James Tabban

I always had an interest in building design and construction; after researching civil engineering and the job opportunities available, it seemed to be the perfect fit.

My program provided me with a general understanding of what civil engineering encompasses. I learnt about structural design capabilities, codes and standards interpretation. I also gained an understanding of the necessity of teamwork and how to manage and accommodate the personalities within a team.

I started working with Brown Consulting (Vic) Pty Ltd during my second year of study, one to two days a week during semesters and full time between semesters. The exposure to actual industry design based work provided me with an advanced understanding of structural and civil design. This made my university assignments, tests and exams that little bit easier.

During my studies, I was lucky enough to receive a number of awards including the VicRoads Prize (2005), the ASI Undergraduate Steel Design Award (2006), the Concrete Institute of Australia Victoria Branch’s Concrete Structure Competition (2006) and the Transurban Excellence in Engineering Award (2007).

After graduating, I continued to full time work at Brown Consulting (Vic) Pty Ltd where I’m now a Senior Structural Engineer and Project Manager. After six years of full-time work as a qualified engineer, I have developed and maintained my own client base across a broad range of projects. More recently I have taken on a lead project management role for Toyota Motor Corporation Australia (TMCA), not only managing large scale project works at their production facility in Altona but also managing several facility upgrade projects across some of TMCA’s national sites.

I enjoy what I do because of the variety of projects and work - rarely is any day the same as the day before.