Vacation Work Experience

Hello Again,

This summer I worked as a vacation Geology student at Ivanhoe Australia. I definitely recommend trying for vacation work everywhere because I guarantee you have no idea what geology in the real world is like.

I had a great experience out at the Mt. Dore site, (which is out near Cloncurry in Central Queensland) I met many great people that I am sure I will keep in contact with for the rest of my life and learnt some stuff about geology I never knew.

I experienced field work in 40+degrees, experienced wild life; everything from death-adders to galahs and brumbies to kangaroos, I learnt how to 4wheel-drive on road, off road and no road and of course learnt about some rocks (and got to take some samples home)

It was really a valuable learning experience and I am thankful that I took part. Next year Ivanhoe are planning to rotate their geologist from exploration, to development and to underground so if you want to experience everything they might be a good company to consider.

Here are some photos of my adventure

This is Kirby, the local Kangaroo

My adventure around the old mine workings on Christmas Day

My friend jumping into an old flooded open pit (I did it too)

My adventure underground

Graduate Employment

As I am now at the end of my second year, I have to start thinking about what I will do after I graduate in 2012.

I am fairly certain that I will stay and do an honors project at JCU, which will be another year of study; but I have been told that having honors consolidates all your knowledge and also gives a slight advantage when looking for careers.

I have not ruled out doing a graduate program. Many companies offer two year programs for graduates to help consolidate their knowledge and help their transition into the work force.

GRADUATE VACANCIES

Rio Tinto have opened their Graduate program for 2013 (click here for the link to the applications). They have an in depth 2 year program where you are assigned a mentor and a buddy who work with you at one of their sites for the full 2 year.
For more details click here.
Applications for this graduate program close on the 31st January

Also BHP have opened their expressions of interest for their graduate program in 2013. with applications opening in early January. BHP has won the ‎"Best Graduate Development Program" for 3 years in a row.
For more information on this graduate program click here


Also to keep up to date with any graduate opportunities join the face book group Graduate Jobs with Mining and Energy Companies

Vacation Work

Hello once again,

Over this month I have been extremely busy with vac-work applications and interviews. So far I have applied for many companies and been interviewed by both Rio Tinto and BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA).

Fingers crossed!

Anyway, I thought I would let you know the processes of applying for vacation work.

APPLICATION
So, the first step is to apply for vacation work. There are HEAPS of companies out there willing to take on anyone no matter what year they are in. Here are a few off the top of my head:
- BHP Billiton
- Xstrata
- Theiss
- Ivanhoe Australia
- Peabody Energy
- Westfarmers Curragh

And there are many many more. If you're a facebook user like Vacation Work With Mining and Energy Companies and they will keep you updated on what's open and what's closing.

When applying you should have a CV or resume prepared and also a cover letter saying who you are, why you are AWESOME and why you like the company you are applying for.

EMAIL FEEDBACK
after the company has read through your application they will either send you a very polite "we will not be following your application" or you will be asked to arrange a time for a phone interview.

PHONE INTERVIEW
Here they usually ask behavioural questions. "Think of a time where you have had to do something, how did you resolve it, what were the results?" (one such example is "when have you witnessed someone doing something unsafe, what did you do?)
Think of some situations where you have shown initiative, leadership, had to prioritise and had to meet a deadline.
I recommend writing these situations down, especially if you get nervous during interviews. REMEMBER, they can't see you so you can jump around, have written notes, make faces, whatever it takes to make you SOUND calm, cool and collected.

Also do some research about the companies. Know what they mine, their policies on safety and environment and know where you are applying to go.

MORE EMAIL FEEDBACK
Now after all the phone interviews have been done you get another email. Saying congratulations on progressing this far:
however we will not be following your application
OR
we wish to organise a time for face to face interview

FACE-TO-FACE INTERVIEW
sometimes if your lucky the company will fly you to them to have the interview, otherwise they will come to you.

Remember this time you have to look nice; wear a nice button up shirt (ironed) with black pants, tidy hair and boys, shave your face. You don't usually have to bring along a resume or anything unless they ask you, I usually bring along a nice folder with some important documents in it just so I can hold onto something which calms me down!

Again they will ask you behavioural questions. Have some situations prepared. Also, by this stage you should know even more about the company. just jump on their website and look around.


FINAL DECISION
Then, you come to the waiting stage. You just sit around with your fingers crossed waiting for the phone to ring.

GOODLUCK

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THEN AGAIN
Sometimes; you get rung out of the blue and offered vacation work. No interviews, no questions just: you got the job

I am happy to tell you that I will be doing vacation work with the EXPLORATION division of IVANHOE AUSTRALIA. I will be flying in and out of Cloncurry from Townsville. So this will be a very interesting experience. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

JCU Student Meet Industry

Tonight was the student meet industry night at JCU; where professional geologist come and talk to us about their career path and what they are doing now.

Tonight was all about exploration geology. It was great to learn all about what exploration geologists do, and all the opportunities that are offered to them. They get to travel all over the world, work in beautiful places and best of all get to find mineral deposits hidden that no-one has ever found before.

Here are a few tips I have picked up that I'd like to share
1. YOUR CV - add skills like mapping, field work, literacy skills and people skills.
2. GET EXPERIENCE - apply for every chance you have to get hands-on experience. May companies run vacation work for 12 weeks over the summer break of university. These opportunism allow you to gain experience, have networking opportunities AND get paid!
3. DO WHAT YOU LOVE - being in a career such as geology you will work long hours and usually be away from home. You need to do what you love and love what you do.
4. NETWORK - Join the societies for geologists like the GSA, AIG and AusIMM. They are no more than $11 for students to join, you get TONNES of benefits, chances to network and it looks GREAT on your CV

and OPTIONALLY you may want to stay at university the extra year and do an honors degree in geology. Although you probably will be able to find a job straight out of university, I have been told it really helps having a higher education if you want to move through the ranks of a company and have a very stable job.


Consider all of these things while studying your degree.



P.S I am currently applying for vacation work for these coming holidays, so fingers crossed.

Central Australian Holiday

Over the past few weeks I have been in the Northern Territory on a little holiday. I have never been anywhere near central Australia and was amazed by the geology around Alice Springs.

The MacDonald Ranges run along the town. I went for a walk around these hills and they were absolutely beautiful. They are made up of Quartzite with extremely large chunks of quartz throughout the hills. I found one solid chunk of quartz that was the size of a horse.

I also took a trip west of Alice Springs following the west MacDonald ranges. There were many beautiful spots to visit. I went to Palm Valley, a little environmental niche where plam trees have managed to live in a desert for thousands of years. I also visited Gosse's Bluff which is a comet impact crater, which i thought was very beautiful. I also visited the Ochre Pits which where great fun and very beautiful. There where also some permanent water holes in the range such as Ormiston Gorge and Ellery Creek Big Hole; and even though it was WAY to cold to swim they made a lovely landscape.

This is me hanging out at the Ochre Pits

I couldn't go to central Australia without a visit to Uluru. I went on a booked tour with Mulgars adventure tours and went on a three day trip around Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon. I let slip to the tour guide that I was studying geology and suddenly I became a lecturer of the geological origin of the area to 20 tourists who don't speak english as their first language.

It turns out the Uluru is an Arkose that has been rotated 90 degrees and continues for hundreds of kilometers under the ground. Kata Tjuta is a massive conglomerate that is tilted 20 degrees. When we were walking around Kata Tjuta it started to pour with rain which was a little disappointing until we start to see massive waterfalls falling off Kata Tjuta. When we got back to the bus we went back to Uluru and got to see the very rare sight of waterfalls running off uluru.

My favourite place on the trip was actually King's Canyon because of the shear cliffs and beautiful views, not to mention we actually got to climb all over it without being disrespectful to the indigenous owners.

It was an amazing holiday and everywhere I went I was intrigued by the amazing geology. If you ever get the opportunity to visit central Australia you should definitely take it up.

I've never seen anything like it, its just beautiful.

Geology Field Intensive

Over the last 7 days I have been at Fanning River Cattle Station looking at rocks. It is a core intensive subject run by JCU every year for the 2nd year geology students.

This trip was the largest there has been at jcu with roughly 70 students attending. We slept in tents rear the fanning river and took vans out the the Golden Valley area every day for our mapping task.

Basically what we had to do was map a 6 square kilometer area of land saying what geological units are there, how they got there and when they got there. It is actually much more complex then it sounds.

We were let loose in the Golden Valley area for 3 days from 9am until 4pm, hiking the whole time. Every night we stayed up until well past midnight mapping and compiling results. It was hard, dirty work but so much fun!
These were a few of my little un-geological highlights:
1. My mapping partner and I were walking down a gully when hundreds and hundreds of butterflies flew out of the trees around us. It was really really pretty.
2. There were some kangaroos around
3. snake skins to find

I enjoyed hiking around the hills all day, concurring outcrops and the peaks and being introduced to the new competitive sport of trundling. The geology in this area was really very interesting and if there was every a time we didn't know what outcrop we just tripped over there was a lecturer or tutor close by and a little "coo-ee" would soon attract there attention and we would have the information we needed.

This was a really great coarse run very smoothly by JCU and if you every get the opportunity to try something similar do no hesitate. I do admit I missed warm (or even cold) showers but 7 days isn't that long and it was definitely worth it.

I am now off to Alice Springs for a little bit of a holiday so I will soon tell you what there is to do and see in the NT.

AusIMM New Leaders Conference

Over the last few days I have been in Newcastle, NSW for the AusIMM New Leaders Conference. It was very interesting with many people coming to talk to us about training, graduate programs and their experiences in the mining sector. It was quite interesting and there is a few good pieces of advice I'd like to share with you:

YOUR CV
when applying for jobs, vacwork or even scholarships you should have a CV pre-pared (resume). This should always be current. Also, you should think about doing some volunteer work to put into your CV, it always looks good, showing you are a hard working and community minded.

CHOOSING VAC WORK
one of the most interesting pieces of advice I got was to choose your SECOND choice of job for vac work. so say you wanted to work in a coal mine, choose a copper mine for vac work, just so that you get a taste of your second choice and you know for sure that your first choice is the best choice.

Now a little run down on the highlights:
- I met Aaron and Sam (also QRC scholarship holders! check out their drillin blogs)
- We got lots of free food that was very nice
- I met some interesting people at the meet & greet event the first night
- We had a nice time walking around Newcastle, exploring
- We met some civil engineers in the pub below our motel, just randomly, but they were very informative (Kids, don't talk to strangers)

TOP HIGHLIGHT - visiting the Hunter Valley Operations (coal mine) in the Hunter Valley, all our tour guides were Geologists and were very funny, informative and friendly. Great to find out what Geologists do at a coal mine in day-to-day work. Also good to know that you can move up the ranks of a mine; one of the Geologists is now one of the long term planners in the mine

Aaron, Sam and I at the Meet & Greet

My visit to the Hunter Valley Operations


Also, it would be a very good idea to join the AusIMM, it only cost $11 for students and you get access to many publications, you get many benefits and updates. Also, the chance to apply for their scholarships, not to mention being a part of AusIMM looks fantastic on your CV.

Heres a little abstract from their website

The AusIMM is committed to supporting its Student Members through Student Chapters, career guidance, assistance in finding vacation work and study resources. The New Leaders Conference and Mining Games are specially aimed and Students and Graduate Members. As a Student Member you may be eligible for a variety of prestigious scholarships, awards and special funds.

Louise