Intern to Engineer
I completed my internship as a student with HKS at the end of my penultimate year. I wanted to do an internship while I was still studying, so I could get as much experience as I could before I graduated.
There weren’t any internship opportunities actually posted by HKS, but I saw their ad on a job website for an engineer in another discipline. After looking at HKS’ website, I was like,” ok, they clearly do electrical engineering and have completed some interesting projects, let's try and get in contact with them!” The contact details for the 3 Directors, Richard, Elisha and Bill, were on the website, and I reached out to all three directors individually. Looking back now, it's a clear green flag knowing that the directors were so easily accessible and even to this day, that's still true.
Richard, being an electrical engineer, emailed me back and we then had a quick interview over coffee. We talked about the company and his journey, and he offered me a 3-month internship.
One of my favourite memories of my internship is from my first week, I was kind of thrown into the deep end straight away and went along on a site inspection. We visited six or seven different sites for a sports lighting package that we ended up winning, which was actually one of my first projects.
Another great memory was a couple weeks later I started working on a car park lighting design, and this was my first project that was constructed. I got to go for a walk and see what it looked like.
In the final week of my actual internship, Richard asked me if I wanted to stay at HK. I was like, ‘yes please’! I accepted and was able to complete my final year of study getting paid as an undergrad. I was working here four days a week and studying for the 5th. The only unit I had left was for my final year project, and working here gave me another benefit, HKS also gave me a topic for my final project which was sports lighting related.
When I graduated I was offered a full-time role with HKS, and the transition from an undergraduate to a graduate employee was seamless. I was growing more confident in the work that I was doing, and I think others saw that as well and, started giving me a little bit more responsibility. I didn't feel like I had the pressure having to knowing everything all at once, and I had a very helpful support crew ready to lead me the right way when I needed it. Even when I thought I was being annoying and asking a million questions, they still took the time to answer and help me out.
3 years later, one of the things I enjoy the most about my role is that the projects I work on are very interesting. Especially at a consultancy, you’re not only working on one project, you’re working on so many different projects, in different parts of the country. The people I work with on a day to day basis are an amazing and collaborative bunch.
Advice I would give to students looking for an internship is that if you see a company you’d like to work for and you sense that you share similar values, even if they're not advertising, just try and get in contact with someone there and see where it can lead you.
Great food and musical bingo during HK Happenings even in Darwin, feat. Rizwaan and Sudeep Circa 2023
Richard Oppusunggu (left) and James Kvaternik (right) at the pre-renovated Geelong office in circa 2021
Electrical engineering is a spectator sport
