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Lubana Syed studied a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Honours) at La Trobe University and is now a Site Engineer at John Holland. Here’s what a typical day at John Holland looks like for Lubana.
5.30 AM
The alarm goes off and next thing you know I’m immediately up and ready! I’ve always just needed one alarm to get up and promptly start my day. I quickly munch through breakfast, start the car and drive off to work.
6.30 AM
As I reach work and walk through the main door, I greet the team who are already sipping on their morning coffee. Our pre-start meeting is about to start, I make my way along with other colleagues to the crib room where we will receive an overview of the day’s activities as well as reinforcing the safety standard procedures to undertake.
7.30 AM
As the pre-start meeting concludes, I fire up my computer and systematically go through e-mails. Once I have sent my responses, I avert my attention to the day’s main activity regarding the projects latest tunnelling drive. I quickly gather the pipe jacking and shift reports for the tunnelling drive from yesterday and fill out the information of works into the tunnelling productivity plan. This helps us track the production rate we are progressing at compared to our target completion date.
I update the project team and head office with this information via a report sent through e-mail regarding the project tunnel drive production. I follow this report up by entering information from the site diaries into the system which is viewed by head office to keep them updated with our teams project activities. My mornings are always full on!
10.00 AM
Now is the time for our daily team meeting where we go through an overview of the works commencing, project completion updates as well as raising any potential hurdles that may impact project progression and its completion date. Personally, I really enjoy these sessions as it helps me to track how the modules are progressing and how these impacts the overall project delivery.
10.30 AM
I make my way to one of our sites to inspect if everything is on track and how everyone is travelling. Some days I’ll have to conduct the GRP pipe jacking inspection which basically includes to check of any sort of damage on the pipes and mark them accordingly and update the team as required.
12.00 PM
Yes it’s lunch time! I heat leftover pasta and grab some fruits from the office kitchen before making my way back to my desk. I catch-up with a work colleague stationed across my desk, usually discussing work or what shows we’re watching on Netflix.
12.30 PM
Back to it and I start preparation and subsequent completion of quality checks to ensure all ITP’s, checklists and forms are in place for the works being carried out on site. One of our sites is being re-opened which requires me to update the excavation permit hence I begin to compile relevant documents to get this done immediately.
1.30 PM
I head to one of our other sites for a task called shotcrete. Prior to this day, I called one of the concrete suppliers to place a shotcrete order. I check in with the team onsite to see if they have excavated enough for us to go ahead with the shotcrete scheduled in for today which they have. As the concrete trucks start to arrive, I start to prepare for a slump test which basically measures and determines the consistency of the concrete. When its all done, I get the docket from the concrete supplier and head back to the office.
5.00 PM
Back to the office, I fill out the concrete order forms and hand in the dockets to the project administrator. I finish up any remaining work and check in with my supervisor where I provide a summary of the day’s activities and discuss any issues encountered onsite.
5.30 PM
Pack up and call it a day. As I drive back home, all that’s on my mind right now is what I’m going to have for dinner.
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