As part of Transgrid’s Graduate Program, Graduates are paired with an experienced mentor in the business and get the amazing opportunity to experience a ‘Day in the Life’ with their mentor.
Graduate Program
Mentee & Mentor day in the life - Jessica Nguyen and Jacky Chai
03 February 2025
Our 2024 Graduates Jessica Nguyen and Jacky Chai spent a valuable day in the life with their mentors Michael Cross and Dragana Hele, providing some insight into the amazing work our people do at Transgrid on a day-to-day basis.
Jessica's story: Witnessing a Reactor Teardown with Corrective Works Delivery Manager for Substations Michael Cross
The below is written by Jessica Nguyen, during her second rotation in Transgrid’s 2024 Graduate Program.
My name is Jessica Nguyen, and I am a Construction Management Graduate currently on placement in the PEC OHTL Delivery team based in Wagga Wagga. My mentor is Michael Cross, who serves as the Corrective Works Delivery Manager for Substations. Michael and I have fortnightly scheduled meetings to catch up and discuss various topics. These discussions often revolve around the future steps in my career or questions I have regarding Transgrid. During these meetings, we worked to find a suitable day and location that would align with both of our schedules, as majority of my working days are typically in Wagga Wagga while Michael is based in Yass.
The chosen day was set for the SYS Reactor Teardown activity, scheduled to take place at a scrapyard in Bankstown. Upon arriving, I met the rest of the team assigned to investigate: Evan Lamplough, Sachin Singh, Albert Ensour, Hossein Rahimpour, Gavin Wood, and Joel DeHaan. The team was lovely and accommodating, as everyone explained the processes and what they were investigating. Before any work began, Joel provided a rundown of the potential risks and hazards, double checking everyone had the appropriate PPE, and signed off on the good-to-go sheet.
Team collecting equipment from vehicle
We began our work by grabbing tools from the work vehicles and started to open the reactor. It was a hot day with manual labour, so reminders about applying sunscreen and staying hydrated was reminded throughout the activities. Our activities included using an angle grinder to assist in unwinding the copper coils and a hydraulic cutter to remove excess copper.
Team removing first piece on the reactor
This was an interesting process to see as I got to see and receive firsthand experiences in helping the team, even small things like pulling out each copper piece and getting closer to the core. Tough activities like this only occur a handful of times per year so I feel lucky to be able to involve in the process!
Michael's usual day-to-day is managing the substations corrective work program. Work usually gets to the team in the form of an AIM issue, which the team reviews and scopes. This then turns into a work order which will have a timeframe to be delivered in depending on the severity of the issue. The team will do high level plans and pass the work along to the Planning and Scheduling team, then Execution to perform the work.
In addition to the work being created, Michael and his team manage the overall program of work including budget, assisting in resource capacity planning, managing Delivery Partner engagements, coordinating long lead time items, reviewing test results and prioritisation of works.
In cases when an asset fails, Michael and his team manage site coordination, incident response, reporting to the Emergency Management Team and preparation of spares installation.
Jacky’s story: Gaining Insights with the Network Planning team and Senior Engineer Dragana Hele
The below is written by Jacky Chai, during his second rotation in Transgrid’s 2024 Graduate Program.
Booking in a day to shadow my mentor was difficult as the year wound to a close, but Dragana was kind enough to free up a Thursday in December to show me the (very, very) basics of Network Planning. Over the course of the day, I learned a lot about the role of the Network business unit in Transgrid and was glad to get a sense of the day-to-day work of a network planner.
In the morning, I was asked to assist with completing some referencing and editing for an internal guideline for Network. I was able to catch a few small referencing errors and phrasing quirks. In working to correct them, I did some research into some of the standards and rules around the network. This reading was fun, but its complexity made me very aware of how much more there is to learn on my part.
Dragana is a big proponent of life-long learning, and her mentorship has been very valuable to me in this aspect of my career, with her encouraging me to attend seminars and workshops. We’ll often discuss these topics during our fortnightly mentoring catchups, as well. Through this I’ve been able to develop strategies to learn more and more, developing as an engineer.
Later in the day, Dragana reviewed a Need & Option Screening Assessment (NOSA) that had been drafted by another engineer in a meeting with a small group of teammates. I was glad to have the opportunity to attend as I watched everyone pitch in with different ideas and observations for how the document could be improved.
In the afternoon I was also exposed to a bit of the world of power system studies as Dragana audited a Grid Impact Study, checking the report’s results against her own modelling. It was very cool to see the depth of our network models, as well as learning about how various factors in the future grid were considered.
One thing I really appreciated throughout the day was the importance of good communication. Whether in editing a report, working as a team, or explaining a new concept to someone, I was constantly exposed to the need to express ideas with clarity and precision as a critical part of good engineering practice. It was good to be reminded that this is a skill I should keep developing as I progress further in my career.
Jacky Chai (left) with his mentor Dragana Hele (right)
Overall, I really loved getting a bit of insight into the Network Planning and learning a bit more about my mentor’s day-to-day life. It was very inspiring to see where a continued career in the power industry could take me and I’m excited for what comes next.
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Both Jessica and Jacky’s stories highlight the importance of mentorship and capture the variety of career paths and experiences of individuals in our network. Discover more stories like this on Prosple, including reviews, advice, videos, and office tours!