Samantha Dungey - Bachelor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Are there any other notable experiences from your time at Monash you’d like to share?

My favourite memories from my time at Monash University is the comradery with my fellow students. From studying together in the computer room to heading to the pub after a rough exam, the people I studied with made it fun and I hold fond memories of those times.

If you could tell your graduate self one piece of career advice what would it be and why?

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes or getting some things wrong. No-one is perfect and no-one is expected to know everything or get everything right the first time. Mistakes are an important part of learning and being a better engineer.

What are the top 3 skills you need in your role as a Civil Engineer?

Creativity: Some problems aren’t easy to solve and require you to think outside the box.

Communication Skills: All projects require teams of people to work together, even from different disciplines. Good communication is so important to enabling the team to work together and produce a good outcome.

Dexterity/Agility: Things can change quickly when designing or building things. The ability to pivot and adapt with the changes increases the quality of the project outcomes.

Tell us about your experience since leaving Monash: how has you career progressed to date? Any professional achievements you’d like to share?

Since leaving Monash I started a graduate job with Aurecon. I have been working with Aurecon for over 6 years. I spent one year in the transport planning team before progressing to the road design team.

My favourite project that I have worked on would be FMBH (Furlong Main Blackburn and Heatherdale Level Crossing Removal Projects). This was my first big infrastructure project and my first real taste of designing something and getting to watch it get built. I learnt so much on that project, from how much exists below the ground that we don’t see, to how much work can go into the seemingly smallest elements of a project.

Throughout my career I have been involved in a number of initiatives to promote engineering to the younger generations and females in particular. From volunteering with the Power of Engineering, to mentoring, to the children’s book I have published.

The idea for the book came about to try to influence children to want to grow up to be engineers the same way they want to be doctors, train drivers and police officers. So many initiatives target older children, when they already know what they want to be. This book aims to influence that decision before they have made up their minds.

Currently I’m working on the design for number of level crossing removal projects and still get a real kick out of seeing my projects made a reality.