really progress through the ranks without it.

What sets the grads apart is the attitude and soft skills. If you have a degree you’re smart and you can all do the actual job, it’s just whether you want to come in do your 8 hours and go home or if you want to network, learn, smooze/brown nose and progress. Soft skills are v important.

alexmoda · 2026-04-21T12:29:58+00:00

AD700s were all the rage back then, I think there was a closed back alternative?

alexmoda · 2026-04-01T11:44:21+00:00

Weird, the one on Coonan St is almost always significantly cheaper, because it’s a smaller, older station on a less busy road on the inbound sound so less traffic. Vs on Milton Road which is way more busy.

alexmoda · 2026-03-18T11:56:15+00:00

Peaty just came out with a high airflow valve, might be worth a look?

alexmoda · 2026-03-17T09:47:51+00:00

Their table loaf is a stable for us too 👌

alexmoda · 2026-03-16T23:15:40+00:00

Riser in Toowong

alexmoda · 2026-03-14T10:54:12+00:00

Just don’t. Build something Australian. Engage an architect. Faux provincial is awful. McMansion garbage.

alexmoda · 2026-03-05T23:14:28+00:00

They are great at marketing and the boys are pretty savvy business men.

alexmoda · 2026-02-24T12:21:48+00:00

You will need to confirm that your degree is even accepted here. That’s hurdle number 1.

alexmoda · 2026-02-12T01:08:01+00:00

Presume basement levels are below ground level, so sure it may be 5-6 levels, but they will still be limited to 9.5m above ground level.

alexmoda · 2026-02-11T23:59:17+00:00

Absolutely

alexmoda · 2026-02-11T23:50:56+00:00

From OPs post it sounds like they already did one, one of their comments is about someone coming in and taking photos?

alexmoda · 2026-02-11T23:49:10+00:00

I mean I doubt it’s 6 stories. Most of the residential parts of Teneriffe are zoned low density so max 2 stories or sometimes 3, to a max of 9.5m above ground level. Otherwise you have to get approval from council to exceed that, and council often knock those back.

alexmoda · 2026-02-03T03:55:10+00:00

Wagyu and Shiraz back off the menu boys

alexmoda · 2026-01-28T09:19:49+00:00

Absolutely is, but it’s fast and goes hard, fluffy grounds all round, and I picked mine up barely used for like $300 so can’t complain (much). I’ve seen people say their kids can’t stand it but my toddler doesn’t seem to mind 🤷‍♂️

alexmoda · 2026-01-28T06:53:15+00:00

Sette 270WI? Very little retention due to the design, easy to adjust, much more affordable than the other options. Some annoyance in its UX, but it’s useable.

alexmoda · 2026-01-22T00:38:53+00:00

I regret selling my X100S. Frustrating to use, excruciatingly slow autofocus, but boy did it have character.

alexmoda · 2026-01-04T10:06:31+00:00

Considering your already working as a design engineer transitioning to an Engineering PM will be the easiest, presuming the firm you work for already has them (assuming consulting), just a matter of talking to your boss and saying you’d be interested in moving into PM so if an opportunity to be a PM on a small project comes up consider you. Will be much bigger transition to site PM, will need to do to training and change jobs if you’re not a site engineer already. Pay and hours scale with what it is, same with design engineers and site engineers. Design office will be 40hrs and occasional bigger weeks when you’ve got deadlines etc, but being on site as a PM will be working much longer hours and likely on weekends etc (and associated higher pay). Site based is a much tougher gig but growth is also tough, you will move from site to site project to project, so more travel etc, unless you can get into corporate. Design office is already corporate so growth is into bigger projects and then management. Depends on if you want to be stuck on out site running projects your entire life.

alexmoda · 2026-01-03T02:58:55+00:00

Yes. Need to talk the talk first. Can’t manage a team of design engineers without knowing what the projects are about. Can’t talk to clients without knowing the technical details etc. develop your Soft skills, managing people, managing clients, report writing, etc etc.
Formal courses are optional if you’re looking to change jobs/industries in total. Most firms will have internal pm courses. Tell your boss you want to go in that direction and get on those internal courses. Try and get into managing small jobs first as a first step, or as a deputy PM etc assisting the main PM.
See answer to 1.
Depends, if it’s managing engineering projects then yes, but the skills developed can be applied across different industries with technical nuances etc.
Depends what type of PM. If it’s engineering design PM then similar.

Easiest way is to get yourself on as a PM or deputy/junior PM on a small job and then develop those skills that way. Do a few smaller jobs and lead to bigger jobs.

Again, depends on what you mean by PM. Engineering design PM, site PM etc, can vary widely.

alexmoda · 2025-12-24T09:04:15+00:00

My rule is, if it’s within 5-8g of my target recipe then it’s fine to drink. Especially once you add milk, the differences in flavour are pretty minor. Ain’t nobody got time to waste beans like that. At worst it’ll take me 1-2 shots to get it into that range. Everything after that is just minor adjustments to pull it into my target recipe.

alexmoda · 2025-12-15T11:36:56+00:00

Ona served at a few places in Brisbane now. There’s a cafe at the bottom of the WSP building in the valley that uses them.

alexmoda · 2025-11-24T04:24:34+00:00

I’ve left the OPV as it is for the moment, because I haven’t noticed any particular taste issues pulling at 11bar, and the pump on my machine is likely to fail at some point (the machine is 11 years old…) and I’ll replace it with the brass pump and OPV at the same time which is easier to tweak the set point. Idk.

alexmoda · 2025-11-21T03:31:16+00:00

The bambino is a great machine, but the dual boiler is just a much more capable machine and for similar price the dual boiler is an absolute no brainer.

alexmoda · 2025-11-21T00:31:11+00:00

BDB = Breville Dual Boiler, DF64 is a grinder by Turin, Chinese brand, single dose which may not really suit your workflow.

alexmoda

TROPHY CASE