What's your job about?

Powerco operates the geographically largest electricity distribution network in New Zealand, as a Graduate Electrical Engineer I get to be apart of projects/and or activities throughout this network.

At the time of writing, I am a part of Powerco’s Business Development team. An awesome thing about being in this team is that I have become a resource for one of Powerco’s subsidiary companies Base Power, who develop stand-alone power system (SAPS) solutions. As the only electrical engineer on the project this has given me the responsibility of the electrical design for a new product, including sizing of protection, cabling, disconnectors, plugs, and general considerations to ensure our design will be compliant with relevant standards. While I have some solar design experience from a university assignment, this has been much more involved with standards, as well as visits to electricity wholesaler’s to look for parts and searching through component vendors for suitable parts.

What's your background?

I was born in Palmerston North and grew up on a small beef farm in rural Manawatu. I went to rural primary schools, and then attended Palmerston North Boys’ High School before heading off to Christchurch to study engineering at the University of Canterbury. 

During my fourth and final year at Canterbury, I applied for the graduate position at Powerco, and after two interviews I was offered a position. I started at Powerco in November 2022, and have now been here for almost a year and a half. 

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Absolutely, while my degree helps with some technical things, most of the skills/knowledge you’ll learn will come on the job from self-directed learning or asking some of the many experts found at all our offices.

One of the most important skills I have found is the ability to ask questions, this was something I struggled with immensely during high school and university. However, at Powerco I have found this much easier because of how approachable and willing to help people are.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

My favourite thing about Powerco is the people. Having good relationships with people across the business has been great for me for a few reasons:

• Graduates regularly will post what work they have been doing and so you’ll usually get asked about the work or someone may comment on how great your contribution to a project is. 
• When it comes to needing technical expertise, I now have access to experts because I talk to them quite regularly.
• Knowing the right people gives me opportunities to get out into the field on site visits, project managers are always on the move so having good relationships with them has helped me get out on some visits to some pretty cool sites.

What are the limitations of your job?

Power engineering in most cases is a very slow-moving field, and most design/work you do will be very hands off. Most of your time will also be stuck in an office, the practical/hands on work you can do is very limited as you need high levels of training to even be allowed to open a gate or door to access high voltage equipment, let alone work on it.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

• Ask more questions, this would have saved me so much time and struggle trying to figure out things on my own.
• The grass is much, much greener on the other side, university was an extremely difficult and stressful experience and took quite a toll on me in my fourth year. Perseverance was so important, even when I felt like nothing was going my way and everything was so overwhelming.
• Your relationships with people are probably if not the most important thing you need in the workplace, just learn to talk to people.