Michael's story
Hear Michael Donkers' experience of the Grid Connection Engineer Graduate program.
Michael Donkers is part of the first cohort of the Grid Connection Engineer Graduate Program, an industry-first initiative to recruit and train engineers performing a critical role for renewables. In her first rotation, we asked how she's been getting on.
Where have you been at your first placement, and how has it been going?
My first placement has been with GE Vernova, working with the Grid Team in the Onshore Wind Division. It has been going really well, but as my first placement it has been a steep learning curve. The grid team hasn’t had a graduate before, which has been good since I have felt like I am a part of the main team right from the start instead of being part of a grad cohort. The generosity of the senior engineers at GE with their time to help me learn and progress has been the area I have been most impressed and appreciative of.
What's the most important thing you've done/learned so far?
There has been a huge amount I’ve learnt so far. Some highlights have been:
- Having a site trip to the wind farm under construction in Goyder. Learning the onsite and construction/safety side of the project was a great opportunity and it really puts into perspective the theory in a real-world setting.
- A key milestone for me was building a tool to help speed up running a project testing. It was great to see something I had created be able to be used by other members of the team to save time and work.
Where are you headed next and what are you looking forward to?
My next rotation is at AEMO. I have an economics degree in addition to my engineering degree so I am looking forward to learning the economic dispatch that AEMO does with the 5-minute power pricing intervals it sends out to the grid generators.
Do you have any advice for future grads considering this program, or who want to work in clean energy?
The clean energy transition is one of the most futureproof career paths a graduate can look at moving into. Within this industry there is such an enormous range of jobs and roles, all of which will be in high demand in the future. That is part of why this industry wide program is such a huge opportunity as it allows exposure to a large range of careers within the industry. Every graduate will find some areas they don’t enjoy and some they find hugely rewarding so getting to experience this range of options firsthand really sets you up to decide on where you want your career to go in the future.