Jeremie is pictured in front, at left with his Hynds team mates.
Jeremie Babayan, a Hynds graduate engineer, came to the business via a Hynds tertiary education scholarship. As his career gains momentum, he reflects on what he’s learnt.
How does a scholarship support a young person from Manurewa High?
The Hynds Foundation Scholarship provides a great opportunity for young people from Manurewa High School to enter the engineering field and receive support throughout their time there.
The scholarship allowed both my mother and I to not worry as much about extra income to fund my education. My mother works long hours as a social worker and is already under constant pressure as the sole caretaker of my sister and me. The financial support brought her to (happy) tears knowing that my education was taken care of and that I was going to be okay. For myself, the scholarship let me focus my energy on my studies without having to get a second part-time job or worry about debt. I struggled a lot throughout university, and being able to dedicate more time to my studies helped me stay afloat and make it through all four years without failing a single paper.
On top of the financial support, Hynds provides the scholarship recipient with a mentor from the engineering team. The mentor is an experienced engineer who has also been through university and the workforce transition. My mentor, Ray Dong, has been a massive help both in my time at university as well as a graduate at Hynds. Ray provided me with guidance on different career paths when I was unsure about which path to follow. His advice helped me solidify my choice to enter Civil Engineering, and to delve into my interests in civil infrastructure. He also helped me stick with studies in times I had doubts about continuing.
The scholarship also provides paid work experience, which gives you an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Hynds and our industry.
I believe the Hynds Foundation Scholarship is a life-changing opportunity that could ideally be extended to more students to help more low-income students enter and flourish in the world of engineering.
Looking back to the transition from high school to uni, what do you wish you’d known and what do you value having learnt?
The transition between high school and university was a tough change for me. From my experience, the jumps in workload, difficulty of content, and tighter deadlines were immense, and I struggled to adjust to it. While I found high school quite relaxed, first-year Engineering was a huge wake-up call. I wish I had known how much more effort I needed to put in and to prepare myself better to succeed.
I also should have taken more advantage of the university networking events. These events help students find internships, learn more about the different specialisations in Engineering, and connect with other students. I knew they were available, but I did not participate in these. These would have helped me find more opportunities to connect and reach out to professionals and other students.
The importance of balancing study and personal time was also something I needed to learn. I burnt out quite often and was constantly stressed about my workload. Learning to plan my days out better and take breaks when needed were also an adjustment I needed to make.
I also should have taken part in extra-curricular opportunities at university. The clubs, engineering societies, and social events were all things I should have attended more to make more friends within my degree and enjoy the university life.
Despite these challenges, I value having learnt from them to both develop my character and to also be able to share my experiences with current and future students who may find my experiences helpful.
What’s it like as a graduate working at Hynds?
A graduate at Hynds can expect lots of support, learning, and work on a daily basis. Typical work I can expect within the Technical function consists of engineering drawings, reinforced concrete design, study and referring to AS/NZS design standards, and on-the-job development. The Technical Team is always getting new jobs, so I am often busy with tasks.
As I develop, I am constantly supported by the senior team members and taught new concepts or ways of thinking that I can use to improve my skills. The team is always happy to pass on their knowledge, should I ask them for it. While the work is generally done solo, it is open to collaboration to ensure the best solutions are produced. The team is close-knit and we are well suited to working with each other.
Opportunities to work on smaller projects that require bespoke design solutions are commonplace and are good challenges to use my skills and refine my strategies. Large projects also come around on occasion; it’s a great feeling to be able to contribute to these. Hynds also helps my professional development through Engineering New Zealand. There are many opportunities to add hours of Continued Professional Development (CPD).
Learning has been a constant part of my journey as a graduate at Hynds. There are plenty of products to understand, standards to understand and learn, best practices to implement, judgement calls to be made, and so on. Every day I find myself learning something new about Hynds, design, or the wider industry. As Hynds plays such a big part of civil infrastructure in Aotearoa New Zealand, there are always opportunities to learn. Curiosity has been the significant driver of my growth at Hynds, and I encourage future graduates to also have a good mindset for learning.
How did your degree prepare you for this pathway?
I studied the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Civil Engineering. This degree equipped me with knowledge in the many Civil Engineering sub-disciplines ranging from traffic, geotechnical, water, environmental, and structural, as well as the skills to collaborate within a team.
My learning from the degree gave me a solid foundation to understand the design principles of Hynds’ concrete products, as well as a general understanding of the systems these products are part of. From manhole lids to box culverts, I use the knowledge from the degree to understand the design principles behind each Hynds product and help me design a cost-effective solution to suit our customers’ needs that also meet the AS/NZS design standards.
Background knowledge on different engineered solutions like pipelines, roads, and retaining walls, for example, supplement the design process and give context to the expected use cases and working environments of my own designs. All this knowledge ensures that the products I design are robust and will deliver exceptional results for our customers.
In addition to working in the Technical Team, I have had a six-week stint at the Hynds Pōkeno factory. This shift moved me away from design work and towards production management and quality assurance. My focus during this time was increasing production efficiency and quality, while improving the environment to make work easier and safer for workers; it was a role that applied creative thinking and knowledge of the system to drive innovation.
A Structural Engineering degree would have also been very beneficial for the design side of my work, but going through Civil Engineering gave me a background on the civil infrastructure and systems, some base in structural design, as well as production management. Both pathways still ensure future graduates can understand different engineering roles in their time at Hynds.
Collaborating in group assignments at university has made the transition to working in a team environment much smoother, whether it be collaborating within my team, internal clients, or external clients. Having practised soft skills extensively at university has adjusted me well to working in a team environment.
My degree has certainly prepared me for the graduate role I have with Hynds, and I am able to thrive at work by both having the fundamentals and being able to build my design skills from that.