Degree: Mechanical Engineering
University: Canterbury
Division: Grid Delivery
Team: Quality & Compliance
I worked in the Quality and Compliance team in Wellington, who work to ensure that all components of the grid are compliant to applicable regulations and are functioning as they should. As a mechanical engineering student, I was unsure about the relevance of my work to my studies but quickly found that I was both applying many skills from uni while learning a great deal of industry relevant proficiencies. A large portion of my work was developing Python programs to automate tasks, process massive databases (more than 600,000 data points in one instance) and make calculations, where I was able to both use my coding knowledge from university and greatly extend my ability. Other skills/learnings I picked up along the way included using SQL for data analysis, PowerBI for data presentation and project/team management from the combined intern project. My team was super supportive and helpful, the working environment flexible and self-lead, and I even managed to head out to the Haywards substation to see many of the impressive assets I was hearing about in action! I also learnt heaps about the incredibly interesting electricity industry, as well as the inner workings of a large corporation.