engineer

structural engineer

civil engineer

project manager

information manager

I have worked for KBR Pty Ltd for approximately 8 years and have seen the company go through a large variety of organizational changes including possibly the most significant, its separation from Halliburton. I have also seen the company make a number of structural changes in its response and recovery from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

KBR has been a very good and understanding company to work for and one I would also describe as constantly developing and evolving. I see great potential for it in the future in establishing its global identity throughout a wide variety of engineering disciplines including most recently its introduction into the plant audit industry, something I see a great deal of opportunity in bringing many plants up-to-date and giving them accurate records of their process and asset condition.

I have been allowed many opportunites to develop my career in a diverse range of projects which I found both enjoyable and challenging. It has given me a thorough and indepth skillset which I am intent on further expanding.

The normal day started in the office resolving issues of Junior Engineers and other Discipline Engineers. The Work Place Culture was generally good although, being a American Company there were clashes with American Standards and Structures - out of Huston Texas. I assume that these clashes of Australian Standards and American have been resolved now. The Company had a issue with some staff managing issues to suit themselves. For example I came in one Monday to find all  Computer had been re-imaged as some staff had loaded unlicensed software on their machines. When I queried about the Special Software I had on my machine being wiped I was told I had to buy a new license, as when they re-imaged my machine they didn't record the License details. Missing this software that had been Company Approved meant I could do my job efficiently. The most enjoyable part of the job was being able to pass on my experiences to Junior Engineers in the Fields of Water, Mining and Oil and Gas.  

A typical day at work on the last project would include the following,

1 A progress meeting with my team of engineers and draftsmen. Sort out any problems by our joint effort or, if the problem involved client standard specs for instance, a meeting with the client representative.

2 Clear my personal work load which usually involved vendor queries concerning equipment on order and any problems with deliveries.

3 Drawing reviews which I would carry out myself if it concerned instruments and control systems (PLC design) and with other engineers when the drawings were other disciplines.

4 Always making myself available for assisting my team.

Daily Team meetings , mentoring staff , review of various projects , Site visits and support of Site Teams. Client meetings re new works, project and delivery of existing projects. 

Developing strong interpersonal relationships with Clients including, Inpex, Chevron, BHPB, Rio Tinto, Dampier Salt and Lafarge.  

I learned the Corporate Culture within a Global player at a different level, interesting stuff.   
 
There was a very supportive Senior Management Team but still needed to learn Teamwork.   
Co workers were all good people willing to assist and work as a Team.
Acronyms, everything was done using acronyms so it took time to learn the Acronym Bible. 
Working with professionals was rewarding and mentoring young Engineers was a great opportunity.

KBR Australia has a high staff turnover with people being there for more than 4 years being unusual. The pay is OK, but many other defence contractors pay more. KBR's timesheet system is terrible, i.e. user unfriendly, often does not work etc.  KBR does not pay as much as it should due to having to pay in to KBR America. KBR America only has a negative benefit to KBR Australia, i.e. stupid emails from HR, time consuming, user unfriendly performance reviews, too many presidents, vice presidents etc. KBR Australia has too many administration staff who are mainly useless and do not seem to appreciate that they are there to support the people who earn the money for KBR.

For the most part my experiences were good, both with Govt & Infrastructure and Oil & Gas side of their business.  As a Manager for both, I felt KBR does a good job with providing the necessary tools required for employees to complete job responsibilities.  Technical support is very good as well as personal services offered.

During my tenure, I have learnt to be a competent SAP user and other sub systems required in the Project. I had an excellent relationship with my direct reports and I would say we were the dream team and I would work with them again in a heartbeat. 

My biggest challenge perhaps is dealing with bully at work which I believe is prevalent in all workplace. Also, being a Project Hire I am not entitled to any staff benefit apart from the standard 4-wk annual leave per year and Income Protection Insurance.

KBR was a joint partner on this 60 Billion plus LNG project.  I found the co-workers to be knowledgeable and great to work with.  Management was a mix of expats and locals spread between a number of different joint parters.  Australians find a balance between work and play that takes some getting use to for expats that have worked other projects around the world.

Provided design calculations, Estimates and analysis for different type of RCC and Steel foundation structures.
Enhanced technical experience Australia and Indian design standard and Methods.
It was an excellent experience working with multi cultural staff in multi cultural environment. 

The hardest part was to work under pressure without any deadlines and the enjoyable part was learning new ideas and Friday free lunch.

They buy other companies contracts, run them badly until the end date, then make everyone redundant with the minimum pay out they can get away with! They will try to enforce US style working conditions on to you . For example a 40 hour week with no overtime, Not paying you the leave bonus of 17.5% when you take holidays but rolling it into your annual salary. Evil people don't work for them. Just look at how many jobs they advertise , The word is out KBR are bad people!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Engineer 3 salaries reported	$88,667 per year
Structural engineer 3 salaries reported	$110,333 per year
Civil engineer 3 salaries reported	$95,000 per year
Project manager 3 salaries reported	$110,000 per year
Information manager 2 salaries reported	$110,000 per year

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