Born and raised in Albany, Western Australia, Jake joined Monadelphous in 2015 as a graduate engineer, kicking off his Monos’ journey on the tendering team.
It was a tough time to enter the industry, in the midst of the mining downturn, and with only three graduates brought on that year, Jake knew he’d need to hit the ground running.
“One of the first things I learned was that everything I’d learned at Uni pretty much went out the window,” Jake joked.
Instead, he leaned on the people around him. Surrounded by experienced mentors, Jake spent his first few years absorbing as much information as he could. After his stint on the tendering team, Jake was deployed to Roxby Downs with the Olympic Dam team, working on the process plant pipe upgrade project.
Within two years of joining, he was signed off on the Graduate Program and moved into a project engineer role in Karratha, where he has had a front row seat to Monos’ growth in the Pilbara.
“Some days I pinch myself, when I first started in Karratha it was just me and a superintendent, and now we’ve got a solid team of over 30 people on Karratha projects alone,” he said.
Over the last decade, Jake has well and truly made his mark, not just through his projects, but through people he has met along the way.
“Fronting up every day with my team and taking on whatever the day throws at us. We have a great team culture, which I think is reflected in our retention,” he said.
“I am one of four in my team that ticked over 10 years in the last 12 months, with several others at the 7+ year mark, all as a team in Karratha.”
When he’s not on site, Jake’s chasing the next spontaneous adventure and with long service leave on the cards, he’s currently weighing up his next getaway, with South America and Europe on the shortlist.
There’s no rest for the wicked, though, with some big things on the horizon for Jake and his team, including the procurement of a bespoke jack-up barge, kicking off the Cape Lambert (A) Marine Structural Integrity project, transitioning into shut maintenance works for the coastal region, to name a few!
Congratulations on 10 years Jake, we can’t wait to see what you do next!