By Andrea Mayes
As an undergraduate, civil engineer Emma den Hollander never imagined she'd be working at huge iron ore port in remote Western Australia.
"I thought I'd be wearing Alannah Hill suits and sky-high heels and be trotting down St George's Terrace (Perth) to a little engineering design office," she laughs.
"Or I at least thought I'd be working somewhere international by this stage - I never imagined that I'd still be working in WA a year and a half after graduating."
Instead, den Hollander, 24, is working for the Expansion Projects division of Rio Tinto Iron Ore at the port of Cape Lambert, some 50km north of Karratha in Western Australia's vast Pilbara region. The high heels have been traded for steel-capped boots and she lives in decidedly unglamorous on-site worker's "shoebox of a room".
Den Hollander is halfway through Rio's three-year graduate development program, which aims to give graduates a broad understanding of the company's operations and provide practical experience. While what she is doing now may be a long way from her undergraduate fantasies, den Hollander wouldn't have it any other way.
Graduates are allocated a supervisor to help map out a career plan, and a mentor they can call on in times of need. Unfortunately, den Hollander's mentor left soon after she joined the company, but she had developed such a good relationship with her supervisor by that time that she didn't feel a need to get a new mentor.
She has also formed a close mentoring bond with a graduate who completed the program last year. Graduate supervisors are usually someone working in the area of interest to the graduate, proficient and experienced but not so senior they are impossible to get hold of.
"I had a couple of sessions with my supervisor and we mapped out what I thought I wanted from my career, and where I wanted it to head," den Hollander says. "For me that is project management - I want to ultimately work on big projects.
"We made a rough checklist of things that would help me on my path and started looking at the opportunities that were available, and what sort of rotations would be beneficial."
While the Rio graduate program is not rigid, graduates are expected to undertake at least three rotations to broaden their experiences as much as possible. "You're encouraged to be self-driving with your rotations," den Hollander says. "Your supervisor's always there for guidance and a sounding board, but if you're not happy they really encourage you to speak up - because you ultimately drive your own career."
Rio's vice-president of Human Resources Joanne Farrell says that despite the skills shortage, the company has not had a problem attracting quality graduates. "I think a lot of it's word-of-mouth - we actually do deliver on our promises to graduates, and people are hearing about that," she says.
More than 3500 applications were received for the 2009 graduate intake of 230 positions Australia-wide, Rio's biggest-ever intake, up from 200 the previous year.
The program has over-arching goals for all graduates, discipline-specific goals and personal goals. "We try to look at what graduates themselves need and specifically target what their interests are, so we are tailor-making it to suit," Farrell says. The company's retention rate among graduates speaks for itself -- 95 per cent after four years.
Den Hollander's first rotation was a six-month stint with an engineering design team in Perth, which gave her an understanding of the time and effort involved into producing designs, drawings and calculations. From there she spent eight months with the project engineering team, which gave her experience in the paperwork side of setting up a project.
Everyone on the graduate program - from accountants to geologists - is expected to spend at least one rotation at one of Rio's mines or ports around the country, which is why den Hollander currently calls Cape Lambert home.
She works a shift of 11 days on followed by three days off, and is one of the few professional females among the on-site port staff. It has been the biggest personal challenge of her career to date.
"I'm embracing it as a learning experience - but it's lonely," she says. "Career-wise it's the best thing I could have done, but being away from your family and friends for two weeks straight and living in a tiny little shoebox of a room is tough."
Professionally, the most challenging thing has been learning to trust her own abilities. "I guess it's been finding that confidence, and that can be daunting. There's that huge support network there to help you, but even tapping into that can be a bit daunting sometimes. I think this is all about the learning process though, and you gradually build up that confidence over time."
Den Hollander hopes to satisfy her wanderlust by landing an international exchange in the third year of the graduate program. Rio's international operations and opportunities were a big drawcard for her joining the company, and she believes she will still be with Rio in five years' time.
"I'm quite a cynical, sceptical person but I've been very impressed with the effort and the support they've put in," she says. [I'll stay with Rio] "unless I couldn't get the international opportunities, or some amazing offer came to me out of the blue . But from where I sit now, I won't be looking around."
Published in The Weekend Australian, 26 July, 2008.
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