Michelle Curro

7.00 AM

Wake up, get ready and head to the bus stop.

7.30 AM

Enjoy my morning on the bus by reading my book and drinking tea or coffee.

8.00 AM

I arrive at work and start by checking my emails and seeing what I have on for the day. Today, I am lucky enough to be going out of the office for the morning.

9.00 AM

We’re heading to various depots this morning. Our first stop is in Jandakot to test the possibility of installing bird spikes on pole top switches throughout the network. Birds have always been a point of concern for the network, and our area is always looking at ways to reduce equipment failure and reduce the costs associated. 

Today we are testing how these bird spikes can be attached to a disconnected pole top switch. Our aim is to attach the birds spikes safely, reliably, and effectively. This was actually harder to implement than first thought, as pole top switches aren’t really made to have plastic spikes attached!

Working with the equipment hand-on allows us to understand whether what we discussed in the office can be implemented. Usually I find that there’s at least one issue we didn’t consider on the drawing board – which is why it is so important to get out of the office and work with the equipment on the ground. 

10.00 AM

Second stop: Kewdale Depot for battery impedance testing. Six 12V batteries have failed, and we need to be test these to analyse the root cause of their failure. We complete this by discharging the batteries and taking down the values at particular time increments. 

I like heading to the depots and meeting the field crews as it allows me to understand their perspective from a practical point of view, especially when it comes to equipment failure.

12.00 PM

I arrive back to our Perth office after a busy morning and heat up my prepared lunch. I then head downstairs to have lunch with the other graduates in the courtyard. I like to get away from my desk and see what my fellow graduates have been up to.

12.30 PM

My next task involves determining how many poles in our network have a certain defect that we are phasing out. A lot of our work involves sifting through large amounts of data to solve problems. There are many types of configurations and obviously a lot of poles in the network! I therefore conduct this task through Structured Query Language (SQL) developer, which allows me to access a large number of databases through SQL programming.

I first need to determine which information I am after in the system, such as assets, defects and inspection dates. This task requires me to join multiple databases together and look at defects within a certain timeframe. I am fairly new to SQL programming; however, my team is always willing to help if I have any queries! After coding this, I export the data to excel to understand what is required on our end. 

2.00 PM

Working in our asset performance team isn’t project based, so it means I get to work on a variety of small tasks and accomplish a lot throughout the week. This also means if I’m not as interested in a task it’s over quickly! 

I am now working on a query related to removing an old pole and replacing it with a new, self-supporting pole. This involves searching for the poles last inspection data and calculating the poles Serviceability Index (SI) in excel. Once this is complete, I can weigh other factors such as the poles age, location, and existing defects.

3.45 PM 

I look at what I have on for the next day and have a final check to see if I need to prepare anything or be aware of any deadlines or site visits.

4.00 PM

I leave work and head to the bus port and continue with my book or listen to music.

4.30 PM 

The best thing about working is not having to worry about studying or assignments, so I have the rest of the evening to do as I please. Some days I have netball training, others I catch up with friends or just relax at home.

10.00 PM

Wind down before bed and get some much-needed rest.