What I Do I work as a Petroleum Engineer for an oil and gas company in Australia. I am part of the production engineering team which is responsible for making as much oil as possible every day! We have an oil field with many different sections and its a big complex puzzle trying to find the best combination. I work with my team to decide which portions of our oilfield should be turned on or off each week, and troubleshooting issues that arise (there are plenty!) . The constraints of our oil field are constantly changing, so ideas that worked a year ago don’t work now, and trials that failed before have a second chance as conditions change.
Why Engineering? When I was in high school, maths was my best subject. I really enjoy the logic of maths - there is either one answer, no answer, or many answers. But even though I liked maths, I didn't know what real life jobs used maths, or if I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. My parents encouraged me to try engineering because its a really broad area which means you have lots of options of where you want to work. You get to solve a lot of problems in engineering - its a job that never gets boring and its really satisfying when you come up with a solution to a problem. I chose petroleum engineering in particular because there are a lot of really big and cool projects in oil and gas.
School Days I studied in Australia at Curtin University. I have a Bachelor of Petroleum Engineering (First Class Honours).
My Day At Work A lot of people think that engineers only do two things: Be out in the field all day away from home working with tools, or sitting at a desk doing super boring things like reading procedures and answering emails. But my day is not like that. I analyse the production data from our oil field in excel to try and predict whats going to happen next, or to try and figure out why part of our oilfield is not performing well. I work in the office but talk to our team members out on site to help them fix any issues. We have meetings in the office to brainstorm new ideas and plans for the future. No two days are ever the same, which means I never get bored, and always have something interesting to work on.
Want to be an Engineer? There are a lot of stereotypes that being an engineer is a man's job. And that if you decide to be an engineer, you'll be 1 woman amongst 1000s of men. But this isn't true anymore. There are so many more girls who are engineers now, and they are having a big impact. You can too! If you want to work a job that involves solving a mix of problems, produces real results (constructing buildings, designing computers, producing fuel for our cars) and gives you a big boost in confidence, then engineering could be for you!
Hobbies Outside of work, I love traveling the world. I enjoy catching up with friends, listening to instrumental music and reading fantasy novels. One day I hope to even write my own book!