Ausenco

I worked at Ausenco for many years across various offices and client sites. The company has a hire and fire mentality and having seen this during the financial crisis staff are taken over contractors and are grossly underpaid and at times fired for no reason usually 1 or 2 weeks prior to them having the right to have a redundancy payout.

From a client perspective the clients having worked closely with them and on their site managing Ausenco Projects having been frustrated and neglected with management not backing up the Engineering team and not taking account of project deliverables.

The word on the street from Kazakhmys one of the biggest mining producers having awarded the numerous offices four major projects is that it has been a disaster. The work will be guaranteed to be taken away from them.

Satisfaction is almost zero with a firing mentality of management, no client focus especially when coming from the client side, prior to the EPCM and no consulting of lead engineers and project managers prior to releasing staff.

Moral, quality is non existent, and local staff are fired or not hired in place of those with VISA 457's on the grounds that they are less expensive being an "Ausenco Strategic Direction"

Most of the work is also farmed out to third world countries which lack expertise. Having been in these low cost engineering centres at Ausenco it is hire and fire where they are pulled off the street at whoever costs the least then let go once the project finishes. The Joburg office is thus shut after the execution of the project with personnel fired. Most of the proposals sent through may not be 100 percent correct and unethical subject to interpretation of the details to win a job,

Tools provided to designers also jeopardise production with the software not up standard resulting in designers having to use old software which is more time consuming and cumbersome. Management will not back up their employees are personnel especially in client sites, racism also at times are in play.

In general this company does not pay well to staff, is hire and fire, you will lead a team of foreign engineers and designers over locals even onsite in construction and there is no control of your own teams. The moral of the company is low and quality / talent has since left. When I started at this company it was small and had a good quality and group, however in my humble opinion is now a company that I no longer recognise.

Collect, collate, analyse and summarise the constructibility and cost data for the 24 hours and present the presentations in the daily management/supervisors/engineers/contractors and safet and contract administration staff.

Explain S-curves for civil, mechanical, electrical jobs completion presentations and progress issues.

Raise points to achieve target implementation goals. Manage information flow to the client management and the Austenco management at Brisbane.

Work closely with the two project managers at one time.

Liaise with the supervisors, planner/schedules, project engineer, contract administrator and safety officers to ensure satisfactory project implementation.

This project for Newcrest Gold Mines was completed in time and below budget.

A typical day at work consisted of reviewing timecards and submitting for approval, or if rejected, chasing amended timecards. Entering invoices and submitted them for approval. Contacting the client or Subcontractor to discuss any invoicing discrepancies. I also had to assist with manipulating Excel spread sheets.
In my time with Ausenco, I learnt how to process the Client's monthly invoices, which was a week long process. I also learnt how to use the systems that they used.
The hardest part of the job was the monthly Client invoicing.
The most enjoyable part of the job was working closely with the team that I was with and being able to go to site to train everyone on a new system that was implemented.

Typical day
Emails. Grab a coffee/tea from the kitchen, have a few chats. Then get stuck in to excel or reports or team meetings. Lunch! Then back to excel, reports, research or discussing ideas. Go home.  

What I learned
I learned how to do concept studies, pre-feasibility studies, feasibility studies, detailed design, and commission. 

Co-workers
My co-workers made it a great place to work. We had a very good team, lots of discussions. 

Hardest part
Hardest part of the job is the quiet times. The extremes, either full on (much preferred!) or a bit quiet. The quiet times made the days long. 

Most enjoyable part:
Working in multidisplinary teams was the highlight. Working with interesting people to achieve results. The occasional free lunch from Vendor meetings was quite enjoyable too.

Daily routine included some complex design resolutions involving some or all other disciplines. This allowed the appreciation of the other disciplines & their concerns. Design review meetings proved beneficial for all project team members. Management was over managed as thought by many team members. All co-workers were enjoyable to work with & many friendships resulted. The hardest part of the job was completing all designs while dealing with conferences, meetings, writing reports, responding to management emails, checking other disciplinary designs & general design resolutions. The most enjoyable part of the job was a general sense of fun around the design office.

A lot of projects in the pipeline, strong presence and reputation in the batteries and metals industry globally. Great place to grow your career with management looking after your growth.

Ausenco was a very average company to work for, quite flexible
as long as you did your hours and expected you to work long hours
when required. They offered training when necessary.
Most people working there were friendly and helpful.
Perth office is ceasing to be a divison and will be managed by
Brisbane office - not sure how this is going to work effectively

typical day - busy
learned -
management - hard to say when you're not really involved
co workers - most are great people just trying to get a job done
hardest part of job - getting a good coffee & parking
best part of job - supportive environment

Design work, most team member keep to themselves, communication not good, Team leader very judgemental, not easy to work with.

Enjoy the company central location, can park on weekend if coming to work on sat or sun. There was a Gym on the third floor so can workout to release stress after work.

The consulting role at Ausenco was a good one!  One day you could be conducting workshops with trades people, and on another day you could be presenting results of your project to members of a senior management team of a client.  


Great place to work overall!

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