Leighton Contractors: Graduate site engineer – pavements

Persistence, a good work ethic and a love of practical tasks has set Oliver Burton on the path of a successful career as a site engineer.

Last year the ambitious New Zealander was recognised by Leighton Contractors as their 2009 graduate of the year, beating stiff competion from across Australia.

“It was a huge accolade,” the 25-year-old said.

“I was initially nominated by my peers. One of my managers and the commercial manager at Manukau ““ the highway project I am working on ““ put forward a submission as to why they thought I deserved it.”

The finalists were flown to Sydney for three days and put up in the Hilton and treated to a harbour yacht cruise, tours around the city, “amazing” dinners and the opportunity to meet senior members of Leighton Construction’s corporate team.

Of the three shortlisted graduates the two others were from Australia, one a mining engineer and the other a site engineer.

“We were each interviewed by the general manager of human resources and the general manager of infrastructure and investment,” Mr Burton recalled

“I think I won it for what I did outside work as well as what I had done leading up to working for Leighton’s.

“They also asked about how I lived the Leighton core values and examples of some of them.

I’ve been dedicated to the industry since the end of my first year of uni which meant I had a lot more experience than most graduates and am always happy to step up to new challenges,” he said.

From a young age Mr Burton has always enjoyed tinkering around with engines and fixing machines.

While studying civil engineering at Auckland University he took a labouring job with a large construction business.

“It was the end of my first year at uni and I wanted to earn some money so I just helped out doing whatever the site engineer [on the job] wanted.”

At the end of his second year Mr Burton took a year out, unsure as to whether he wanted to continue studying civil engineering, which lacked the “practical knowledge,” he desired.

He returned to work full time with the same organisation as an engineer technician helping out with the dredging of the shipping channel in Auckland harbour.

In 2006 Mr Burton decided to resume his third year studies and continued to do casual work for the company until a friend suggested an alternative job option.

“He was working for the Northern Gateway Alliance and said his company, Leighton Contractors, were looking for more students to help out on the project.”

The job, a seven and a half kilometre Northern Motorway extension, was located 45 kilometres north of Auckland.

“It is the and biggest the most expensive road job in New Zealand,” Mr Burton explained.

“So the chance to work with such a big construction firm and on such an excellent project was something I had to do.”

Having already built up some impressive work experience and on the back of the recommendation of his friend, Leighton Contractors gave Mr Burton summer vacation work on the highway project.

“I worked under a site engineer for about a month to get an understanding about what was going on before being chucked in the deep end doing the same work as a full time site engineer,” he said.

During his final year at university he continued to work on the project on a part time basis.

His work included; costings, liaising with designers, making sure the project stayed on track, overseeing the earthworks and looking after all the drainage.

“I put in about $3.5 to $4 million of drainage which meant managing seven crews from four different companies, doing all the planning, ordering all the materials and budgeting.”

He finished up at the Northern Gateway at the end of 2008, the same time he graduated from university, and was offered a permanent graduate role by Leighton Contractors.

“At the start of last year I began work at Manukau. It’s a link between State Highway 1 and State Highway 20,” he explained.

“My title is site engineer pavements and I’m finding the job really interesting as it’s the first project to use cement treated pavement.

“It has taken some time to get it right but I think we’ve now cracked it.”

Mr Burton advises engineering students who are keen to land a hands on role within a large organisation like Leighton Contractors, to get working.

“It’s not so much about your grades but what you’ve done at uni that shows how dedicated you are to the industry,” he said.

“The more work experience you have done the quicker you can get on site.”