Aaron Fernando has recently moved from our sunny Victorian concrete team to the equally great Quarries team in the ACT. We had a chat with Aaron to find out more about the career move.
How did you career at Boral begin?
I started at Boral in 2021 as an Undergraduate Engineer, working here for six months part-time while I was still studying.
Once university was finished, I was successful in joining Boral as a full time Graduate - starting out in the Victorian Concrete team.
One of my first projects was to risk assess and develop traffic and pedestrian management plans for all our concrete sites in Victoria. That project introduced me to every plant manager in the state and gave me a very solid understanding of concrete operations in both metro and country locations.
What internal career moves have you made since then?
About half-way through the following year, I moved across to the Quarries team working on a few capital projects between the Montrose and Deer Park quarries in Victoria; this gave me great exposure to quarry operations and the different types of assets used in that business.
From there I moved into a Project Engineer role back in the Concrete business, which was shortly followed by several months of secondments as an Area Manager.
Each career move came with a new set of skills to learn, a different area of the business to understand, and people to get to know.
How did you adapt to becoming a manager?
My initial experience as an Area Manager was quite humbling; there was a steep learning curve for me as I had to find my feet very quickly with several internal and external stakeholders as well as get my head around the financials. It was also the first time I had led a team at Boral. There I was, a young and pretty inexperienced person, leading a team of people who had been in the business for many, many years.
But I made a big effort to meet and learn from as many people as I could. I made sure there was something new I could learn every single day.
What advice would you give someone thinking about a career move?
My advice to people who are looking to try something new at Boral is that it really is all in your hands, especially if you have the right attitude. Of course, it helps if you have a supportive leader that encourages you to step out of your comfort zone, but if you want to move into a different role or even business unit – you can. Have open conversations with your manager about what kinds of jobs you’d like to go into and ask for their support in upskilling you in the right areas.
There may even be opportunities to shadow someone in a different team or business unit.
