What's your job about?
I work in the OTS department of Essential Energy, helping keep the lights on for the majority of NSW and parts of Queensland.
I am mostly learning at the moment, OTS touches nearly every aspect of the business so there’s a lot to take in. But I get to see a lot of interesting work being done on the servers and other technical systems as well as practice skills such as server set up and maintenance in my own little sandbox environment.
OT stands for Operational Technology and is crucial to support the business in its day to day activities as the systems that monitor and maintain the electrical grid are complex and require constant attention and upkeep.
What's your background?
I moved around a decent amount when I was a kid, although I spent the majority of my childhood in the Bathurst / Lithgow area although I spent a stint in the Mudgee region as well in that time.
I was pretty much a career student all throughout my life until I started with EE and haven’t had any jobs or world travel, mostly ironically for lack of wealth to do those things since in all cases I lived semi-rurally so travel was always a big deal even to get into town for shopping. I was however an exceptional student, always being in the top of my classes for whatever I did (except sport, I’m not terribly athletically able).
Now after highschool and a 3 year course at CSU in Bathurst I started at EE in November 2022, having been working there for around 4 months as of the time of writing this.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Absolutely someone from another background could do my job, it’s a somewhat obscure discipline (I hadn’t heard of it prior to being offered the job at EE) so it will require some on the job learning from practically anyone, although a decent aptitude and knowledge for computer systems is an absolute must. But so longer as a potential prospect is willing and able to listen, learn, try their best and be a team player they would get along just fine in my role, just like I have.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
Working remotely has been a huge boon so far as work flexibility has been concerned, I enjoy my country lifestyle immensely and don’t do well cooped up in a city environment for long periods so the fact that I can largely work from where makes me happiest has been great.
As is the diversity in the systems and processes that I get to observe and interact with, for someone who is passionate about computer sciences and technology it truly is marvelous to see how various functions of the business get fed by the different systems all working in unison.
What are the limitations of your job?
There really isn’t much to complain about so far as I’ve been here but the remote work is something of a double edged sword when things go wrong. OT systems often require a more hands on intervention when something goes wrong and when you live a long way from the offices where these systems are located it can make travel to assist with maintenance or replacement work somewhat grueling, not that the locations where they are located aren’t stunningly beautiful.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
This will probably sound somewhat narcissistic but to my student self, I would probably just say to keep up the good work. I worked my hardest during high school and university to achieve the success I have so I wouldn’t have really advised my past self to do anything different, I put the effort in and got the outcome I wanted, and I couldn’t be happier with that. Although maybe I would have said to push for my driver’s license more heavily after I finished with the university as not being able to drive myself is partially why travel for work is as arduous as it is.